The Pretense of Human Rights Policy

The old Russian labor joke was, “We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us.” The new American human rights joke is, “We pretend to have a human rights policy and they pretend we have one.”

The old Russian labor joke was, “We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us.” The new American human rights joke is, “We pretend to have a human rights policy and they pretend we have one.”

Last week’s brazen murder by the Tanzim of a 35-year-old mother of seven in the streets of Tulkarm prompted a flurry of news reports about killings BY Palestinians OF Palestinians considered “traitors and collaborators,” i.e. Palestinians who help Israel prevent terror attacks or otherwise run afoul of PA authority. Apparently under torture, her son turned her in for helping Israel finger a terrorist. Whether she actually did it or not, Mrs. Yasin made the news primarily because she was the first woman so dispatched.

But according to Palestinian sources, at least 200 “collaborators” are being held in PA jails, most arrested by PA security forces in the Gaza Strip. Israeli sources put the number in the West Bank at 50-80, with an estimated 100 having escaped from PA prisons during April’s Operation Defensive Shield. According to The Jerusalem Post, some told the IDF that they had been brutally tortured. Sixty-five or more been killed since September 2000, including 14 in Tulkarm before Mrs. Yasin.

Precisely one year ago, we wrote about such killings and the State Department’s odd position that the problem was their extra-judicial nature, not the fact that it was PA policy to kill people who work with Israel. (JINSA Reports 203 & 204) The U.S., we were told, has no formal opinion of the Palestinian definition of a “traitor” or “collaborator,” but we do want to ensure that no one is executed without a trial. Acknowledging that there is no official comment on this particular killing, the current Desk Officer said, “We would probably regret it.”

Is this what passes for human rights policy — no concern for what they do, only that they create some legal framework for doing it? It is amoral. We wrote last year:

In Nazi Germany, it was defined by the government as a crime to be Jewish, homosexual or Roma. In Afghanistan, it is defined by the government as a crime for women to appear outside the house without full cover and a male relative. (Ed: We wrote before the liberation.) In our own country, the government for a long, long time legally sanctioned the enslavement and sale of human beings. It would be an outrage to say that the creation of those laws was no one’s business as long as the proof and due process were put before the punishment… Not to recognize and categorize at the most basic level of life and death is an abdication of the American interest in promoting freedom and liberty. You cannot be in the human rights business without being in the judgment business.

It’s too late for Mrs. Yasin and others. But keep your eye on Haidar Ghanem and Akram Zatmeh, on trial by the PA. Sources familiar with the case say Arafat, wanting to send a message to others who would “collaborate” with Israel, will approve the death penalty. If so, the application of judicial form should satisfy the State Department, if not the soon-to-be-deceased, the family of Mrs. Yasin, or the rest of us.