The Palestinian Authority's (PA) recent arrest of 13 Palestinians protesting corruption among the PA ruling elite causes renewed concern over the fate of democracy and human rights in Palestine. In the wake of the PA's assumption of power in 1994, Yasser Arafat's PA has faced mounting criticism from international human rights groups and Palestinian activists.

Amnesty International includes in its 1999 annual report issued last week, a lengthy analysis of the Palestinian government's lackluster human rights record. Amnesty accuses the PA of this year arresting 450 people on political grounds, continuing to detain 500 others without charge, "widespread" torture and ill-treatment of prisoners and possible extrajudicial executions. According to Amnesty, Yasser Arafat has yet to approve the Basic Law that would provide for a bill of rights and separation of powers in the government. The report also details internal political problems including lack of respect for the judicial branch, resignation of top ministers in protest of government obstruction of their duties and government corruption.

Arafat conducted a high-level reshuffling of his cabinet in August 1998 in order to allay suspicions of government corruption and growing authoritarianism. But doubts persist. Internationally acclaimed Palestinian political analyst, Edward Said, has denounced Arafat and his PA "cronies" as traitors to the Palestinian people who are willing to trade the rights of Palestinians for their continued strangle-hold on power. In an August 27, 1998 article in Al-Ahram, Said wrote that the PA leaders are "known notoriously to have misspent funds, indulged in corrupt practices, and mixed their personal business with the people's business." Said has labeled the peace efforts of Arafat as "supine." In the Al-Ahram article, Said charged Arafat with "leading us to further disaster" in his authoritarian government and his unwillingness to stand up to Israel and the United States in the peace process. In their misrepresentation of the Palestinian people, he further alleges in a November 7, 1998 article published in the Guardian that, "Arafat and company have now completely delivered themselves to the combined Israeli and U.S. intelligence apparatus, thereby putting an end to anything even resembling a democratic and independent Palestinian national life."

But Yasser Araf, who has a 30-year legacy of ceaseless struggle for Palestinian rights, continues to serve as the figurehead for the Palestinian cause. And despite the marginalization of opponents, disrespect for human rights and inability to achieve real progress in peace talks with Israel, he has attempted to meet the new challenges posed by on-the-ground leadership since 1994 and tackle Israeli recalcitrance with imaginative solutions. His reshuffling of his cabinet and appointment of a new Attorney General at least attest to his desire to keep up appearances of a just rule.

And Arafat assures observers that he is committed to the ideals of democracy. In a February 5 speech to the Consultative Group in Frankfurt, Arafat reassured aid donors of Palestine's movement "towards the realization of freedom and self-determination for our people on our holy land" and of the country's "ongoing self-improvement in order to ensure citizens' rights."

Arafat's PA has recognized its failure in the peace process and has proposed a bold new agenda for dealing with the new government in Israel. A May 30 PA press release called for the unification of "the Palestinian people with [their] various parties, institutions and authority under one umbrella to confront the imminent catastrophe represented by settlement," and outlined a 5-point plan demanding an immediate halt to settlement building and the fulfillment of previous peace accords.

In relation to criticism about his human rights record, Arafat blames U. S. and Israeli pressure on him to curtail alleged terrorism. The 1999 Amnesty report concedes that Israel and the U.N. have "put pressure on the PA to detain opponents of the peace process without charge or trial or after unfair trials." According to an interview published by the Israel Resource Review, Rabbis for Human Rights director Rabbi Arik Asherman said Arafat, in a 1995 conversation with the Rabbi, defended his human rights record by saying: "You Israelis, on the one hand you want me to stop terrorism, to fight terrorism, on the other hand you want me to observe human rights and you can't have both. And I'm here to fight terrorism."

There are no doubt paradoxes in Arafat's leadership as evidenced by his 30-year championing of Palestinian rights on the one hand and the recently mounting protest over his marginalization and misrepresentation of Palestinian people on the other. In an analysis for the Palestinian Information Center, George Giacaman, Dean of Graduate Studies at Palestine's Birzeit University, says the contradictions in Arafat's leadership are exacerbated by his establishment as the on-the-ground authority in Palestine. With the creation of the PA, the PLO became virtually extinct, ending the broad-based coalition of opposing Palestinian groups within the PLO that more or less made sure the needs of the people were represented in the Palestinian leadership, according to Giacaman. Giacamen explains Arafat's inability to share power as being a result of his past experiences in leadership of an exiled liberation movement. But the present situation in his homeland makes his "latent totalitarian traits quickly come to the fore."

Whatever inherent problems exist in Arafat's leadership, they are inevitably worsened by the continued refusal on the part of Israel to meet basic Palestinian demands for territorial integrity and national sovereignty. Giacamen observes that "there is a connection between the process of democratization and the achievement of a political agreement that is acceptable to Palestinians." Israel's betrayal of the peace-process would put any Palestinian leader in an impossible situation, says Giacamen: "The stronger the resentment of the political situation, the more internal suppression is required to keep the population at bay."

Zakariya Wright is a staff writer at iviews.com