PALESTINIAN POLICE BRUTALITY IN BETHLEHEM

14 August 1996

According to affidavits submitted to a lawyer for LAWE, on 10 August Musa Ehmeid and Nabil Alajaz, two plain-clothed Palestinian police officers, assaulted a suspected drug dealer from Jerusalem on Madbasseh street in Bethlehem. Angered onlookers, unaware that the attackers were members of the Bethlehem police force, intervened. After the police left the scene, one of those who intervened, Nadir Manasreh, took the victim to the police station to file a complaint. The two police officers responsible for the beating recognized Nadir as the one who had interfered, and attacked and beat him at the police station. Another police officer who recognized Nadir stepped in on his behalf, and a general scuffle ensued between the police officers present.

On 11 August Nadir's father, journalist Mohammed Manasreh, went to meet the director of the police station, Kamal Sheikh, in order to file a complaint. Mr. Sheikh explained to Mohammed Manasreh that according to the second phase of the Oslo agreement, police in the Bethlehem area do not have the right to arrest or detain a Jerusalem resident. Much of the drugs found in the Bethlehem area, however, are sold there by dealers from Jerusalem. Therefore the police can only intervene by giving them a "warning" on the streets.

Mohammed, however, strongly objected to the arbitrary beating given his son when he brought the victim to the police station on the previous day. The discussion became heated, and Kamal Sheikh, director of the police, arrested Mohammed for two hours, holding him in a completely dark cell. The two other inmates of the cell had no idea if it was day or night.

Law-enforcement through beatings by plain-clothed police, the police attack on Nadir Manasreh and the general fight at the police station between the police officers themselves, reveal a poorly trained and undisciplined police force. LAWE - The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment condemns this kind of chaotic and brutal police action, and calls on the Palestinian Authority to hold Kamal Sheikh and the two police officers responsible for reckless and arbitrary behavior.

LAWE - The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment is a non-governmental organization, dedicated to preserving human rights through legal advocacy. LAWE is also an affiliate member of the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights.