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Palestinian Authority Softens on Collaborators
GAZA (IslamOnline) - The Palestinian Authority (PA) announced Wednesday a 45-day amnesty period for Palestinian collaborators and called on them to surrender to Palestinian police, news agencies reported.
The decision comes in response to overwhelming international pressure on the PA after it executed two Palestinians January 13th for collaboration with Israel in assassinating Islamic activists and national figures. Israel, the European Union, the United States and Germany denounced the executions.
"I urge them to use the 45 days and come to us alone - the sooner the better," said Palestinian Authority Justice Minister Freih Abu Medein. "Otherwise, they would face the legal punishment."
"We will have no problem pardoning whoever comes and makes a full confession, expressing repentance, and reveals all the information he knows honestly and accurately," Abu Medein added.
"We have many cases [of collaboration], and in many of those the evidence will lead to a final conclusion," said Khaled Qidreh, Palestinian attorney general.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak denounced the executions and said it was "regrettable that the Palestinian Authority, which aspires to be a recognized entity, has recourse to show-trials, which recall dark periods of history."
"The public executions open a new, bloody chapter in the Middle East conflict," said German Justice Minister Herta Daeubler-Gmelin to a German newspaper. She sent a letter of protest to the Palestinian representative in which she described the executions as "a major mistake".
For its part, the Authority defended the executions affirming that collaborators who had betrayed their people deserve the death sentence. "Israel is using those collaborators as a tool in its war against us, and, therefore, we have to respond by all available means," said Abu Medein.
Commenting on the justice of the trials, Farez Kadura, head of the Authority's Committee on Human Rights told Israel's Channel Two television: "In different circumstances, in the future, when we have a democratic country, they will receive all their legal rights in court, which will assure them a just trial."
The amnesty decision came after seven collaborators confessed earlier this week their part in aiding Israelis in car bombings and assassinations.
Palestinian press reports indicate that scores of Palestinian informers working for Israel's domestic intelligence agency, the Shin Bet, have been turning themselves in to Palestinian Authority security authorities.
They reported on Wednesday that as many as 250 "collaborators", Israel's euphemistic label for the agents, turned themselves in at police centers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip
On the popular level, the executions won mass approval. The PA allowed about 1000 Palestinians to attend the executions. Many Palestinian officials and Islamic activists, including Hamas' leaders, witnessed the executions that took place in Nablus's Palestinian police station.
"To be executed is much more merciful than staying alive and being despised by everyone," said a Palestinian woman. Before the executions took place, hundreds of Palestinians marched in the streets expressing their approval of the punishment.
As the collaborators were put before firing squads, thousands of Palestinians cheered, Allahu Akbar (God is greatest)".
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