THE PALESTINIAN LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

On January 20, 1996, an estimated 75 percent of the electorate turned out to elect, pursuant to the Oslo Accords, a president and an eighty-eight member Legislative Council. In a climate where the PA has moved to stifle dissent and human rights criticism in general, the council has emerged as the premier forum for questioning the PA's policies and human rights practices.

The Election

Local and international election monitors characterized the election as generally free and fair, with some reservations. During the electoral campaign, both Palestinian and Israeli authorities were responsible for incidents in which some candidates and their supporters were detained; Arafat loyalists reportedly pressured some independent candidates to withdraw, and there were also incidents of voter intimidation, particularly by the Israeli authorities in East Jerusalem. Certain candidates for the council were denied equal access to PA-controlled media.166

Despite these measures and some irregularities reported in the tallying of votes, thirty-five seats went to independents.167 The winners included Faris Hamid Kadura of Ramallah and Hatem `Eid of Jerusalem, both independent candidates chosen by Fatah in its internal elections but later reportedly vetoed by Chairman Arafat. In Gaza City, Dr. Haidar Abd al-Shafi, known for his criticism of both the Israeli-PLO peace process and of Chairman Arafat, won the most votes.168 In the end, Fatah candidates backed by Chairman Arafat won only fifty-two seats.169 Chairman Arafat, running for president, easily defeated his only challenger, social activist Samiha Khalil.

The Legislative Council's Actions

Legislative Council members have often complained that the executive branch of the PA does not take the council seriously. Rafat al-Najjar, a council member from Gaza, told Human Rights Watch:

After the elections, we thought the Legislative Council would go towards building a democratic society and making laws for the civil society. But we have passed seventy-five resolutions and we feel that the authority does not cooperate-the president does not care about the council. The Legislative Council passes resolutions on problems like torture, the prisoners, laws-but the PA does not carry out most of these [resolutions]. The problem is the Legislative Council has no power. It is the same system as the PLO, where the president decides everything and controls everything.170

President Arafat's goal, according to council member Dr. Haidar Abd al-Shafi, is

to see that the Legislative Council is accountable to the executive committee of the PLO. He has insisted that members of the PLO executive committee [be] present at meetings of the Legislative Council-Arafat wants them to participate and vote. Arafat thinks the council is accountable to the executive committee of the PLO or to the PNC.171 But the council is only accountable to the electorate.172

The council, which has a human rights subcommittee, has regularly raised specific abuses and challenged the PA on issues such as accountability. However, most of its initiatives have been ignored. The chair of the subcommittee, Kamal Sharafi, wrote:

The council devoted much of its time defending the Palestinians detained in PA prisons without any legal grounds. This topic kept being raised in all the council's sessions and members kept demanding the release of those who were not proven guilty. They also called for bringing those proven guilty to appear before a court for trial. However, the Executive Authority ignored all related resolutions claiming that political circumstances are not appropriate.173

According to council member al-Najjar:

Several members [of the Legislative Council] have brought victims of torture to council meetings and members saw the results of torture. We have passed several resolutions asking the PA to stop torture. [The PA] has then threatened new detainees that if you talk about your arrest, we will create problems and arrest you again. Now victims are afraid and it is difficult for the Legislative Council to get testimony....At the May 22 and 23 [1996] session of the council in Gaza, we asked the justice minister to bring a list of all prisoners, the place they are being detained and the reason for arrest. The justice minister has still not provided any information.174

There has been an ongoing power struggle between council members and the president, who, according to Article IV of Oslo II, serves as a member of the council. According to Abd al-Shafi:

Arafat tries to intimidate and sometimes he is very insulting. The speaker [of the council] could control this if he wanted-this is his function. But he wants to accommodate Arafat. Arafat is very accustomed to such conduct. He's been engaged in this for thirty years in the PNC and I can see how it is difficult to depart from such conduct.175

One of the most heated debates in the council has been over drafting the Basic Law, or constitution, for the transitional period. The draft favored by the Legislative Council, which would strengthen the position of the council vis-à-vis the executive, had dominated discussions at four council meetings. Then, during the July 23, 1996 session, President Arafat said that the law could not be considered by the council until it had been finalized by the executive committee of the PLO.176 A Palestinian journalist who covered this council meeting recalled:

What happened was a scandal. The members were very angry that Arafat wouldn't let them discuss the Basic Law. Arafat was very rude and there was a lot of shouting. Arafat finally stormed out. This should have been a big story in the papers, but it was only a small story saying the discussion had been postponed. They just wrote what Arafat had said, not how the council members had responded.177

According to council member al-Najjar, the council's effectiveness is diminished by the failure of the Palestinian media to cover its meetings accurately or in detail:

There was a decision at the [council's] meeting in Rafah City in Gaza on May 8 and 9 [1996] that the council meetings are free and open for all media and journalists, and we asked that all votes and decisions be covered live and all decisions printed in all media, especially radio and T.V.178 This never happened. When they [the official broadcasting stations] cover the council, they cover small things, and only when the president is talking. Several journalists have interviewed members of the council who are critical, but they were afraid to publish the interviews. I invited a group of journalists to the council when we brought victims of torture. We asked victims to expose theirtorture effects to the meeting. The journalists were afraid to take pictures or cover this in the press. This has happened several times, including at a meeting a few weeks ago.179

This view was echoed by council member Rawiya Shawa:

People don't know what's happening in the council, but not because the press is not present. All the journalists are at the meetings. But there is self-censorship, and the owners of the papers want to avoid fights with the authority.180

In 1997, the independent Al-Quds Educational Television launched an ambitious program to provide extensive, unedited television coverage of the Legislative Council sessions. These broadcasts proved very popular with Palestinian viewers, who watched as the legislators challenged the PA executive over human rights abuses, corruption and other issues of public concern. In June, the PA began jamming these broadcasts, and detained Al-Quds director Daoud Kuttab for one week (see Summary of this report). As this report went to press, the PA had not authorized a resumption of television broadcasts of the full council sessions.