The two Palestinians, Majdi Makawi, 28 and Alam Bani Odeh, 25 were convicted of treason and sentenced to death by a firing squad after a military court deliberated less than an hour and heard no witnesses. Two others were sentenced to life in prison ast hard labor on similar charges of treason. The courtroom was packed with spectators who greeted the verdict with sharp bursts of applause. No relatives of the accused attended for fear of incurring the wrath of the public. Majdi Makawi was tied to a stake at the police headquarters in Gaza, and blindfolded as nine policemen carried out the execution.

He had been convicted in the rapid fire trial (held on Saturday) of collaborating with the Israelis in their alledged attack on his nephew Jamal Abdel Razek, a leader of Mr. Arafat's Fatah movement who had aledgedly organized acts of terror against the Israelis. Razek was killed on November 22nd when Israeli soldiers opened fire on two cars at a checkpoint, killing him and three others who Israelis claim were also terrorists.

A six member firing squad shot Alam Bani Odeh in Nablus as his wife, mother and three year old child sobbed beside him. Hundreds of Palestinians who witnessed the execution in Nablus cheered "Allahu Akbar"! (The Almighty is Great). The Palestinians claimed that Odeh had been involved in the alledged car bomb which killed his cousin Ibrahim Bani Odeh, who was a reputed Palestinian bomb maker last November 23rd.

While Israeli and international human rights organizations condemned the executions and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak issued a formal condemnation saying that "It is unfortunate that the Palestinian Authority, which seeks to become a recognized entity, has recourse to show trials which recall the darkest periods of history, the Palestinian Minister of Justice, Freih Abu Medein claimed" I believe this is real justice", and the Palestinian attorney general Khaled Qudreh defended the trials, saying: "We as the Palestinian Authority implement the law, and we gave them the opportunity to have legal representation and an open trial".

According to an Associated Press report from Jerusalem on Monday, Palestinian authorities said that more trials and harsher punishments were ahead for Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israel. The Palestinian Authority has issued an amnesty for collaborators who turn themselves in. At least two more collaborators were found dead in the past two days.

Throughout all this, the deafening silence of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has become especially conspicuous. Although the UNHCHR signed a technical cooperation program 'Support For The Rule Of Law In Palestine" in April 1996 and the UNHCHR established its office in Gaza in November 1996 to implement program actitivies in cooperation with Palestinian counterparts, that office funded by the U.N. Voluntary Fund for Technical Cooperation in the Field of Human Rights, with a total budget of U.S. $3,096,950 for three years, has no mandate to monitor human rights in the Palestinian Authority.

By contrast the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights with its headquarters in Geneva operates under a mandate derived from Articles 1,13 and 55 of the Charter of the United Nations, the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action and Assembly Resolution 48/141 of 20 December 1993, by which the Assembly established the post of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The mandate requires the UNHCHR, among other functions, to respond to "serious violations of human rights." Although the summary execution implemented by the Palestinian Authority falls under this category, the UNHCHR has not made its voice heard, despite the fact that other serious violations of human rights are pending in the same arena.

In a phone inverview with The Earth Times on January 18th, the spokesman for the UNHCHR, Mr. Diaz, conceeded that no statement had been issued by the UNHCHR and no action has been taken so far with regard to the executions and he promised to look into the matter. Upon further inquiry, Mr. Diaz stated that the "Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Summary or Arbitrary Executions" was not informed about the executions and will take steps in the next few days to issue communications on the matter.