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U.S.: PA Tortured Participants in American-Led 2019 Bahrain Conference
(U.S. State Department) The State Department's 2020 Human Rights Report stated that in 2019, there were reports Palestinian security forces arrested, intimidated, and tortured Palestinians following their participation in an international conference in Bahrain. Some of these individuals, labeled "collaborators" for working with or engaging with Israelis on political initiatives the PA did not support, reported threats of violence from Fatah, Hamas, and other groups with ties to the PA. They reported damage to personal property and businesses. There were reports that the families of those targeted were pressured to disown them, and that they and their family members were denied medical treatment in PA health facilities. Significant human rights issues with respect to the Palestinian Authority include: reports of unlawful or arbitrary killings, torture, and arbitrary detention by authorities; holding political prisoners; significant problems with the independence of the judiciary; serious restrictions on free expression, the press, and the internet, including violence, threats of violence, unjustified arrests and prosecutions against journalists, censorship, and site blocking; substantial interference with the rights of peaceful assembly and freedom of association, including harassment of nongovernmental organizations; acts of corruption; lack of accountability for violence against women; violence and threats of violence motivated by anti-Semitism; anti-Semitism in school textbooks; and reports of forced child labor.