Arabs Expressing Hope to Live Under Israeli Rule Get Jailed, Tortured By PA

An Israeli correspondent reported that Palestinians he interviewed last week who stated they preferred Israeli rule in Judea and Samaria were arrested by Palestinian Authority Police and taken to "torture centers."

Last week, reporter Tzvi Yehezkeli interviewed a number of Israeli Arabs for a program titled the "Arab man on the street". Some of the Arabs interviewed said they would prefer to live under Israel than under the Palestinian Authority while others were critical of the Palestinian leadership.

Channel 13 Arab affairs reported on the horrible developments.

Everyone who was interviewed for my article - including one person who didn't say a single word against the Palestinian Authority - they took them all," Yehezkeli said.. Others who it seems have not been arrested were those who had their faces blurred.

"I'm talking about five or six people. All of those who were interviewed for the story - I'm getting so many phone calls from family members of those who were interviewed for the story - both those who spoke openly but said nothing against the PA and those whose faces were blurred. The PA arrested all of them," Yehezkeli said in an interview on Tel Aviv's FM radio 103.

"It was about five or six people who all they said was they prefer an Israeli identity card because the PA is crushing them and stealing their money," Yehezkeli said in an interview with fellow journalist Avi Issacharoff, both of whom are fluent Arabic speakers.

"Right now they are in PA torture centers, and this is simply horrific," Yehezkeli said.

It should be noted that there are no elections in the Palestinian Authority and PA President is currently serving the 16th year of a four year term. 

Freedom of expression is seriously curtailed in PA-controlled areas. 

Selling land to Jews is a capital offense and Palestinian law that forbids Palestinians selling their property to Israelis is vigorously enforced.

Yehezkeli has a powerful insider's perspective on Arab culture. He attended the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, majoring in Media and Middle East History, and studying Arabic, becoming fluent in the language. 

In 1997, he moved to Hebron, and then to Jenin, to achieve a better grasp of the Arab culture and language.For a few months during 2016 and 2017, Yehezkeli went undercover in Europe and the United States under a variety of Arab aliases to investigate the Muslim Brotherhood's presence there. 

Yehezkeli is regarded as one of Israel's leading Arabists.

Originally published at Breaking Israel News - reposted with permission.