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Organized Crime in Palestinian Cities: A Taboo Subject

(This Week in Palestine) Ali Qleibo - Systemic organized crime in the major Palestinian urban centers has become rampant with sporadic shooting, firebombs, and setting cars and houses on fire. Jenin and Nablus are plagued with gangs that take shelter in impenetrable "neighborhoods." In Jerusalem, Palestinian thugs and fortune hunters have taken over and hold real estate owners and shopkeepers in terror. Moreover, the violence that is erupting between competing militias, on both the family level and within the political structure, has created a state of lawlessness and chaos that permeates the major cities. Extortion levied on business owners, shopkeepers, and restaurateurs thrives unabated. The usurping of a property is accomplished either by rental or by purchase of a fraction of the property from one of the heirs. Once the land or property is rented, a first payment is advanced, but once the new tenant moves in, the rent money stops and the land or house is de facto appropriated. The daily press does not report the reign of terror. References are scarce, as NGO human rights observers concern themselves exclusively with reporting Israeli transgressions. A senior Palestinian official told Al-Monitor, "The state of security chaos in the West Bank has resulted since early 2015 in about 26 Palestinian deaths - seven of which were in Nablus - and the majority of those involved in these incidents are security services personnel." Dr. Ali Qleibo is an anthropologist and lecuter at Al-Quds University.
2016-02-03 00:00:00
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