[News] In torturing Americans compared to Israelis are amateus

[News at freedomarchives.org]

From: Adib S. Kawar



The Washington Post:



On torturing Palestinians:

  Compared to Israelis Americans are amateurs



“The Washington Post” published yesterday, June 15th, the results of a 
study concerning the methods Israel uses in torturing Palestinian prisoners 
of war, pointing out that what the international media talks about 
torturing in the Abu Ghreib prison in Iraq, on the hands of the Americans, 
is a well known experience by Palestinian prisoners of war in Israeli jails.



The study said that Palestinian prisoners: “Are forced to stand on their 
feet for days, tied up while bent on chairs without backs, are brutally 
shaken, deprived of sleep for long periods of time, forced to listen to 
very loud music, are exposed to very high heat or very low degrees of cold, 
are forced to urinate and defecate in their clothing and sometimes their 
heads are covered with bags which smell urine, stool or vomiting”, the 
report added: “These torturing practices receive wide popular Israeli 
support”.



The report compares between the interrogations tactics in Israel with what 
was practiced in Abu Greib: “The description of physical torturing that the 
detainees were exposed to in Abu Ghreib on the hands of American prison 
guards, was practiced more brutally against Palestinian prisoners. This is 
concerning to the practices of torturing and humiliation, and the 
photographing of such practices by male and female Israeli prison guards”.



The paper quoted some prisoners: “Israeli interrogators use more “clever” 
means to destroy the morals of prisoners”. It also quoted the Palestinian 
ex-prisoner, Adnan Al-Labadi saying: “Israelis utilize more effective ways 
of torturing, thus after three days of hunger and lack of sleep would make 
you wish to tell any thing you know or don’t know, thus what practices the 
Americans use show that they are mere amateurs; so they should be trained 
to become more effective as torturers and interrogators”.



The report quoted Ziad Arafah, a political activist in his forties saying 
that he was arrested fourteen times, and that every time he was exposed to 
interrogation he was exposed to new means of torturing, and added: 
“Physical pressure and sexual torturing used to be ordinary practices 
during his earlier arrests”.



The report pointed out that: “Although the Israeli officials never use the 
term – torture – but Israel could be the only ‘western democracy’ that 
admits torturing prisoners during interrogation”.



The study said that the general security organization, “Shabak”, had 
resumed the continuous use of physical pressure on prisoners since the 
break out of INTIFADAH, in spite of the high court decision of prohibiting 
torturing of prisoners!!!

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Translated from Arabic by Adib S. Kawar

Assafir Beirut Arabic daily June 17th 2004

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