[News] Report slams Israeli torture of Palestinian Detainees

[News at freedomarchives.org]

(A torturer condemning another torturer)


Report Slams Israeli Torture of Palestinian Detainees
March 12, 2005
By Samar Assad

U.S. state department says all government authorities took part in 
approving abuse

Recently, the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor at the U.S. State 
Department released its 2004 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. In 
the section on Israel and the Occupied Territories, the report points to 
"problems in some areas" in reference to Israel's treatment of Palestinian 
prisoners and detainees. The report quotes complaints made by "credible" 
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) against the Israeli Prison System 
(IPS) - complaints that Palestinian NGO's and prisoners rights groups have 
been making for decades - that Israel's treatment and detention of 
Palestinian political prisoners is in violation of international law and 
human rights.

The U.S. government report states that "some" members of Israel's security 
forces abuse Palestinian detainees. However, according to the Israeli Human 
Rights group B'Tselem, in Israel, "for years, torture was commonly used by 
Israel's General Security Service (GSS) interrogators.

"Since in 1987, the GSS interrogated at least 850 Palestinians a year by 
means of torture. The methods included violent shaking, binding the 
detainees in painful positions and covering their head with a foul-smelling 
sack. All governmental authorities - from the Israeli Army to the Supreme 
Court - took part in approving torture, in developing new methods and in 
supervizing them."

In 1999, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that only "some" methods of 
interrogation used against Palestinian detainees were illegal and 
unacceptable. By not fully banning torture, the Israeli Supreme Court has 
legally condoned some forms of torture which is in violation of 
international law.

Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and Article 7 
of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966) provide 
that no one shall be subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading 
treatment or punishment. This principle was ratified by the 1984 Convention 
against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel argued that 
Chief Justice Aharon Barak's ruling came after pressure from American legal 
academics. Adalah lawyers added that in the past, Barak had issued many 
decisions in favor of the use of torture to extract information or 
confessions from Palestinian suspects.

The U.S. report points out that in June 2003, Physicians for Human Rights 
(PHR) in Israel petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court to end the IPS's 
"systematic abuse of prisoners" in Israel's Sharon Prison. In July the 
court closed the case after the appointment of a new prison warden.

Furthermore, a November 2003 PHR report found that Palestinian detainees in 
Jerusalem's Russian Compound interrogation center were given medical 
examinations upon arrival to determine if the prisoner could endure "the 
application of violent approaches to those jailed."

The U.S. report states that "a reputable international organization with 
access to this facility also reported during 2003 that it is investigating 
the use of Israeli doctors in this capacity."

The report found that although IPS facilities - home to common law 
criminals and convicted security prisoners - generally meet international 
standards, the International Committee of the Red Cross found that police 
detention and interrogation facilities for Palestinians were "overcrowded 
and had austere, provisional conditions."

According to the Palestinian Prisoners' Association there are close to 
8,000 Palestinians currently being held in Israeli prisons or detention 
centers.

Of those, 400 Palestinians were sentenced before the Oslo Peace Accords and 
remain in prison despite the Accords' call for their release. Nineteen are 
serving sentences of 20 years or more; 140 are sentenced to over 15 years; 
300 are children; and 1,200 are being held under administrative detention.

Israeli law allows its military to hold Palestinians under administrative 
detention for up to six months without charge or trial. Israel routinely 
renews the detention orders and may do so without limitation, thereby 
holding Palestinians without charge or trial indefinitely. There are 128 
Palestinian female prisoners in Israeli jails.

In February 2005, Israel released 500 Palestinians as part of the Sharm 
el-Sheikh agreement.

However, according to IPS, the majority of those released were 
administrative detainees. The bulk of the released prisoners - 250 - are 
members of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party. Some 
175 are members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The remaining 80 have no 
political affiliation.

Palestinian prisoners' rights advocates and the Palestinian Authority (PA) 
were not happy with the recent release. They argue that the release was not 
coordinated with them through a joint committee as stipulated in the Sharm 
el-Sheikh agreement.

Furthermore, they argue that the release did not address the urgent need to 
release prisoners who are ill, the elderly, those who are serving sentences 
20 years or more, and most importantly, child prisoners.

According to the Palestinian Prisoners Club, 3,000 Palestinian children 
have been arrested since 2000. Today, there are 300 Palestinian children in 
Israeli custody. Four percent of the incarcerated children are in 
administrative detention. The majority, 55 percent, were arrested for 
throwing stones at Israeli soldiers.

According to Israeli military orders, Palestinian children 16 and older are 
treated as adults and are tried and sentenced by Israeli military courts as 
adults. Israeli military orders are applied to Palestinian children, even 
as juvenile legislation defines Israeli children as 18 or younger.

Furthermore, Palestinian children receive the same treatment as adult 
prisoners. They are subject to torture, solitary confinement, and/or 
overcrowded cells. They are deprived of sleep, adequate education, medical 
treatment, family visits and recreational programs.

Defense for Children International and Save the Children have stated that 
Palestinian children are being "physically and mentally abused."

They confirm Palestinian accusations that children are denied access to 
their families and legal representation during interrogation and are held 
in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions.

Israel insists that it will not release Palestinians convicted with the 
killing of Israelis. However, in most cases, Israeli courts fail to prove a 
detainee's direct responsibility for the death of Israelis.

According to the IPS, only 2,731 Palestinian prisoners have "blood on their 
hands."

If that is the actual number, then the vast majority of Palestinian 
prisoners are political prisoners who have been arrested for political 
expression or for no legitimate security reason. This is in contradiction 
to international covenants enshrining the freedom of speech for all 
persons, especially political dissidents.

According to B'Tselem, "security is interpreted in an extremely broad 
manner such that nonviolent speech and political activity are considered 
dangerous. ... [This] is a blatant contradiction of the right to freedom of 
speech and freedom of opinion guaranteed under international law. If these 
same standards were applied inside Israel, half of the Likud party would be 
in administrative detention."

Administrative detentions and imprisonment of Palestinians from the 
Occupied Territories inside Israel are both illegal under the Fourth Geneva 
Convention.

According to Article 76, "protected persons accused of offenses shall be 
detained in the occupied country, and if convicted they shall serve their 
sentences therein. They shall, if possible, be separated from other 
detainees and shall enjoy conditions of food and hygiene which will be 
sufficient to keep them in good health, and which will be at least equal to 
those obtaining in prisons in the occupied country."

Furthermore, Palestinian prisoners are routinely tortured by Israel and 
held in detention centers and prisons that fail to meet the minimum 
international standards and are routinely denied visitation rights.

Article 1 of the Convention defines torture as "any act by which severe 
pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted 
on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person 
information or confession."

Source: The Daily Star


"Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, 
as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human 
rights should be protected by the rule of law" (From Preamble to the 
Universal Declaration of Human Rights to which Israel is a signatory)



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