What a surprise to discover that so-called pro-Palestine campaigners could not really care less about the Palestinians after all.

That is the only conclusion it is possible to arrive at after their reaction to David Rose’s investigation in the last two issues of the JC.

He revealed the shocking scale of the Palestinian Authority’s brutality and corruption — much of it funded by Britain.

The PA’s security forces kidnap, torture and murder Palestinian human rights activists. For example: Nizar Banat, who had shone a spotlight on corruption and campaigned for democracy, was arrested at his home and beaten to death with a hammer.

CCTV footage shows the badly beaten campaigner being forced into a car by 14 members of the security forces, and his lifeless body being dragged into a hospital less than half an hour later.

The scenes are shockingly reminiscent of the way Saudi journalist and dissident Jamal Khashoggi was murdered by officials inside their Istanbul consulate in 2018 — but the international reaction could not have been more different.

That case prompted widespread international condemnation. There was uproar in Congress. The officials responsible were sanctioned and visas were revoked.

Banat’s murder did trigger weeks of protests in the West Bank but these were brutally suppressed by the security forces as well. Protesters were beaten and arrested. Women were sexually assaulted.

The JC’s research proves that corruption and torture under the PA is routine and widespread.

One official even admitted that torture was used to gather intelligence and claimed the dissident had “deserved to die”.

And the reaction from all the people who usually can’t wait to use the plight of the Palestinians to criticise Israel?
Silence.

Where were the protests, the marches and the demonstrations? Why were there no crowds outside Downing Street? When are the emergency debates in Parliament demanding the government calls in the representatives of the Palestinian Authority?

Compare the reaction to the furore after the tragic but accidental shooting of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. Even before any investigation — without a shred of evidence — an emergency debate was called in Parliament. MPs queued up to accuse Israel of “murder” and “assassination” and demand the Foreign Secretary summon the Israeli ambassador for a carpeting.

It is hard to escape the conclusion that many of them are not motivated by concern for the Palestinians but by hatred of Israel.

The blunt truth is that if you are only campaigning for the Palestinians when it’s an opportunity to attack Israel, you are not campaigning for the Palestinians at all. You are just campaigning against Israel. Using the Palestinians to single out the world’s only Jewish state and hold it to standards never applied to anyone else.

And the truth about the Palestinian Authority is that it is a brutal and corrupt dictatorship. Elections are banned or cancelled. President Abbas is now in the 17th year of the four-year term to which he was elected in 2005.

Public funds are routinely embezzled. Patients are denied referrals to Israeli hospitals unless they can afford to pay bribes.

IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi this week blamed the PA for the upsurge in terror attacks that have left more than 80 people killed or injured in the last six months. He said the failure of the Palestinian security services caused “a lack of governance in certain areas of the West Bank, which constitute fertile ground for the growth of terrorism”.

The PA’s failings are a real barrier to the peace process and any hopes of a two-state solution too, because there is no hope of a viable Palestinian state without functioning and effective Palestinian leadership. Instead, their weakness and corruption acts as a recruiting sergeant for Hamas.

British taxpayers’ money is disappearing into the pockets of corrupt officials and cronies. Hundreds of millions of pounds of your money that should be improving education or healthcare is being stolen.

Where is the public outrage about this?

There should be a wholesale review of where British aid to the Palestinians goes and how it is spent.

No one is saying we should not be providing these funds, but they should not be used to enrich corrupt officials, radicalise children by teaching hatred and extremism in schools or train security officials who torture dissidents.

And in the absence of any public protests, perhaps the JC’s readers should be organising demonstrations for ordinary Palestinians whose lives are made a misery by the PA’s brutality and corruption.