By Justin Dorman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

JERUSALEM, Israel – Four months ago, in November, seven Palestinian prisoners, who were believed to have been spies for Israel, were publicly killed and dragged through the streets for all to see. Gaza’s Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh promised to

look into the deaths. Hamas’s deputy leader, Moussa Abu Marzouk said that the killings were unlawful, and that the murderers would be brought to justice.

International human rights group, Human Rights Watch, says that the promises to bring about justice were falsehoods. Hamas has denied the claims of Human Rights Watch. Hamas claims that the men who were killed had already been convicted by a military court before they were taken and killed. Additionally, Ihab al-Ghusain, Hamas spokesman, has claimed that the prosecutor general set up an inquiry into the murders immediately after the incident.

Human Rights Watch believes that there was injustice present at every stage of the treatment of these seven men. Their belief is that the evidence that was used to convict the seven was obtained through the illegal means of torture.

Middle East director of Human Rights Watch, Sarah Whitson exclaimed that, “even before the killings, the abuses the men suffered made the criminal justice system a travesty, regardless of their guilt or innocence.”

Furthermore, “Hamas’s inability or unwillingness to investigate the brazen murders of seven men makes a mockery of its claims that it’s upholding the rule of law in Gaza,” said Whitson.

She ultimately suggests that, “Hamas should be taking concrete steps to reform the criminal justice system and break the cycle of impunity that, as these men’s cases show, lets torturers and killers roam free.”

Human Rights Watch’s report came out on Thursday, when the amnesty period for Israeli collaborators to turn themselves in to the Palestinian authorities would come to an end. Security forces are now expected to be making sweeping arrests of alleged collaborators.

Hopefully anyone now arrested as a collaborator will be treated in conformity with justice and not tortured, killed, and paraded around town being dragged by motorcyclists.

Besides for collaborators, Hamas has also been looking to capture Israeli soldiers working the border in order to broker prisoner exchanges with Israel. Israel’s Shin Bet internal security service has said that since 2013, there have been thirty-three reported kidnapping attempts compared to just twenty-four in all of 2012.

For further information, please see:

United Press International – HRW: Hamas did not Probe Palestinian ‘Collaborator’ Deaths as Promised – 12 April 2013

BBC – Hamas Failed to Probe Palestinian ‘Collaborator’ Deaths – 11 April 2013

Jewish Press – Human Rights Watch Slamming Hamas for Ignoring Public Murders – 11 April 2013

New York Daily News – Human Rights Watch Slams Hamas for Failing to Investigate the Slaying of Seven Palestinians who Were Dragged Through the Streets of Gaza – 11 April 2013

By Justin Dorman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

CAIRO, Egypt – Impunity is defined as “exemption from punishment or freedom from the injurious consequences of an action.” Issues of impunity generally arise when a government injures its own people and refuses to punish itself. Sometimes, like in the case of modern day Egypt, a separate group will cause the injury while the government will pretend the atrocities never happened.

It was just a week ago that Egypt’s president, Mohamed Morsi was covertly investigating accusations of military malpractice. Accusations of acts committed since the 2011 uprising included torture, killings, and abductions of Egyptians. Additionally, army doctors were reported to have been ordered to operate on patients without any anesthetic.

The investigation was leaked, and instead of substantiating the claims to the public, Morsi denied that any bad acts transpired that could feasibly besmirch the name of the Egyptian military. Morsi took his protection of the military one step further and actually promoted several generals to lieutenant-generals.

Morsi announced to the public, “any insult against the armed forces is an insult against all of us, and we reject any kind of insults . . . I announce this to the whole world: we appreciate the great role that the armed forces has been playing in maintaining the safety and security of this country.”

This was followed by General Abdel Fattah Sisi declaring that, “the armed forces during the last two years was very, very fond of Egypt and the people of Egypt and did not commit any malpractices what so ever.” He added, “by God I swear that the army, since 25 January 2011, did not kill and did not order to kill, did not deceive and did not order to deceive.”

Why after investigating and learning of military misconduct did Morsi defend the military so vigorously?

Because after studying the careers of Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak, Morsi learned that in this game of pharaoh thrones, you either win or you die or you find yourself in Torah Prison.

Many interpret virtually all maneuvers by Morsi as power plays. Immediately after being elected, he took away a great amount of power from the military who were ruling the country.

Morsi tried to make concessions to keep the military happy by allowing them to try civilians in military court and allegedly striking a deal to stay out of their affairs in exchange for their support. Nonetheless, Morsi must have feared what Professor Robert Springborg, expert on Egyptian military feared; that with the economic situation deteriorating, and a utter lack of political stability, that amongst threats to the military, the military was eventually going to re-insert itself into Egyptian politics at the Muslim Brotherhood’s expense.

As a result of another alleged power play, Morsi’s nephew has recently been admitted into a military training academy. This has been interpreted by Springborg as a message that the Muslim Brotherhood is going to move in on the military. A keep your friends close, but your enemies even closer type of move.

Springborg may have the correct interpretation of this maneuver. Perhaps though, the boy just seeks to serve the realm of Egypt.

For further information, please see:

ABC News – Egypt top General, President Deny Army Abuse Claim – 12 April 2013

Guardian – Mohamed Morsi Backs Egyptian Military After Malpractice Allegations – 12 April 2013

Naharnet News Desk – Egpytian Protesters Operated on Without Anesthetic – 12 April 2013

New York Times – Leaked Report to Egypt’s President Implicates Army in Torture and Killing of Civilians – 10 April 2013

By Justin Dorman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

CAIRO, Egypt – Under Mubarak, NGOs were sterilized by lengthy application processes that lasted years in which a group could not truly act for fear of having their application rejected. Under the military dictatorship, NGO staffers were targeted and arrested. Despite the 2011 uprising, Egypt again may see the day where NGOs are rendered impotent if the parliament’s latest draft law becomes implemented.

The new draft law would require any international NGO to request permission from an Egyptian committee, consisting of state security officials, before the taking of every action. This committee could reject the NGOs action as counterintuitive to Egypt’s public morals, development goals, and national unity. Furthermore, local groups who receive foreign aid would additionally require authorization by this committee to act. Marwan Abi Samra, head of the democratic governance for the United Nations in Egypt, estimates that over the past decade that ninety percent of all funding for local human rights groups has come from abroad.

Bahey al-Deeen Hassan, the head of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies explains that, “the law is an obvious bid to shift the civil working organizations from non-governmental to governmental societies.” He goes on to state that the draft proposal is “‘the worst law’ that had been drafted in the history of NGOs in Egypt.”

The Egyptian program director at the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, Mohamed Zaree, feels betrayed. He says that when he was a participant in the Tahrir Square uprising, “the demands of the revolution were bread and freedom and social justice. Not bread and freedom and restricting the work of NGOs.”

The United Nations and European Union hate this law as proposed, as does the international human rights group, Human Rights Watch. The Egyptian director at Human Rights Watch, Heba Morayef, stated that the law, “haw very vague language that gives the government discretion to halt any activities that it doesn’t agree with substantively.”

While the committee may not completely reject the activities of an NGO, bureaucracy could bring the effectiveness of the NGO to a screeching halt. Gasser Abdel-Razek, the associate director at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, believes that ultimately the NGO will “really waste a lot of [its] resources in keeping [it]self alive, rather than in contributing to whatever [it] set out to do.”

Heba Morayef conjectures that one area this law may immediately hurt is women’s rights. She believes that it is a prerogative of the Muslim Brotherhood to not grant women any more basic rights and can envision a group whose mission is to work on women’s rights being told by this special committee that women’s rights is not a priority in Egypt and that the group should find something else to do.

It is vital for a human rights group to be able to act independently of the government which it is analyzing, condemning, or seeking to benefit. This law would destroy that independence, and any likely destroy any good that an NGO could do in Egypt.

For further information, please see:

Coast Week – NGOs Bill Sparks Fears in Egypt Over Freedom Restrictions – 5 April 2013

Guardian – Human Rights Groups Fear Impact of Draft Egypt law Restricting Their Work – 5 April 2013

Egypt Independent – UN Experts Condemn Shura Council’s NGO Bill – 28 March 2013

Al Monitor – Egypt’s NGOs Face new Strictures Under Ruling Party – 14 March 2013