[Pnews] Israeli doctors assist in torture of Palestinian prisoners

[Prisoner News]

*https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/israeli-doctors-assist-torture-palestinian-prisoners*

*Israeli doctors assist in torture of Palestinian prisoners*

  Charlotte Silver - 2 April 2016

A growing portion of the Palestinian prisoners held in solitary 
confinement by Israel have gone on hunger strike to protest their 
mistreatment.

And a new report reveals the ways Israeli doctors are helping carry out 
abuses amounting to torture.

As of last Wednesday, three Palestinians serving lengthy prison terms 
were refusing meals.

Nahar Saadi and Isam Ahmad Zein al-Din are protesting being held in 
solitary confinement for three and two years respectively.

Abdullah al-Mughrabi, who announced his hunger strike this week, has 
been held in isolation since February.

Al-Mughrabi was transferred to a solitary confinement cell after he was 
scheduled to be released.

In addition, Sami Janazrah, Imad al-Batran, Abd al-Rahim Sawayfeh and 
Abdul Ghani Safadi are on hunger strike to protest being held without 
charge or trial in accordance with Israel’s widespread use of 
administrative detention, a holdover from British colonial rule.

Forty-three-year old Janazrah, arrested on 15 November 2015, stopped 
eating on 3 March.

That month Israeli authorities extended his administrative detention 
order for an additional four months. These orders can be renewed 
indefinitely in periods of up to six months.

Sawayfeh announced his hunger strike on 24 March. He had previously 
spent 11 years in prison and was released in 2011 as part of that year’s 
prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas.

He was arrested six months ago and, like 670 other administrative 
detainees, has not been charged with any crime.

According to Al-Quds newspaper, last week Sawayfeh refused an offer by 
Israel to deport him to Jordan.

His family reports that he suffers from more than one chronic illness 
that they fear will be compounded by his hunger strike.
Solitary confinement

Over the last two years, Israel has doubled its use of solitary 
confinement for all of its prisoners, both criminal and political, 
according to a new report from Physicians for Human Rights–Israel (PHRI).

While the total number of Palestinians currently in isolation is 
reportedly 14, that figure does not represent the uncounted number of 
Palestinian detainees who are placed in solitary confinement during 
their interrogation or for “punitive” reasons.

“Solitary confinement is chosen for the duration of interrogations 
precisely because of its devastating psychological effects on 
individuals,” the report states.

In 2009, the United Nations Committee against Torture found that Israel 
used isolation against Palestinians to “encourage confessions from 
minors,” as well as to punish violations of prison rules.

PHRI writes that Israel’s secret police agency, the Shin Bet, places 
Palestinians in solitary confinement on the grounds of “protecting state 
security,” often based on secret information that a prisoner cannot appeal.

In 2012, following a mass hunger strike, the Israel Prison Service 
agreed to release Palestinians placed in isolation by the Shin Bet. PHRI 
believes this supports the view that that these placements are arbitrary.

“The real reason behind it was punishment and vengeance,” the report states.
Collusion of Israeli medical professionals

PHRI finds that Israeli healthcare professionals give solitary 
confinement “a medical stamp of approval” despite the World Medical 
Association Declaration of Tokyo prohibiting physicians from taking part 
in any way in torture or cruel punishment.

In 2011, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan Méndez, argued that 
solitary confinement for more than 15 days constitutes torture and can 
result in permanent psychological damage.

PHRI reviewed prisoner medical files and found that prison health 
providers will explicitly state whether a prisoner is “fit for solitary 
confinement” or “there is nothing to prevent solitary confinement in 
this case.”

Medical professionals also visit prisoners held in solitary confinement.

But in spite of the involvement of medical professionals in the process 
of confining prisoners to isolation cells, Israel’s health ministry and 
the Israel Prison Service do not consider the practice a “medical 
matter,” thereby relieving the medical establishment of any 
responsibility to intervene.

Last year, PHRI wrote a letter to the health ministry outlining its 
concerns over prisoners held in solitary confinement. In response, the 
ministry wrote, “From the medical perspective, we see no justification 
for your complaint.”

An update to the World Medical Association’s Declaration of Tokyo in 
2007, which the Israeli Medical Association approved, obliges physicians 
to report any instance of torture they witness.

The Israeli Medical Association claims that the physicians working for 
the prisons are not its members. In a position paper, the IMA 
established that physicians should not sanction solitary confinement 
because “prolonged solitary confinement might have have negative effects 
on the physical and mental health of the prisoner.”

However, the IMA says that physicians are only obliged to intervene to 
end the torture if they are able to “identify some concrete risk to the 
prisoner’s health.”

“This approach fundamentally contradicts the ethical obligations falling 
to physicians,” PHRI writes, stating their duty compels them “to prevent 
damages to their patients and not just stop it after it occurred.”


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