[Order Michael Finch’s new book, A Time to Stand: HERE. Prof. Jason Hill calls it “an aesthetic and political tour de force.”]
Hamas has been rounding up and executing members of the Gazan clans opposed to the terror group, without any trials. Now Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, has condemned it for this practice. More on the PA’s latest anathema directed at Hamas can be found here: “‘Heinous crimes’: PA condemns Hamas for reported executions in Gaza,” by Liran Haroni, Jerusalem Post, October
The Palestinian Authority presidency issued an unusually sharp denunciation of Hamas on Tuesday night, condemning what it called “field executions” carried out in the Gaza Strip in recent days and demanding accountability under Palestinian law.
In a statement carried PA state agency WAFA, the presidency said it “strongly condemns the recent field executions carried out by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which claimed the lives of dozens of citizens outside the framework of the law and without fair trials,” calling the acts “heinous crimes that are utterly rejected under any pretext.”
The statement framed the reported killings as “a blatant violation of human rights” and “a grave breach of the rule of law,” asserting they reflect “the movement’s determination to impose its authority through force and terror, at a time when the people in Gaza are enduring the hardships of war, destruction, and siege.”
It urged an immediate halt to the violations, protection for civilians, and legal action against “all those involved in these crimes within the framework of the law and the legitimate Palestinian judiciary.”
Underscoring the PA’s claim to national responsibility, the presidency said Gaza “is an integral part of the State of Palestine” and argued that restoring “the rule of law and legitimate institutions” in the territory is the only path to ending chaos and rebuilding public trust “on the basis of justice, accountability, and respect for the dignity of the Palestinian people.”…
Of course, the Palestinian Authority has long been known to arrest, torture, and even kill dissidents, often those protesting against the rampant corruption in the PA, such as Nizar Banat, without any trials. That hasn’t stopped Abbas from waxing indignant about Hamas’ failure to observe “the rule of law.” But when have charges of hypocrisy ever bothered Mahmoud Abbas, the “democratically” elected president of the PA, now in the 20th year of his four-year-term, the man who managed, on a salary of $120,000, to accumulate a personal fortune of at least $100 million?
