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<font size=3><br><br>
<br>
</font><h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5><b>NRC, 3.7.2004
</b></font></h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=2><b>Translated
into English <br><br>
By Chana Arnon<br><br>
<br><br>
<br><br>
SMARTER THAN THE GUARDS AT ABU GHRAIB<br><br>
Torture of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons<br><br>
</b></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3> <br><br>
Oscar Garschagen<br><br>
<br><br>
Earsplitting music, sleep deprivation, spoiled food, beatings, endless
interrogations, solitary confinement, extreme heat and cold, detention
without trial for months on end, no visiting rights. These are forms of
“physical and psychological pressure” applied by the Israeli army and
security services in their hunt after “ticking bombs.” How far can a
democracy go in the battle against real and imaginary terrorists? And at
what price?<br><br>
<br><br>
<b><i>Madalla<br><br>
</i></b> <br><br>
Sighing and shedding a tear here and there, Madalla, frail, traditional,
but tastefully dressed in a head scarf of expensive silk, rings on both
hands, tells us of her experiences with the Shabak (General Security
Services – GSS). For sixty days Madalla didn’t see anyone. Sick with
worry and spoiled food, suffering from a permanent headache from
exhaustion, unwashed and soiled from top to toe, Madalla was not allowed
to see a lawyer, or friends and family, only her interrogators. One
exception to this was the day she was shown her husband sitting behind a
glass wall: “He was slumped in a chair, bound and beaten. They wanted to
put him under pressure, to break him. He was only half
conscious.”<br><br>
<br><br>
Shortly afterwards she was transferred to the women's prison of
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Israel, Neve
Tirtza. There she spent another 120 days in an overcrowded room with
Palestinian and Israeli women, some of them with babies. Then, suddenly,
she was released. That was two months ago. She just heard that her
husband was sentenced to seven years in prison in a closed chamber trial.
Details concerning the charge, except for membership in Hamas, are not
available. The only thing she knows is that she will see him again in
their luxurious apartment in Ramallah in 2011 at the earliest. Visiting
is impossible since she will not be able to pass the Israeli checkpoint
and road blocks and won’t be able to get a permit to visit her husband in
the Negev desert prison facilities under the auspices of the Red Cross.
Her daughter in Chicago wants her to come to the US, “but I can’t
leave my husband and children and my country just like that.”<br><br>
<br><br>
<b><i>Mosquitoes and rats <br><br>
</i></b> <br><br>
Madalla is one of 31,000 Palestinians who have been interrogated by the
army and the GSS since the year 2000. Her husband is one of 8,362
detainees (according to numbers published this week) in the military
prisons (3,962) or the Israeli Prison Authority (4,400). A new record and
a spectacular increase, since at the end of 1999 there were only 802
Palestinians in Israeli prisons. <br><br>
<br><br>
Israeli prisons are the same for all: Israeli murderers, drug dealers
etc. and Palestinians. Barely adequate, bordering on cruel is the
description given by an Israeli authority, the Office of Public Defense,
to portray the situation in the political as well as the ordinary
prisons. Prisons are full to overflowing, hygienic conditions are
deplorable, kitchens are filthy, mosquitoes and rats are rampant, there
are not enough beds, not enough mattresses, lighting is insufficient as
is ventilation, etc. Twelve to sixteen prisoners in a cell of 4x4 meter
(Russian Compound), no recreation or airing facilities, no visitor
facilities and always problems with lawyer access is the norm. Most
Palestinians have not had visitors for years since their families are
considered to pose a security risk, or are of the “wrong” age (men and
women between the ages of 15-50 can never get a permit), or simply can
not face the long wait at the checkpoints. <br><br>
<br><br>
Since the Six-day War of 1967, 650,000 Palestinians, some 20% of the
total population and 40% of the Palestinian males have spent time in
prison. Of the 8,329 prisoners now in prison, 1941 have “blood on their
hands” according to the army; 477 of those have been sentenced to more
than one consecutive life sentence. The number of “administrative
detainees” – prisoners who are incarcerated for months and sometimes
years without charge – is 1150. With the rise in numbers, the complaints
of cruelty during arrest by the army and the border police as well as
torture during interrogation by the GSS also increase.<br><br>
<br><br>
“Since 2000, with the start of the second intifada, we are witnessing a
spectacular rise in the number of arrests as well as the use of
interrogation methods which we consider to be torture. Madalla’s story
fits in a pattern which we also record” says Hannah Friedman of the
Public Committee Against Torture in Israel. Friedman, originally from the
Netherlands, and her colleague at the time, Professor Stanley Cohen, won
a protracted lawsuit at the Supreme Court of Israel in September 1999 in
which practically all forms of torture in interrogations of terrorists
and pseudo-terrorists was prohibited. Before 1999, the army and the
security services had to keep to secret instruction from 1987 which
prescribed that detainees could be subjected to “moderate physical and
psychological pressure”. The word torture was not used, but in practice
that’s what it was and it was supported by successive prime
ministers.<br><br>
<br><br>
“When interrogators of the Shabak deal with a Palestinian they consider a
“ticking bomb”, they can use physical pressure and ask for authorization
afterwards. This has to come from the highest office of justice in the
country and they defend the right to use these torture techniques,” says
Friedman. Physical pressure includes prolonged interrogation in the
interest of national security, sleep deprivation justified by the acute
threat to the country, and tying down of the prisoner in order to
guarantee the safety of the interrogators. In reality these measures are
used for harsh interrogations.<br><br>
<br><br>
Friedman: “after the specific illegalization of torture in 1999, the
security services largely kept to the new rules, but after the massive
suicide attacks of 2000, 2001, 2002, the torture techniques were again
employed. For instance, physical shaking up, slapping with a flat hand in
a very painful manner, tying backwards on a chair or bench or in a cage
were used again.”<br><br>
<br><br>
The Shabak, which answers directly to the prime minister, is not willing
to react to Friedman’s allegations. However, the director of the security
services, Avi Dichter, has affirmed in the media that every year some 90
Palestinians are considered “ticking bombs” and are therefore allowed to
be interrogated under “physical pressure”.<br><br>
<br><br>
Friedman’s organization thinks this number is higher. They base their
assessment on affidavits given under oath and on official declarations
checked by lawyers and physicians. “We think the real figure is in the
hundreds per year. We think that torture has become the norm again, a
norm carried out in an orderly and institutional fashion,” says Friedman.
<br><br>
<br><br>
“The Israeli public is of the opinion that there are fewer attacks and
that everything is allowed in order to prevent them. In addition, most
Israelis think that the Palestinians lie when they say they are tortured.
But we control the declarations very carefully. When someone alleges that
his arm was broken during interrogation, but cannot show an X-ray, we
don’t go into it” says Friedman, who does understand the “ticking bomb”
argument but does not accept it as valid. “After all is said and done,
that is of no importance. Israel signed the 1991 UN-Convention against
torture but does not comply with it. The Israeli High Court prohibited
all forms of torture in 1999, except, alas, for a few. A democratic
country, a Jewish state, Israel, with a history of Holocaust, should
condemn all forms of torture and respect all international treaties. We
should not discredit our society by trampling on internationally
recognized human rights.” And: “We should end the super-expensive and
bloody occupation, with its liquidations and the construction of the
terribly expensive, mad great wall, while there is no money for schools,
hospitals and prisons. Israel, 56 years after its establishment, still
lives with the fear of being annihilated. That is absurd, we have the
largest army in the Middle-East.”<br><br>
<br><br>
<br><br>
<br>
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