Jailed Professor Talks About Palestinian Authority's Intolerance of Criticism

Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, April 2000, pages 21, 22 — Special Report

By Raeed N. Tayeh

Dr. Abdul Sattar Qassem, a 56-year-old professor of political science at Al Najah University in Nablus, Palestine was in the news recently when he was arrested, along with 10 Palestinian community leaders, for distributing a leaflet that criticized the Palestinian Authority (PA) and its president, Yasser Arafat. I was quite shocked when I learned of the news, for only three months earlier I was sitting in his classroom learning about the Arab-Israeli conflict.

I studied in the Palestine and Arabic Studies (PAS) program for international students last summer at Birzeit University, where Qassem, a guest professor, was teaching a course titled “The Palestine Question.” His candor was refreshing. He would always speak what he felt was the truth, no matter what the implications were. He was never shy in expressing his dissatisfaction with the PA or the faltering peace process to the class. Who knew that those same views he expressed in class would send him to jail? I decided to call him on Feb. 12 and give him an opportunity to tell Washington Report readers what happened to him. But first, a little background.

Abdul Sattar Qassem was about to enter adulthood when Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967. His chances for getting a good education inside Palestine were now gone. So he decided to go to Cairo, where he received a B.A. from the American University. From Cairo he traveled to the United States, where he earned his master’s degree in political science from Kansas State University in 1974. He went on to the University of Missouri-Columbia, where he received his Ph.D. in political science.

Dr. Qassem then went to Amman, where he taught at the Jordanian University from 1977 to 1979. He was fired for what he calls “intolerance of independent thought” by the Jordanian authorities. In 1980 he was hired to teach political science at Al Najah University, a position he has held for nearly 20 years.

The professor was very active in the community. He played a key role early in the intifada when he wrote a book for Palestinians on effective methods of civil disobedience. Publication of that book landed him in an Israeli jail for six months. It was not the last time that occupation forces would arrest him. Professor Qassem spent a total of two years in Israeli detention, and an additional six months under house arrest. He was not allowed to leave Palestine until 1996, when he spoke in Chicago at the annual convention of the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP). He was allowed to depart Palestine again in 1997, but since then he has been unable to obtain permission to leave.

His relationship with the Palestinian Authority has been almost as rocky. In 1995, he was hit by four bullets in an attack that was meant to silence him. Surviving the attack, which he charges was committed by members of one of President Yasser Arafat’s security forces, has only made him more determined to speak out against what he sees as the rapid surrender of Palestine. In 1996, he was detained for several days on suspicion of libeling Arafat. None of this has inhibited his determination to speak his mind. He has published 15 books. The most recent one, The Road to Defeat, lashes out against the PA and its policies under Arafat.

THE PETITION

Qassem and seven other Palestinian intellectuals got together in October of 1999 to discuss the worsening political situation in Palestine. They were unanimous in their dissatisfaction with the internal policies of the PA. They charged that it was tolerating widespread corruption, abuse of power, misuse of resources, human rights violations, and a dysfunctional political process. They felt that Israel was imposing a humiliating defeat upon the Palestinians. Their frustration was increased by what they felt was the lack of an effective opposition.

Something had to be done, they agreed. Some suggested the creation of a new political movement, but that idea was dismissed since the Palestinian people, it was argued, would not be interested in yet another political party. Finally, they decided to distribute a petition stating their grievances.

The petitioners not only described in clear terms what they viewed as the problem, they intentionally implicated Arafat, as the leader of the PA, breaking a long-standing taboo. “The petition was planned in a way to drive the PA against us,” said Qassem.

They collected 20 signatures for the petition. Subsequently, many people have asked “why only 20? Why not 200?”

Qassem points out that people are not eager to speak publicly against the PA, especially not against Arafat. It took nearly three weeks just to reach the goal of 20. “One of our intentions was to gauge the political scene in Palestine,” said Qassem. “We wanted to throw a rock into the pond and see what kind of waves it made.”

On Nov. 27, 1999, 1,000 copies of the petition were distributed across the West Bank. Thousands more were made and distributed by other Palestinians, including student and political groups, not only in the West Bank and Gaza, but even in Jordan. The petition sent shock waves across Palestine, and within the PA as well. At 10 p.m. that same night, officers of the notorious Mukhabarat (secret police) arrived at Qassem’s home in Nablus.

He had anticipated their arrival. The petition had been a secret until its release. Not even his wife knew about it. But when it was released he briefed his family on the situation and told them not to open the door to anyone that night. Then, he entered his bedroom and went to sleep. “I knew that I would not sleep in jail if they took me, so I made them play a waiting game while I caught a nice nap,” he recalls.

At 2 a.m. he walked out of his home and surrendered to the police, who took him to jail. The following day his home was raided and his computer, research papers, and published articles were confiscated.

Along with those confiscated materials was a draft of an unsent letter written in 1996 to Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad. In it, Qassem reminds Assad that “you shouldn’t forget the Palestinians when you go to the table with the Israelis.” This letter would later be the foundation of accusations that the petition signers were directed and supported by Syria.

Qassem was the first of 11 people to be arrested for signing the petition. The nine signers who were not arrested were members of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), whose positions gave them parliamentary immunity. That immunity didn’t help one of those legislators who, only days after release of the petition, was shot three times in the leg by assailants apparently loyal to Arafat.

The petition had popular support among people whose frustrations with the PA had been brewing for half a decade. The local press, however, criticized the signers of the petition for its accusations against Arafat. The PA tried to demonstrate its popular support by staging rallies in Ramallah. To ensure their success, government schools were dismissed, and children were directed to take part in the rallies.

Abdul Jawad Salah, former mayor of Al Bireh, PLC member, and co-signer of the petition, went to Jericho to visit his comrades. According to Salah, he was severely beaten by the Mukhabarat when he arrived. Qassem corroborates Salah’s story, saying, “He was taken into room number 5 in the same building that I was in, and he was beaten by seven men with sticks. The Mukhabarat thought they could get away with it, and they did. This is not the first time PLC members have been assaulted by security forces, either.”

As it turns out, some legislators were beaten in 1998 for expressing views that were anathema to the PA. The beating of Salah enraged an already angered public that considers him to be a hero for his long history of sacrifice for the Palestinian cause.

Meanwhile, Qassem was transferred from Nablus to the prison in Jericho where he was interrogated exclusively by the PA’s Attorney General Khaled Al-Kidra, himself a target of corruption allegations. Kidra expressed the PA’s belief that Qassem was the mastermind behind the petition. Qassem was threatened with a court martial, something he described as “a very stupid decision if followed through.” He was held in isolation for most of the time. He was not physically abused in jail, but he was not allowed to shower or shave for the first 10 days of his imprisonment. A lawyer was allowed to visit him after two weeks, but his family had to wait three weeks to visit him.

After being held for 22 days without charges, 9 of the imprisoned petition signers were released. But Qassem and community leader Ahmad Shaker Dodeen were held for 40 days. Qassem was held that long because he was perceived as the ringleader, while Dodeen’s detention was extended for giving an interview via a cellular phone that was smuggled into his jail cell to the Al-Jazeera satellite television network.

Qassem and Dodeen were finally released on Jan. 6, 2000, having spent most of the holy month of Ramadan in prison. None of the petition signers were ever charged with a crime, but all 11 detainees had to sign a pledge to appear in court if summoned, or face a $70,000 fine.

When asked if the petition was a success, Qassem replies cheerfully, “For us, it was a success for we can read the political map now. Also, we wrote the petition for the sake of history, to remind people that not all Palestinians supported Arafat, and that there were people willing to make a courageous move to speak out against the PA. The PA is weak now, and we are confident that the international community will help us to right the wrongs of the PA in the future. This is not the end of it. Action will continue. If we didn’t act again, our work would have been in vain. Next time, though, we will be more than 20.”

Qassem was very disappointed with the silence of the U.S. government after his imprisonment. “It just proves again how hypocritical the U.S. government really is when it comes to its policy on democracy and human rights,” he said.

At the end of our phone conversation, I reminded Abdul Sattar Qassem that he said in class last August that he will run for president in Palestine if there are elections. Was this still his intention?

His answer: “Yes.”

That was the ending of this article when I first submitted it to the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. But on Feb. 18 Abdul Sattar Qassem again was taken into custody by the Mukhabarat for reasons that are unclear. He was the only person re-arrested from the original group of 11. And, as before, he was arrested in the middle of an academic semester. Birzeit University has endured such disruptions for many years, but formerly at the hands of the Israelis. The present reality is even more disappointing. As Qassem put it, in our telephone interview, “Let them learn the truth about the PA that the West supports, and go back to their respective countries and expose the truth.”

Raeed N. Tayeh, a journalism student, is a volunteer at the Islamic Association for Palestine’s Chicago, Illinois office.