Palestinian Police Arrest Arabs who Prefer Israeli Rule

Palestinian police round up Palestinians who were interviewed on Israeli TV and said they would prefer Israeli annexation over the Palestinian Authority, take them to torture centers.

By Yakir Benzion, United With Israel

Palestinian police arrested several Palestinians who were interviewed on Israeli television and has taken them to torture centers, the Israeli journalist who interviewed them said Friday.

Channel 13 Arab affairs reporter Tzvi Yehezkeli said “a huge mess” resulted from his story that aired last week in which several Palestinians told him they preferred to be annexed and that Israel should run their lives, not the Palestinian Authority under Mahmoud Abbas.

“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.

Last week Yehezkeli drove to several Palestinian towns in Judea and Samaria where he interviewed residents, asking them what they thought of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s intention to apply Israeli sovereignty to settlements in a move that would include some Arab towns and villages.

Several of the Palestinians said they preferred the idea of being under Israeli rule over staying under the thumb of a the Palestinian Authority.

Yehezkeli said the arrests were an unintended consequence of the interviews, which showed that despite the PA making lots of threats about the pending annexation, the Palestinian street often has a different opinion and many would rather be rid of its rule.

“It is a million times better for Israel to be responsible for the entire territory,” one Palestinian said. “We are prepared to be under Israeli military shoes and not under Abbas’s head.”

Yehezkeli noted when people ask what the Palestinians think, there has been a huge gap for the past 20 years between the will of the people and the statements made by its leaders. PA chairman Abbas says one thing and the people want something else and are not afraid to say it.

One of the Palestinians said: “I am from the village of Jeba. I want the villagers to be happy. They are subject to the [Palestinian] Authority today and they want Netanyahu and no one else, they want an Israeli identity card.”