[Pnews] International Day to Support Victims of Torture - Calls on the UN to investigate Israel’s gross violations of the Convention against Torture

[Prisoner News]

  ICC: Hold Israel Accountable for its Human Rights Violations

26 June 2014, occupied Ramallah - On the International Day to Support 
Victims of Torture, Addameer calls on the United Nations to assemble a 
fact-finding mission to investigate Israel’s gross violations of the 
Convention against Torture and to hold it accountable in the 
International Criminal Court.
The United Nations Convention against Torture (CAT) defines the term 
torture as “any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical 
or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person.”  Since Israel’s 
ratification of the CAT in 1991, 104 Palestinian political prisoners 
have died at the hands of the Israeli occupation.
The use of torture against Palestinian prisoners is systematic, 
widespread and varies extensively, including: shackling prisoners in 
stress positions, beating them, holding them in isolation or solitary 
confinement, and sleep and sensory deprivation. Children are not spared 
of the torture: in early 2014, 14-year old Rasheed Risheq was attacked 
by Israeli occupation soldiers and police in front of a supermarket in 
the Al-Wad neighborhood in occupied Jerusalem. About ten soldiers jumped 
on him, chocked him to shackle his hands and legs, and held him on the 
ground while they beat him on the head, punched him in the face and 
kicked him in the legs and stomach. He was then interrogated rigorously 
and at length, during which he was strip-searched, held naked in 
isolation, subjected to severe threats on his family, and denied food 
all in an attempt to force him to confess and sign an affidavit in 
Hebrew, a language he does not read or understand. Rishiq’s case is not 
unique: three-fourths of children are subjected to physical violence 
during their arrest. Israel’s practice of torture is unequivocally in 
gross violation of international law, but also a testament to the 
inhuman treatment and conditions that Palestinians, including children, 
face at the hands of Israeli authorities.
Despite Israel’s ratification of CAT, the state continues to debate 
legislation that sanctions the torture of Palestinian prisoners. Most 
recently, the Israeli Knesset is in the process of amending the 
Prisoners Act to allow for the force-feeding of hunger strikers. 
Force-feeding is deemed “never ethically acceptable” and considered as a 
form of torture by the World Medical Association. The blatant disregard 
for the basic humanity of Palestinian prisoners is best illustrated by 
the fact that this legislation was not only debated, but hastened to a 
vote, in the midst of the longest Palestinian mass hunger strike that 
reached 63 days, in protest of the policy of administrative detention.
The widespread use of administrative detention is a form of 
psychological torture. Administrative detention is an Israeli policy 
which allows for the indefinite detention of Palestinians without charge 
or the right to stand trial. They are held on secret information which 
neither they nor their lawyers have access to. Salem Badi, who has spent 
over 6,100 days under administrative detention, testified to the 
psychological pain caused by the policy: “Administrative detention is a 
nightmare that keeps  detainees and their families waiting to be shocked 
by continuous renewals of the administrative detention orders.” Badi, 
who participated in the most recent hunger strike, also testified to the 
severe forms of the hunger strikers were subjected to, including brutal 
physical attacks, solitary confinement and threats of force-feeding. 
Hunger strikers have testified in the past that the doctors tending to 
them dangled feeding tubes in front of them to intimidate and coerce 
them to break their strike. The policy against hunger strikers, which 
includes both torture sanctioned by law and daily practice, is used to 
try to limit the political gains of the hunger strikers.
Israeli law outlaws the use of torture, but a loophole allows for the 
Israeli Security Agency (ISA) to consider an individual as a 
“ticking-bomb” case in “situations of necessity” so they can exert 
“moderate physical pressure” in order to obtain information from them. 
This policy, which is in direct violation of CAT is used extensively 
against Palestinian prisoners. Over 90% prisoners have stated that they 
were subjected to some form of physical or psychological torture during 
interrogation or detention. Arafat Jaradat, a young father of two was 
found dead in his prison cell just days after he was arrested from his 
home in Sa’eer, Hebron. He had several broken ribs, deep bruising on his 
body and other injuries that confirmed his torture.
Jaradat is one of 73 Palestinian prisoners who has died of direct 
torture in Israeli jails, and one of 23 who had died since Israel 
ratified  CAT. At least 27 prisoners have died from medical negligence, 
including Maysara Abu Hamdiyeh, who was denied treatment in 2013. 
Fifty-four prisoners have been killed during their arrest raids or 
during raids in the prison, such as Ziad Joulani, 41 years and from 
occupied Jerusalem, who was killed point-blank during the arrest in 2010 
and Mohammad Ashkar, who was killed by Israeli Special Forces, who shot 
at the prisoners indiscriminately during a raid in Ktziot prison in 2007.
Israel’s use of torture is widespread, systematic and legalized and the 
refusal to ratify the Rome Statue or join the ICC is further evidence of 
their impunity towards international human rights law and standards. The 
intent is clear: Palestinian prisoners are not afforded the right to 
life according to Israeli authorities. On International Day to Support 
Victims of Torture, two weeks into the largest Israeli military 
operation in the West Bank since the second intifada, the time is ripe 
to hold Israel accountable for its flagrant violations of international 
law and the dignity of the Palestinian prisoners.
-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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