Sex is a taboo topic in the conservative Palestinian society. So it came as a nasty surprise to many when the rampant sexual harassment in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip was recently brought to public attention.

A damning report, entitled “Gaza: Sexual Harassment and Bribery Chase Job-Seekers,” was published in the Beirut-based, Hezbollah-affiliated newspaper Al-Akhbar. Amjad Yaghi, the young Palestinian journalist who wrote the exposé, showed extraordinary courage in doing so.

Hamas, needless to say, was not amused.

Yaghi wrote that

“[some] public personalities in the Gaza Strip are no longer abiding by the professional standards of their moral work after being overcome by their sexual instincts and professional duties. They are exploiting their status, especially their decision-making regarding employment, appointments and providing services and funds to projects in light of the absence of working opportunities for women.”

According to Yaghi, the report was published in a Lebanese newspaper because the Palestinian media forbids stories that might enrage the public and “harm” Palestinian traditions and morals.

Yaghi sets out clearly the Catch-22:

“The victims do not have the freedom to talk about their experiences and that is why most of the women who are subjected to sexual harassment remain silent. … They are afraid that they could be deprived of new employment or that their reputation would be affected.”

The report found at least 36 Palestinian women working in various fields who had fallen victim to sexual harassment and exploitation. Reflecting Yaghi’s description of their dilemma, 25 of the victims refused to provide full details about their experiences, and the remaining 11 agreed to talk openly about the problem only on condition of anonymity.

Sexual crimes of various sorts were reported. Twenty of the women reported experiencing sexual harassment at their workplaces, while ten others said they were asked to provide “sexual bribes.” Six of the women told Yaghi that they had been sexually assaulted at work.

A 27-year-old female journalist told the Yaghi that a Palestinian official working for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) invited her to his office for a job interview:

“When she came to his office, the official tried to approach and touch her, but she walked away and left the office… The following day, the official was more honest with her; he offered her the job in return for having sexual intercourse with him. She was shocked and stopped talking to him.”

The woman believes that the senior status of the official who sexually harassed her will protect him from being held accountable for his behavior. She also alluded to a larger and deeper problem in the Arab and Islamic world: “Our society doubts the integrity of a woman who talks about honor.” As a third obstacle to prosecution, she noted that under Palestinian law, UNRWA officials enjoy immunity from being prosecuted.

Immunity from prosecution for sexual crimes, however, apparently does not apply to the top echelons of internationally funded organizations. For example, the director of an international aid organization in the Gaza Strip, who purportedly offered a 28-year-old job applicant a highly-paid position in return for sex.

Lawyers in the Gaza Strip would seem to have enough to do without sexually harassing their employees. But a 23-year-old female legal trainee told the investigative journalist that her boss, a 45-year-old male attorney, made sexual advances to her and to three of her female colleagues. Another male lawyer offered a female colleague 50 shekels ($12) if she allowed him to touch her body.

According to the report, 13 female journalists in the Gaza Strip have also faced sexual harassment and assault in recent years.

Yaghi found that the Palestinian Basic Law does not tackle the issue of sexual harassment in Palestinian society. While the law does refer to corruption in the workplace, sexual harassment is not detailed as a form of corruption.

Much has been written recently about the widespread increase in child abuse in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, where children are exposed to constant brainwashing by armed groups. Last week, a new video surfaced of how the radical Islamist groups in the Gaza Strip incite Palestinian children. The video features children dressed as Islamic Jihad militiamen, play-acting the detonation of a bomb near an Israeli tank. The audience, the parents of these child actors, can be heard cheering and applauding.

In a society where children are indoctrinated to murder Jews, it comes as no surprise that women are victims of different kinds of exploitation as well.

Yaghi keeps the identities of the male offenders out of the public eye. Yet these are clearly senior officials working in the private and public sectors. Just as clearly, the sexual harassment victim of the UNRWA official was right: the Hamas connections of these criminals will no doubt keep them out of jail and in positions of power.

Where are the women’s rights organizations now? And where are the European and American overseers of the international human rights organizations in the Gaza Strip? Could it be that these worthy watchdogs only awaken from their slumber when they smell fresh Israeli meat? Meanwhile, how many women will be sexually assaulted and harassed while these watchdogs sleep?

When it comes to sexual harassment, where are the European and American overseers of the international human rights organizations in the Gaza Strip? Under Palestinian law, UNRWA officials enjoy immunity from being prosecuted, and the Hamas connections of officials that engage in sexual harassment will no doubt keep them out of jail and in positions of power. Pictured at right: Pierre Krähenbühl, Commissioner-General of UNRWA, meets with Federica Mogherini, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs.

Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden visited Ramallah last week, and Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas and his top officials are laughing their heads off.

Why not laugh? Biden arrived in the region hoping to persuade the Palestinian leaders to issue a “condemnation” of the reign of terror, which they continue to describe as a “popular and peaceful uprising.” This in itself reeks of gallows humor.

But what Biden got was even funnier, from the point of view of Abbas and his friends.

The Palestinian president offered “condolences” over the killing of a U.S. citizen in Jaffa the previous day: “The President [Abbas] offered his condolences over the killing of the US citizen, while stressing at the same time that the occupation authorities have killed 200 Palestinians over the past five months,” according to a statement released by the PA leadership in Ramallah.

Abbas’s crocodile tears were shed for Taylor Force, a West Point graduate from Texas who was stabbed to death by a Palestinian during a rampage on the Jaffa beachfront promenade. Abbas is doubtless also upset because Israel has killed Palestinian stabbers and shooters.

Just before Biden arrived in Ramallah, Abbas’s Fatah faction praised the murderer of Force, calling him a “martyr.” But Fatah was quick to delete the posts to avoid embarrassing the Palestinian leadership during Biden’s visit.

It seems that the murder of an American visitor is condemnable, but the murder of some 34 Israelis since last October, including a pregnant woman and civilians, is somewhat less so.

Where was the condemnation of the wounding of nine Israelis in the attack that killed Taylor Force? Where was the condemnation of the attacks the took place on that very day in Jerusalem and Petah Tikva?

But Abbas explained everything to Biden: Israel was in fact fully responsible for the “violence and bloodshed” because of the “occupation” and “settlements.”

Here is a dirty little secret: the Palestinian attackers were not driven to murder Jews because of “settlements” and “checkpoints.”

Check their Facebook accounts: what fueled their hatred were the lies they had been fed for the past few years by President Abbas and other Palestinian leaders, concerning Jews “desecrating” Islamic holy sites and plotting to destroy them. No checkpoint snags, no settlement issues, no protests against construction of new apartments in Jerusalem for Jewish families.

Many of these Palestinians went for Israeli blood because they have been taught — by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority, Hamas and other Palestinian groups — to hate Israel. And they do not give a damn whether that Jew lives in Jaffa or in the West Bank. They also do not give a damn if some of their victims are Arabs.

Yet the comedy continues. Biden is reported to have urged Abbas and the Palestinian leadership to stop the anti-Israel incitement in their official media and on social media. Abbas vehemently denied that this incitement was taking place, and indeed, explained that the US leader had gotten things mixed up entirely: it was Israel that was guilty of incitement against the Palestinians.

While Abbas was busy offering his condolences for the killing of the U.S. citizen, his ruling Fatah faction was busy glorifying Palestinian assailants who killed Israelis.

In one instance, Fatah published an announcement inviting Palestinians to mark the 38th anniversary of the “martyrdom” of Dalal Al-Mughrabi.

Al-Mughrabi was a Fatah member who participated in the 1978 Coastal Road massacre in Israel, in which 38 civilians were killed, including 13 children.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden visited Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on March 10, hoping to persuade Abbas to issue a “condemnation” of the wave of terror attacks against Israelis. The next day, Abbas’s Fatah party invited Palestinians to commemorate the 38th anniversary of the “martyrdom” of Dalal Al-Mughrabi. Al-Mughrabi was a Fatah member who participated in the 1978 Coastal Road massacre in Israel, in which 38 civilians were killed, including 13 children.

The condolence message was also long enough for Fatah to praise Palestinian assailants, including Abdel Malek Abu Kharoub, who carried out a recent shooting attack in Jerusalem. In a post on its official Facebook account, Fatah hailed Abu Kharoub as a “hero and martyr.”

Of course neither Biden nor any of his advisors and aides saw these posts. They prefer to continue burying their heads in the sand and pretending that once the “peace process” is revived, everything will be fine.

So it is business as usual for Abbas and crew. As in any comedy, there is a clown, and Biden was played for a fool by a PA leadership that finds that it pays to point its finger at Israel.

In Arabic, a language in which Western leaders are perhaps not fluent, Palestinian media outlets and spokesmen vomit poison against Israel. Condemnation of attacks on Israelis would be rather unlikely in such a drama.

And so the curtain rises on another act of the ceremonial, make-believe theater of the Middle East. In Abbas’s sneaky script, it is about settlements. In reality, it is about the refusal of the Americans to read, speak or even translate Arabic.

Khaled Abu Toameh, an award-winning journalist, is based in Jerusalem.

Palestinians have an old habit of settling internal scores by diverting their grievances and violence towards Israel. This practice is clear to those who have been monitoring developments in the Palestinian arena for the past decades. It is an integral part of the Palestinian strategy to undermine, isolate, delegitimize and destroy Israel.

Those less familiar with Palestinian culture and tactics, however, have difficulty understanding the Palestinian mindset. Officials in Washington, London, Paris and other Western capitals rarely meet the ordinary Palestinian, the “man on the street” who represents the authentic voice of the Palestinians.

Instead, these officials meet Palestinian politicians and academics from Ramallah — the “experts” who are actually accomplished con artists. Such Palestinians grasp the Western mindset very well, and use their understanding to twist Western officials any which way they want.

The Western reaction to the hunger strike declared on April 17 by Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails is a case in point. The strike was initiated by Marwan Barghouti, a senior Fatah official who is serving five life terms for his role in terror attacks against Israelis. Barghouti has been in prison for 15 years so far.

Remarkably, despite Barghouti’s long-term imprisonment, this is his first hunger strike, apparently despite the poor incarceration conditions that have supposedly driven him to this move. Or might there be some other factor behind Barghouti’s sudden acute discomfort?

The hunger strike is, in fact, completely unrelated to conditions in Israeli prisons. Rather, Barghouti’s hunger strike is directly linked to a power struggle that has long been raging inside his Fatah faction. More than a move against Israel, the hunger strike is aimed at Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas (who is also chairman of Fatah).

The hunger strike declared by jailed Palestinian terrorist Marwan Barghouti (left) is aimed at Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (right). Barghouti’s supporters accuse Abbas and his loyalists of sidelining the jailed Fatah leader and seeking to “bury” him.

Last November, Barghouti emerged as the biggest winner in Fatah’s internal election. His status as a prisoner and his involvement in terrorism continue to be the main reason why he is so popular among Palestinians. Barghouti’s victory in the election meant that he was now number two after Abbas, and many expected the PA president to appoint him as his deputy.

This past February, however, the Fatah Central Council, a body dominated by Abbas loyalists, delivered a deliberate slap in the face to Barghouti, ignoring his landslide victory and appointing someone else (Mahmoud Aloul) as Deputy Fatah Chairman. The appointment of Aloul enraged Barghouti’s supporters, who rushed to accuse Abbas and his loyalists of sidelining the jailed Fatah leader and seeking to “bury” him.

Barghouti’s wife, Fadwa, even went as far as accusing Abbas of “succumbing” to threats by Israel. Israeli officials had strongly criticized the result of the Fatah internal election, which the Barghouti won, calling it a vote for terrorism. Fadwa Barghouti said that her husband had won the first slot in the election, “which means he is number two in Fatah. There is no ignoring Marwan Barghouti’s position.”

The charges leveled by Barghouti’s wife against Abbas are not the first. In the past, she has accused Abbas and the PA leadership of imposing a blackout on news concerning her husband. In a letter to Abbas, she expressed “regret and pain” over the failure of Abbas to help her in her campaign to secure the release of her husband. She also complained that neither Fatah nor the PA leadership had provided funds to support the campaign calling for her husband’s release.

It is no secret that Abbas detests competition. He has been waging war against anyone who dares to challenge his rule, especially from within his own Fatah faction. Mohammed Dahlan, for example, a former PA security commander from the Gaza Strip and considered the number one enemy of the PA president, was expelled from Fatah on orders from Abbas. Dahlan, a Fatah parliamentarian, was stripped of his parliamentary immunity by Abbas. Dahlan is currently living in the United Arab Emirates, but is wanted by Abbas for “corruption” and “murder.”

Barghouti, however, presents Abbas with an immediate problem. The Palestinian on the street will not tolerate the defamation, at least not in public, of any Palestinian sitting in Israeli prison. Abbas sees Barghouti as a real threat, particularly in the wake of public opinion polls suggesting that Barghouti could easily win any presidential election. Barghouti at large would be a nightmare for Abbas.

So, no love is lost between Abbas and Barghouti; the two are engaged in a behind-the-scenes power struggle. Barghouti wants to succeed Abbas, while Abbas is working hard to marginalize him. Palestinian sources say that Abbas is not happy with Barghouti’s hunger strike. He believes Barghouti is trying to steal the spotlight from him, especially on the eve of his visit to Washington for talks with President Donald Trump. Abbas, who wants to be in the news all the time, cannot stand that Barghouti is grabbing the headlines and was even invited to write an op-ed in the New York Times.

It is not only Abbas, however, who is in trouble. Barghouti, too, knows better than to air dirty Fatah laundry. What, then, is to be done? The traditional diversionary tactic: Direct the heat towards Israel. Barghouti is suddenly concerned about his prison conditions and is demanding more privileges. Israel, he claims, imprisons Palestinians for their “peaceful resistance.” Barghouti knows it is not popular to come out in public against Abbas. Similarly, Abbas is using the hunger strike to incite against Israel and demand that all Palestinian terrorists, including ones with blood on their hands, be released unconditionally. The hunger strike is a smokescreen for the real problems inside Fatah and has nothing to do with the conditions of prisoners in Israeli jails.

Stripped of its Western trappings, Barghouti’s “hunger strike” is actually a struggle between Abbas and yet another Fatah pretender to the throne. And once again, Israel — the state that supposedly so “mistreats” incarcerated Palestinian terrorists — takes the heat.

Bassam Tawil, an Arab Muslim, is based in the Middle East.