East Jerusalem - There are countries where champions of human rights finished in jail. It happens also in Palestine, in the areas under the juridiction of the Palestininian Authority. Bassem Eid is one of them. Arrested on 2 January 1996, he was released withtout charge the next day. He was lucky. Head of the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group, he speaks here about his struggle.

"I was born in the Old City of Jerusalem in 1958, in the area called Cardo. I live in Shu'fat camp. My parents are refugees. My father is from Salameh, a village that stood [until 1948] between Jaffa and Tel Aviv on the seashore, and my mother from Lod.
"I grew up in the Old City until 1966. That year, I was 8, the Jordanian government [in control of the West Bank] decided to establish Shu'fat camp. It was the last camp established in Palestine [after en-nakba, the 1948 catastrophe] and the authorities removed from the Old City 500 families. All were refugees living in rented houses, and my family was among the 500. The rent was one Jordanian dinar per month, today it would be 5 shekels. The landlords were the big families.
"The Jordanian authorities came and said: "We give you two rooms and 80 square meters free". The people thought: "Free?! We will not have to pay anymore the rent!". It seems it was a plan between the Jordanian government and the Israelis. Why do you remove me from the Old City? Give me an explanation... But the people at that time were not educated, the most important thing was to save money. They did not pushed us, they attracted us at a cheap price. All the 500 families accepted. They created Shu'fat camp with the 500 families. In 1966, they were 1.500 persons. Now in the camp we are 8.000, on the same surface area. Imagine... We are people occupied twice by the Israelis: in 1948 and in 1967.
"We don't know exactly why the Jordanian government took that decision. Nowadays we don't know. There was a sort of deal between them. It's very strange because following the 1967 war these empty houses were taken over by the Israelis. I can show you exactly where I was born even if the house doesn't exist anymore. Instead of the arches of today in the Cardo there were houses.
"I'm living in the same house in the camp since 1966, since I was 8. I don't live in the camp for nationalistic or political reasons. I have 8 children and the most important is to satisfy their needs. But even if I were able to buy a piece of land in Jerusalem, I would be unable to build a house in the sense that the Palestinians cannot obtain a licence from the Israeli municipality. For that reason I remain in the camp.
"I finished the high school in East Jerusalem in 1977. There is no secondary school in Shu'fat camp. That year I passed the tawjihi [matriculation exams] and also my brother Hatem [Abdel Qader, today a Legislative Council member]. Hatem was five years older than me, he had left school for three years in order to help my father because we were a large family, nine boys and one girl. Suddenly we knew Hatem had registered for the exam the same year than me. My father decided to send only Hatem to the university, he couldn't sent both. Because Hatem had left school for three years and worked to help the family my father wanted to give him some sort of compensation, so he sent him to El-Azhar in Egypt.
"At that time I could only work, I could only look for a job. I started to work mainly in restaurants as a waiter, sometimes as a cook, in Israeli restaurants because one can earn more. In the course of my work I met some Israeli journalists. I was reading and writing well Hebrew because I learned it at Er-Rashidiyeh School at Damascus Gate, a secondary school run by the government with the Israeli curriculum. Yoram Ben Ur, today a journalist with Israeli TV Channel 2, at that time was working for Kol Hair. It seems he discovered my skills in the sense that he offered me a job as a freelancer for the paper. The editor gave me the task to write reports about the Occupied Territories.
"I continued in the same time to work in the restaurant for another two years, until 1984, then I left because working with a newspaper gives you an experience and you want to develop it. The job with Kol Hair offered me the opportunity to expand on contacts with some Knesset members such as Yossi Sarid, Dedy Zucker, for exemple, Edy Kaufman, a lecturer at Hebrew University, Atty. Avidgor Feldman and others.
"In December 1987 broke out the Intifada and a lot of work was to come later on. With the beginning of the Intifada I started working full time. In January 1988 I wrote a big article concerning a terrible event which happened in the Nablus area. The Israeli army entered Salem village, arrested four people, made them lying on the ground and called a bulldozer to bury them. I wrote a piece that made a big fuss and was discussed in the Knesset. A special committee was appointed by the Defence minister, who was Rabin, to investigate the incident.
"At the beginning of 1989 some Knesset members and lawyers decided to establish B'Tselem, as a human rights organization for investigating and documenting the violations done by the Israeli authorities towards the Palestinians. They contacted me asking if I wanted to work as a researcher. I said yes immediately. Because it was an Israeli organization, at first it was a bit shameful to investigate the violations for the Israelis. It was amazing actually...
"I'm not a political person, so I had not to discuss about this work with my faction. I have always been independant during all my struggle. Therefore I immediately accepted. Really it was amazing in the beginning. They kill Mohammad and you investigate why the Israelis have killed Mohammad.
"Actually the task was very difficult at that very moment and I asked me: how to get the trust of the Palestinians for the work we are doing, how to get their trust? I found very easily the way: by starting to write in the Palestinian papers about the work I was doing at B'Tselem and what B'Tselem was doing. I went to the daily El-Quds and met the publisher: "Every week I want to write an article and I don't want money". He agreed. I wrote dozens of articles for the paper. The pieces were documentated. Every week, the human rights organizations knew that they would read a story.
"What is my philosophy in this work? When the Israelis publish reports about the Israelis they have more credibility than Palestinians publishing about the Israelis. It gives trust, it gives publicity, credibility because the Israelis are speaking about the Israelis. They put pressure, more than other human rights organizations. Dozens of reports B'Tselem published thanks to my researches, dozens of reports about the settlers, the undercover units, the demolition and sealing of houses, the tax policy, the deportation of Palestinians. And three reports, comprehensive reports, about the Israeli tortures on Palestinian prisoners that I myself investigated.
"I remember when the PLO contacted B'Tselem asking for the reports and once they sent a donation of 1.000 dollars. "We want to be on your mailing list and this is a donation", and in Tunis they translated the reports from Hebrew into Arabic. They started to translate the reports and I received some copies, reports translated by the PLO!
"There was a UN meeting in New York, in 1991, and the Americans refused to give Arafat a visa. So the meeting was moved to Geneva and Arafat delivered a speech where he mentioned the name of B'Tselem and gave B'Tselem's statistics and how many Palestinians were killed and how many houses were destroyed by the Israelis during the Intifada.
"In 1992 we found there was a very grave violation committed by Palestinians against suspected collaborators [with Israel]. At that time it was extremely sensitive to speak about the collaborators. No one human rights Palestinian organization has ever done a research on this matter, no one. In B'Tselem they decided to do the research. The Board of Directors demanded who will have the courage to do it. I said "I will do the research". "No, you will put your life in danger". I replied: "But it's a question of human rights, sometimes you have to face danger for trying to defend the rights of others". This kind of decision is the most critical moment in one's life: either you will succeed and will go up or you will fail and will go down. It's the time to prove yourself.
"The Palestinians were shocked. B'Tselem used to come every day for enquiring about the Israeli violations and now it comes in Balata camp for enquiring how Mohammad was killed [by other Palestinians]. Here you cross the red line for the Palestinians. I received threats over the phone. They called my wife at home saying: "We killed your husband today, we killed him, he will never return home". My brother Hatem was against the research: "The land is full of Israeli violations, why to take this matter now?" "It's the major violation done now and I should do the research; I have to go to Gaza and to meet the Black Panthers and ask them how they have killed Mohammad and Fatima". It was incredible, incredible and I believed in it and was ready to put my life in danger in order to defend the rights of others.
"The research took two years. In January 1994 the report was completed. We organized a large press conference. My brother Hatem warned me not to participate at the press conference and I refused. I was the main author of the report, how I would not participated? We got a lot of publicity and journalists asked me many interviews. "How have you done this research?", it was what interested them, not the result.
"In May 1994, the Palestinian Authority [PA] was installed in Gaza and Jericho. B'Tselem decided to concentrate solely on those human rights violations for which Israel beared direct responsability. Soon the PA was responsible for serious violations and many journalists contacted me asking for my comments. I couldn't kept silent in that very moment, I couldn't... It was not B'Tselem's mandate, but I was a Palestinian and I had the right to interfere. I started to investigate the PA violations on my behalf, not for B'Tselem. As a Palestinian.
"At the beginning of 1995, when the areas under PA control were still only Gaza and Jericho, I noticed that the Palestinian security forces were coming in areas under Israeli rule, aducted people and incarcerated them in Jericho, in particular the Preventive Security headed by Jibril Rajoub. I said to B'Tselem I wanted to write a report about this. In one month I finished the research because these violations were too much painful. I worked 24 hours a day, without extra payment. In August 1995 the report was ready, well written, full of proofs: what the Palestinian security forces were doing to their own people.
"We held a press conference. I decided to participate because I was the author of the report. Hatem was against my appearance in the sense that it would harm me. The same day some journalists asked Jibril Rajoub for his reaction. What was the answer of Jibril Rajoub? That B'Tselem was a cheap dealer for the Israeli police. This means a cheap collaborator for the police. The journalists contacted me the same day: "Jibril Rajoub says you are a collaborator".
"Later on, I found that the Palestinian human rights organizations were silent about the Palestinian human rights violations and still focusing on the Israeli violations. In July 1996 I decided to leave B'Tselem after seven years and a half. I established the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group [PHRMG] in December, on 9 December because that day is the anniversary of the Intifada, and on 10 International Day for human rights is celebrated.
"I'm someone who believes that independence doesn't mean democracy. When you get independence, it doesn't mean you become democrat. For independence you have to combat for a period of time, but for democracy you have to combat for ever. I also believe that democracy is not created by a government or a leader, democracy is the determination of the people. If I want to leave in a democratic system, I should start to combat since the first moment for not giving a chance to the government to establish a dictatorship.
"I still continue today to defend the same principles as in the past and I notice that the principles that were violated under occupation are still violated under our own authority. The people continue to suffer under their own authority and today it is extremely difficult to speak about the Israeli violations, extremely difficult. Why? Because the journalists ask about the PA violations and we feel ashamed. How can I speak against the occupation and its violations if my own authority violates the same rights of the same people. How?
"Every two weeks I use to go to Gaza. I have to leave my car at Erez, at the Israeli checkpoint, in the sense that I'm not a VIP and my number-plate is yellow. Because I'm a journalist the Israelis give me a permit for three months. I show my press card released by Beit Agron [Israeli Government Press Office] and my IC. I have to sign a statement that I enter the Strip under my own responsability. If something happens to me they will not be held responsible.
"I pass Erez and reach the PA checkpoint. They know me very well. "Welcome Bassem, what you will do in Gaza?", they ask me friendly. "I want to see some friends, some organisations", and I enter. Sometimes there are problems, sometimes they read the papers, they watch the TV, they see what we do and they become nervous. When we appear in a paper, I cannot go to Gaza for two or three weeks until they forget. Nevertheless you don't know what may expect you at the Palestinian checkpoint. Maybe a day I will enter and a mukhabarat will tell me: "We want you for a cup of coffee", as they say, and maybe I will go inside for one week, two weeks or one month.
"However, even if it's dangerous, I have never hesitated to go to Gaza. I should go to Gaza. Gaza is dangerous for me... so I should stop going to Gaza? Not at all, because I know there are people there who want to see me.
"I am not surprise by the authority's attitude, I am more surprise by the community's attitude. Where are the lecturers, where are the student councils, where are the Palestinian journalists, where are the people who fought in the past for human rights? All these people were supposed to create the basis for democracy... I'm sure they will look for their rights later. A day they will start to look for us in order to defend their rights. They will need us at a certain moment. There will look for us...
"I know the work I'm doing today will bear fruits in the future. There are soldiers who protect the borders and there are also human rights activists who protect the rights of the people". ENDS./.

Eat Jerusalem, July 1998