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Deja vu — Judith Apter Klinghoffer

Judith Apter Klinghoffer

ISLAMIST HAMAS ALSO CORRUPT

Palestinians have told themselves and the world that they voted for Hamas to rid themselves of corruption. In The Palestinian Authority: Government or Mafia? Kawther Salam writes:

Under the PA, social progress in Palestine has been turned back over 50 years. There is no real difference between the PA and Mafia gangs.
The uncounted military systems established under the corrupt PA and financed by funds from the EU and other international agencies are in reality criminals, thieves (among other things of Israeli cars, with full connivance of officials on both sides), murderers, sexual perverts and gangsters. The proliferation of “military” systems established under the PA, which cannot be considered as a State, does not exist in the biggest countries in the world. All this and more contributed to last years election, in which the PA was voted out of power. While the Hamas are troubling in their own way, they are widely seen as less corrupt and much less likely to sell us out to the occupation.

She gives an example:

The PA always protects their criminals. Persons belonging to the military should be sentenced if they violate the military and civilian laws, but this never happens. In cases when Palestinian woman are abused sexually, the headquarters of the Palestinian military does nothing.
The National Security officer from Bethlehem who forced his wife into prostitution and was thus the direct causant for her family killing her in order to clean the family honor, was not sentenced. He is currently in jail, but he still receives his full salary, which is financed by European countries. The PA will leave him free of any charges, as he has other relatives working with the PA, and these relative protect him from the consequences of his crime. The slaughtered wife who he forced to sell sexual favors to others should not be held responsible for what happened to her.
The second wife, who was left with a child and was betrayed by her husband, asked an Islamic Judge for a divorce on grounds that her husband had stolen her gold on the first day of her marriage, and also on grounds of his criminal behavior which caused the death for his third wife. However, she will not be free. While the Islamic law gives the husband the power of the divorce, there is no justice at the Islamic courts. The justice of Islam is just a rule written in the books, to which women seldom have access.

She was wrong. Not only can't women expect justice from Islamic courts (do read Women Under Islam by Adrian Morgan), but given the opportunity, Hamas may turn out to be just as corrupt. Indeed, according to the new PA minister of sport and youth, Ashraf Al-Ajrami, it has already made impressive start:

Ramallah – Ma'an – The Palestinian minister of sports and youth in the new emergency government, Ashraf Al-Ajrami, who also holds the portfolio of prisoners affairs revealed on Saturday that "Hamas militias" are still committing atrocities and embezzlement within both these ministries.
Al-Ajrami was speaking in a press conference in the Ramatan news agency in central West Bank city of Ramallah, where he stated that "there is proof that the former Hamas-affiliated minister Wasfi Qabaha had embezzled hundreds of thousands of Israeli shekels". He declared that the documents will be submitted to the Attorney General.
Al-Ajrami also claimed that the current emergency government has "reliable information" that the tenth Palestinian government, which was led by Hamas, had received greater monies than Ahmad Qurei's Fatah government. "Despite that, they did not stick to their commitments towards the public sector employees." He said that some $700 million of potential fraud is being investigated.
Al-Ajrami added, "The Hamas militias are still committing atrocities against Palestinian citizens and institutions, even after the military coup in the Gaza Strip."

See also, Walid Phares, Palestinian Taliban versus Mujahideen

Posted on Saturday, June 30, 2007 at 10:44 PM | Comments (0) | Return

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