The Daily Life of Kawther Salam: Translation of a Palestinian Torture Video

Translation of a Palestinian Torture Video
Saturday, July 14, 2007

The US financed the Palestinian Presidential Forces under control of Mahmoud Abbas with eighty million dollars. Not only that, but the war criminal of US General Keith Dayton also organize the training of these Palestinian troops. And beyond that, the European Union is financing the PA and paying part of the salaries of these troops.

The images in the following video, which was released to the Internet some time ago and whose translation I am presenting to the world, will show you the well-trained Fatah-PA troops. The way in which they torture their Palestinian prisoners shows the great achievements of the training given to these PA thugs by the USA. The Palestinian Authority forces seen in the video torturing the prisoners are from the death squads controlled by Mohammad Dahlan. The victims seen in the video are Palestinians, one of the prisoners wears a t-shirt with the legend of the ‘Executive Forces”, a Hamas unit under control of the Interior Ministry. The video is a direct consequence of the foreign policy of the USA and EU. It was subsidized with tax money from all these countries.

I am posting the translation of this Video from Gaza under the PA with deep sorrow and bitterness. I felt disgust while translating the horrible dialogues between the Palestinian jailers and their Palestinian victims, which shows the big danger to all Palestinians coming from the PA security system. The video shows some Palestinian prisoners caught by Muhammad Dahlan’s death squads. They are moaning of pain because of the torture inflicted on them, and all the while they are forced to recite denigrating chants for Muhammad Dahlan and Fatah. There is no different between these images of torture by Palestinian jailers and the images of torture by the American occupation for the Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib. The only difference is that the torture at Abu Ghraib was done by the American occupation, but in Gaza both jailers and prisoners were, and are, Palestinians.

I felt shame while translating this video, I even felt shame to be a Palestinian. My shame is not because of my Palestinian roots, but to be identified as a Palestinian and to know that there are monsters capable of such inhuman acts, like Muhammad Dahlan, like the jailers in the video and like the corrupted systems of the PA, who also call themselves Palestinians.

I translated the video because I am sure that most foreigners who see the video do not understand the whole story behind it, and I also found some mistakes in the attribution of this video on other websites. I also made this translation to ask the International Community, Governments, the UN General Council and Human Rights organizations to fulfill their duties and end the tragedy unfolding under the forces of the PA and establish an investigative body with the authority to trial and jail the Palestinian criminal Muhammad Dahlan and his troops. I also read that the US government is making pressure on President Abbas to give Dahlan power to control all the PA security systems, ignoring the will of the majority of Palestinians, who want him submitted to a revolutionary trial as a criminal and traitor.

I have always criticized the State of Israel, and I will criticize them until the occupation of my homeland Palestine ends, but I never imagined that I would criticize my own people for doing the horrible things which are done to everybody in Israeli jails. I never thought that I would see this kind of thing done by Palestinian jailers. It was not my wish to translate and to post this video, but I am obliged to do so after seeing the level of savagery and to which the conditions in my homeland have deteriorated.

The following videoclip shows scenes of real torture, and should UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES be watched by minors or by sick or impressionable persons. Discretion is advised before you press on the PLAY button.

UPDATE: The original copy at YouTube was suppressed, the copy at LiveLeak was manipulated. Past attempts to suppress this video due to its damaging nature for the PA have been reported. In case it is removed by these services, I will make other copies available.

The first scene shows a pointed metal stick pushed into a prisoner’s spine, the prisoner is groaning of the pain, asking the jailer for mercy. Then we hear the jailer asking the prisoners “Who is your master ?” and all the prisoners answer together “Samih”. The full name of “Samih” is Samih Al Madhoun, head of Muhammad Dahlan’s death squads in Gaza. He kidnapped these prisoners and he is perhaps the person who is torturing the prisoners in this video. Samih Al Madhoun was killed on last June 14 ago when he was trying to escape from Gaza via the sea: he was chased down after he murdered somebody at the border on his way out.

The next scene shows how somebody with military boots steps on the chest and stomach of a prisoner and beats him with long lash, all the while and asking the prisoner “Who is your master ?” and ordering him to answers “Samih”. All the prisoners shout and moan of pain while repeating chants of victory for Samih, as demanded by the torturers. In these chants, the prisoners insult themselves and express their “admiration” and fear of Samih.

One of the prisoners wears a black shirt with the logo of the “Executive Forces”, what means that this prisoner was a Hamas member. This prisoner is tortured very seriously, the jailer all the time asks him: “Who is the dog, what’s written on your shirt? Who is the dog who gave you this shirt?” - the prisoner is forced to answer that the dog is Said Siyam (the former minister for interior and security from Hamas). After that, the jailer repeats the same question again and again with his jackboot on the prisoner chest, while the prisoner groans of pain and repeats the same answer to his jailer, again and again. The jailer beats the prisoner on his neck with the long lash. The prisoner cries and screams of pain while answering “Said Siyam is the dog”.

All the other prisoners in the same room scream together and repeat that “Samih” is the hero, “Samih, Samih … !”. In the scene, the jailer orders all to sing, all the while beating them. A prisoner sings: “Oh mother, the beautiful youth has departed from me and disappeared …” (Arabic: "Yamma Rahal Anni Zeen Al-Shabab we gab").

Another prisoner screams while the jailer beats him. I hear him groaning and asking the jailer for the mercy of God and saying. “I didn’t say that, I swear in the name of my God that I didn’t say that”. All the while, the loud blows of the lash on the body of the prisoners can be heard.

In another scene the jailer in military uniform is seen stepping on the prisoner’s chest and asking him “Who is your Master ?”. The answer is “Samih”. Another question: “Who is the dog ?”. The answer is “Walid”, after which the jailer beats the prisoner and orders him to say that the full name of the “dog” is Walid Al-Shaqrah. The prisoner repeats, “Walid Al-Shaqrah !”. Another question by the jailer: “Who is the person you worked with and whose sister is a whore and fucks around ?” The prisoner answers: “Walid Al-Shaqrah !” (Walid Al-Shaqrah is one of the officers of the “Executive Forces” of Hamas).

The groans of pain of the prisoners become louder and louder while the jailers beat them and order them to sing for Fatah: “Fatah is the mother of the people (nation), keep your Fatah flag raised, the victory is for Fatah”. The prisoners repeat this loudly several times, “Fatah is the mother of the people (nation), keep your Fatah flag raised, the victory is for Fatah” (Arabic: “Fatah ya um al-jamaher, khalli raitek marfoa, mansorah ya fatah mansorah !").

After that the jailers beat all the prisoners and order them to sing for Abu Fadhi (Muhammad Dahlan, who has a son called Fadhi): “Abu Fadhi is our Master, Abu Fadi is our darling, with our spirits and our blood, we will sacrifice for Dahlan !” (Arabic: “Abu Fadhi Sayyedna, Abu Fadi Habibna, bel-roh bel-dam nefdik ya Dahlan !”). This chant is repeated many times by the prisoners. After this, the jailer orders them to chant: “Abu Fadhi is the master of the creation, Abu Fadhi is the Master of the universe. Our God has placed Abu Fadhi over the whole Universe !” (Arabic: “Abu Fadhi sayed al-kon, Abu Fadhi hattoh rabna (Allah) fok al-kon !”). These chants are repeated several times under the blows from the jailers.

Muhammad Dahlan, Master of the Universe

After that, the jailer orders the prisoners to sing another song for Muhammad Dahlan: “Abu Fadhi is our darling, Abu Fadhi is our darling. Go and destroy Tel Aviv, go and destroy Tel Aviv !”. (Arabic: “Abu Fadhi ya habib, Abu Fadhi ya habib, roh damer Tel Abib, roh damer Tel Abib !”). This is also repeated several times under the blows from the jailers, who then order them to sing: “Walid Al-Shakrah is coward, and a mercenary for Iran !” (Arabic “Walid Al-Shakrah ya jaban, ya amel la Iran !”). This song is also repeated by the prisoners. Then the jailer orders them to repeatedly sing “Hamas Shia, Hamas Shia … Walid coward … ” (Hamas is Sunni, as are most Palestinians). During all of this the prisoners are cuffed kneeling on the floor, their eyes are covered, and they are continuously being beaten by the jailers.

I have never seen this kind of torture, but I often heard that something like what is seen in this video happens all in the Israeli jails. Only once I saw something similar: The Israeli Border Police detained over 24 Palestinian and they were all ordered to sing a childish song: “Hoto Al-Humos Ala El Fol, ana Baheb Le-Shmark Fol”, after what the Border Police forced these Palestinian detainees to drink their urine (Hebrew). Some of these youths vomited, one of them was transferred to the hospital after this incident.

The revenge of Hamas for atrocities like those seen in the video were horrible as well. People from Fatah were lynched, thrown from buildings, some people were followed into hospitals and shot, and the people who were waiting at the Erez checkpoint and finally brought to Egypt last week by the Israelis were family of torturers and death squads members from the Fatah, who could only expect to be killed in Gaza and the West Bank because of the crimes of their relatives.

On behalf of Palestinians I want say that we do not want to see Muhammad Dahlan in any post of government with President Abbas. This kind of treatment was what caused the anger to explode in Gaza and Hamas to win the elections by such a wide margin. The persons responsible for these atrocities must be punished, as they brought disaster to Gaza. We urgently ask that Dahlan be tried and punished for his criminal behavior. We ask the International Community to force the PA to punish Muhammad Dahlan and others for crimes against humanity, together with the Israeli Army officers who implement the occupation. I hope that this clip will help my readers, most of whom are from the USA and Europe, to understand the true nature of the foreign policy which your governments pursue.

The European Union must stop their direct support for the Palestinian security forces, copying the disgusting behavior of the Americans will ultimately be against the best interest of all Europeans. They must stop their support for the death squads within the Palestinian security systems until they change their behavior. It is a shame that the European Union keeps supporting the violation of prisoner rights and outright torture under the PA authority by way of financing and building up a corrupt military system. Instead of these thugs, the support must go to the starved people in Palestine.

The video which I translate and comment here is just one piece in a growing collection of material evidence and documents which have been found in buildings abandoned by the Fatah in Gaza. As horrible as it is, it may be considered one of the “softer” torture videos found. And there are many other interesting things found by Hamas during the last days. In a press conference given in Gaza on Friday 22 by the Hamas press speaker, Khalil El-Hayyeh, details of the spying activities of the Fatah in behalf of Israel and the USA were made public. Hamas found sophisticated American spying equipment, and recordings on memory devices (“chips”) show that the “Alternative Security” and the Intelligence system of the PA were spying not only on persons in Palestine with political views different from theirs, but that they were also spying on President Abbas and former President Arafat and their staffs, on religious, military and political leaders of other Arab countries as well. Also, lists with names of people and orders to kill them or pass their personal details to Israel so the Israelis could kill them were found. Also, documents were found which show that well-known and politically independent persons were involved in “immoral activities” (possibly sexual entrapment) by the PA in order to damage their reputations and their viability as prospective leaders.

posted by الفــ العربي ــارس @ 1:39 PM,