Low Earth Orbit

Beating on the truth on the West Bank

For four days, Palestinian Afif Barghouti told friends, family, and journalists that he had been detained by Israeli soldiers at the Qalandiyah checkpoint, blindfolded and bound, and severely beaten for 30 hours. Photographs of his wounds were prominently displayed in Palestinian media as evidence of Israeli brutality. Part of the story was true; he was beaten and tortured. But the ones who beat him weren’t IDF soldiers. They belonged to the Palestinian security services. p(qq). What really happened, he said, was that on Saturday, Palestinians he recognized as working for the Palestinian security services had seized him, held him for almost two days and beaten him. He said that they suspected him of being an Israeli collaborator, to which he responded: "I don't work with the Israelis and I don't work with the Palestinians."