2018-07-16

West Bank

West Bank / position paper

Rampant Insecurity; a Recipe for Complete Breakdown

MUSAWA – The Palestinian Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession expresses its deep concern regarding the transformation of the practices of the security services from individual incidents into a repressive and obsessive approach warning of the collapse of State institutions, and the transformation of the entire system into an absolute security hegemony that messes with human rights and disregards the current laws; a system where violent behavior and physical assaults prevail against the citizens with no regard whatsoever to their human dignity or job titles. Recently, a judge was assaulted, preceded by assaults against a lawyer, a doctor, a journalist, and other citizens on several occasions, for shabby reasons and in blatant violation of the perpetrators’ authority lines. This has even amounted to assaults on their superiors like the incident which took place today in Hebron, where members of the judicial police excessively beat their superiors (i.e. Deputy-Prosecutors) at their official workplace.

This is a phenomenon declaring official security failure, which requires radical treatment and immediate criminal and administrative accountability and not tribal reconciliation, particularly that such scenes have become so recurrent that they are starting to warn of a breakdown of public trust in the State and its institutions. We cannot even speak of the rule of law in a State where judges, prosecutors, doctors, journalists, lawyers, and women are being assaulted.

We reiterate our demands to assess the security doctrine and define the powers of the security services as institutions as well as individuals in a manner that criminalizes any violation of them. Furthermore, we warn of the dangers of “the law of the jungle” and taking matters into one’s own hands, and we urgently call for the dismissal of the perpetrators of the attack against the Deputy-Prosecutor this morning as well as their superiors. We also demand that an official apology be declared, and that the leaders of the security services pledge to respect the citizens and the rule of law. We hope that we will not face further consequences of this phenomenon, which signals the collapse of the rule of law and the expansion of chaos, hence putting at risk the security of the people and the homeland. 

Issued on 16/7/2018

MUSAWA