Independent Palestinian news agency calls out PA’s “dictatorship and corruption”
Editorial by independent Palestinian news agency Donia Al-Watan Editor in Chief Abdallah Issa
Headline: “Dictatorship and corruption in the Palestinian way”
“I have already promised [my] dear readers that I would reveal more stories of corruption inside the corridors of the PA; it is no longer hidden from anyone, and the corrupt people have even become more vocal now, but the presidential order regarding civil rights in Palestine truly grabbed my attention.
This order is one of the results of the Cairo dialogue between the Palestinian factions, and the truth is that I do not know how long we will be able to continue with this fraud, as civil rights in Palestine ended a long time ago.
Back in better times we thought that we could build ‘a state of institutions,’ and we rejoiced over the establishment of the [Palestinian] Anti-Corruption Commission that does not put a single corrupt person on trial. On the contrary – the corrupt people have become more arrogant even in their conduct vis-à-vis the commission, and I remember that when I submitted a complaint to the commission regarding one of them and the commission summoned him, he refused to respond to its letters and it was unable to do anything against him.
When [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas began the efforts to join the international organizations, we also rejoiced and thought that this was a step that would bring us closer to an independent Palestinian state, which would certainly be an example of a state of laws, rights, and accountability after all the years of struggle that the Palestinian people has waged.
Palestine joined a large number of international organizations, including the Interpol international police, and we said: Now we will be able to catch all the corrupt people and put them on trial, and I wrote this in a previous article with support and joy.
These hopes can only be described as ‘daydreams’ that faded when the [Palestinian] Authority completed the legislation of the anti-electronic crimes law a few years ago, whose goal was and still is to silence people so that the corrupt people will continue to enjoy their corruption without interruption.
Some time ago reserve duty Maj. Gen. Mundhir Arshid, who lives in Jordan, called me, and during the conversation I was surprised to discover that the PA had demanded that Interpol arrest him for an op-ed in which he criticized its actions!
What happened with Maj. Gen. Arshid is part of an ongoing campaign of silencing people, arrests, persecution, and oppression against all the journalists, writers, and activists who oppose the system of corruption, and currently we see that the monster of corruption has swallowed all of our hopes for an independent state in which law, integrity, and transparency rule.
In my recent articles I criticized a number of actions by the corrupt people, those appointed as ministers and their ilk, and they were alarmed and of course asked President Mahmoud Abbas to take steps against me, claiming that I was ‘fighting the PA,’ and I will tell about this soon with details and names.”