Palestinian Authority Whitewashes Hostage-Taking Torture

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, Alice Jill Edwards, delivered her latest thematic report on torture which defined hostage-taking as a “cruel game” and definitely a form of torture. The lengthy report highlighted several examples of the practice, and specifically called out a number of countries – China, North Korea, Iran, Russia, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela – as particularly notorious state offenders.

Edwards called out non-state actors as well, including those backed by Iran, such as the Houthis in Yemen “holding at least 30 humanitarians,” and “Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups” which abducted 251 people in Israel on October 7, 2023.

Calling out the obvious evil was controversial in the morally-bankrupt institution.

In a press conference after the release of the report to the Human Rights Council, Edwards said (5:55) that several countries and NGOs asked her to remove certain countries from the report and criticized the timing of the release, presumably because it is coming amidst the horrific reports emerging from captives held by the Palestinian Arab political-terrorist group, Hamas. Edwards was accused for bias for her actions but refused to be silenced as she believes that hostage-taking should be viewed as a critical component in discussing human rights.

Edwards criticized the draft document of international crimes against humanity for not including hostage-taking. She argued for the families of hostages to have a point person in governments and at the UN with whom to liaise.

Most significantly, Edwards called on those taking hostages, “and those that aid and abet them,” to be held accountable and punished severely, as hostage-taking has become a “low-risk high-reward crime” (15:20) on the global stage. She argued for compensation for survivors.

This seemed a bit much for the socialist-jihadi alliance which roams the halls of the UN. Almost no one attended the briefing and only two reporters asked questions of Edwards. Both featured whataboutery, asking about Israel’s treatment of captives, and whether the Jewish State was just as guilty as Hamas And Friends.

Edwards responded (24:19) that Gazans took hostages as negotiating leverage, while Israel took prisoners of war in the middle of the ongoing war. Those taken from Israel were done so for leverage and ransom, while those taken by Israel were placed in detention and removed from the war effort, and therefore could not be considered hostages.

This was all way too much for the Palestinian Authority.

The PA’s official media arm, WAFA, produced its own reporting of the UN report on torture. It claimed that the special rapporteur “report focused on torture during captivity” which criticized the “Israeli attacks on Gaza” and “ill-treatment endures by Palestinians detained by Israel.” Nowhere does the PA’s account explain that Palestinian Arabs held by Israel are not hostages, the main theme of the report, nor does the “news” summary review the axis of evil which supports the Palestinian Arabs, as the worst offenders of hostage-taking.

The Palestinian Authority, propped up by the United Nations, tolerates the terrorist activities of local Arab terrorist groups – including the taking of civilian hostages and sexual violence -because the armed jihadi groups are much more popular amongst the Stateless Arabs from Palestine (SAPs). The puppet regime is either a worthless veneer or complicit, and should be held similarly accountable.

ACTION ITEM

Demand all officials condemn Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the other terrorist groups which participated in the October 7 barbarity and demand that they face maximum justice.