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Israel tortures 85% of Palestinian detainees
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
sent by Steven L. Robinson - activ-l
Countercurrents.org - 14 November, 2007
http://www.countercurrents.org/lendman141107.htm
Torturing Palestinian Detainees
By Stephen Lendman
B'Tselem is the conservative Israeli Information Center for Human
Rights in the Occupied Territories with a well-deserved reputation for
accuracy. A group of prominent academics, attorneys, journalists and
Knesset members founded the organization in 1989 to "do***ent and
educate the Israeli public and policymakers about human rights
violations in the Occupied Territories, combat the phenomenon of denial
prevalent among the Israeli public, and help create a human rights
culture in Israel" to convince government officials to respect human
rights and comply with international law.
Its work covers a wide range of human rights issues that include
detentions and torture. In May, 2007, it prepared a detailed 100 page
re****t titled "Absolute Prohibition: The Torture and Ill-treatment of
Palestinian Detainees" that's now available in print for those who
request it. This article summarizes its findings that represent a joint
effort by B'Tselem and HaMoked: Center for the Defense of the
Individual that was founded in 1988 to sup****t Palestinian rights
during the first intifada in the late 1980s.
Since the early 1990s, B'Tselem published more than ten re****ts on
Israelis' use of torture and mistreatment of Palestinian detainees.
This is the latest one in an effort to raise public awareness and help
abolish these abhorrent practices. The findings are based on
testimonies solicited from a small "unrepresentative" sample of 73
Palestinian West Bank residents who were arrested between July, 2005
and January, 2006, agreed to tell their stories, and who met
predetermined criteria for the study.
They were chosen from the names of 4460 Palestinian detainees whose
relatives contacted HaMoked for help to locate their whereabouts.
HaMoked provides this service because Israel violates international law
and its own military regulations by denying family members any
information about who was detained or where they're being held. From
its many years investigating Israeli torture, B'Tselem believes the
information in this re****t accurately reflects the types and extent of
Israeli abusive practices.
Torture, abuse or degrading treatment are abhorrent in any form for any
reason, and long-standing international law forbids these practices
under all cir***stances. The four 1949 Geneva Conventions banned any
form of "physical or mental coercion" and affirmed sick, wounded, war
prisoners and civilians must be treated humanely. All four conventions
have a common thread called Common Article Three that requires all
non-combatants to be treated humanely at all times. There are no
exceptions for any reasons, and violations are grave breaches of Geneva
and other international law that constitute crimes of war and against
humanity.
Nonetheless, the 1987 Landau Commission (headed by retired Israeli
Supreme Court Chief Justice Moshe Landau) cited the "necessary defense"
provision in the Penal Law to recommend using "psychological and
moderate physical pressure," to obtain evidence for convictions in
criminal proceedings. Its justification was that coercive interrogation
tactics were necessary against "hostile terrorist activity" it defined
to include not just threats or acts of violence but all activities
related to Palestinian nationalism.
Later in September, 1999, Israel's High Court of Justice (HCJ)
responded to the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel's petition
(PCATI) and issued a landmark decision (reversing Landau
recommendations) and barred the use of torture against detainees. It
was, however, a hollow gesture as at the same time it ruled pressure
and a measure of discomfort were legitimate interrogation side-effects
but should not be used to break a detainee's spirit. It then added a
giant loophole allowing interrogators to use physical force and avoid
prosecutions in "ticking time bomb" cases even though international law
allows no exceptions, and Israeli authorities could claim that excuse
for anyone in custody.
Since its occupation of Gaza and the West Bank (the OPT) in 1967, Israel
imprisoned over 650,000 Palestinians according to the Palestinian peace
and justice group MIFTA. That's equivalent to about one-sixth of the
OPT's population today. The security services currently hold around ten
to twelve thousand Palestinian men, women and children in its prisons
under deplorable conditions with many under administrative detention
without charge. Based on earlier *****sments by Hamoked, B'Tselem
estimates as many as 85% of them are subjected to torture and
mistreatment in custody even though most of them aren't accused of
terrorism. These practices are routinely and systematically used
against political activists, students accused of being pro-Islam,
sheikhs and religious leaders, people in Islamic charitable
organizations, relatives of wanted individuals or any man, woman or
child Israel targets for any reason.
B'Tselem's May, 2007 re****t states that the Israeli Security Agency
(ISA - formerly called the General Security Service or GSS) admits to
using "exceptional" methods that include "physical pressure" of
interrogation in "ticking bomb" cases that can be used as an excuse to
abuse anyone. In addition, law enforcement officials openly admit harsh
measures are approved retroactively so that Palestinian detainee rights
can be freely violated without fear of recrimination. In other words,
ISA interrogators know the rules - don't ask permission, use any
methods you wish, and don't worry about the consequences after the
fact. There won't be any, and it shows in what detainees told B'Tselem.
They re****ted being "softened up" for interrogation from the moment of
their arrest to when ISA agents took over. Abuses at the outset
included beatings, painful binding, swearing, humiliation and denial of
basic needs. The ISA procedure then included seven key forms of abuse
that violated the detainees' dignity and bodily integrity. They were
inflicted to break their spirit, but international law calls it torture
when it includes verified intent, severe pain or suffering, improper
motive, and involvement of the state. All those conditions apply to
Israeli abusive practices that included:
- -- isolation that prohibited detainees from contact with family, an
attorney or ICRC representatives; this exacerbated detainees' sense of
powerlessness by creating a situation in which they're completely at
the mercy of interrogators; it's also known to cause them serious
psychological harm when continued for extended periods;
- -- psychological pressure from solitary confinement in "putrid, stifling
cells three to six square meters in size" with no windows or access to
daylight and fresh air; a fixed overhead light on 24 hours a day; walls
made of rough plaster making them uncomfortable or impossible to lean
against; a water faucet on one wall and some cells with sinks; a
usually dirty and damp mattress and "filthy putrid" blankets on the
floor; nothing else in cells; reading and writing materials not
allowed; in many cells, toilets were holes in the floor; detainees
denied all human contact except for guards and interrogators.
- -- physical conditions in solitary confinement cells are regulated in
Criminal Procedure Regulations issued by Israel's Minister of Internal
Security with the approval of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice
Committee; they don't apply to "security detainees," however, so cells
have no bed, chairs and most often no sink; nothing else provided
including use of a telephone and right to have visitors provide items;
cells were too small to walk around in, and no daily outside exercise
was allowed;
- -- detainees weakened from lack of physical activity, sleep deprivation
and inadequate food; they're denied basic needs like food and liquids,
medicines or the right to relieve themselves; throughout long hours of
interrogation, they're shackled to a chair unable to move hands or legs
even minimally; they had nutritional deficiencies and food received was
inadequate, cold, improperly cooked, flavorless and often repulsive in
appearance; many detainees resisted eating as long as possible;
- -- shackling in the "shabah" position that's the prolonged and painful
binding of detainees' hands and feet to a standard-sized unupholstered,
metal frame, rigid plastic chair fixed to the floor with no armrests;
hands tightly bound behind the back in adjustable plastic handcuffs and
connected to a ring at the back of the seat to stretch them
uncomfortably below the backrest; legs bound to the chair's front legs;
detainees were unable to get up throughout interrogation that on
average lasted eight consecutive hours without a break and on the first
day ran 12 hours; later in the interrogation period, sessions shortened
to four or five hours;
- -- interrogations only for a small ****tion of this time; for most if it,
interrogators were out of the room; at those times air conditioning
turned up to uncomfortably cold levels; most often only one meal served
during a day's interrogation; very sparing toilet privileges allowed;
nearly all detainees complained of severe back, neck, shoulder, arms
and wrist pain during interrogation; numbness or loss of sensation in
limbs also re****ted; the Israeli High Court of Justice (HCJ) ruled in
1999 that all "shabah" shackling procedures are unlawful since they
violate rules for "reasonable and fair interrogation" and injure
detainees' dignity and well-being; ISA interrogators ignore the ruling
with impunity;
- -- cursing and humiliating strip searches of detainees as well as
shouting, spitting in the face and other related abusive practices;
detainees forced to strip ****d and submit to body searches while being
yelled at and mocked;
- -- intimidations made to include threats of physical torture (called
"military interrogation"), arrest of family members and destruction of
homes;
- -- using informants ("asafirs") to get information that's not abusive as
such but is a very questionable method following preparatory "softening
up."
B'Tselem then discussed "special" interrogation methods that mostly
involve physical violence:
- -- sleep deprivation for 30 to 40 hours during which detainees left
painfully shackled in interrogation rooms; guards frequently awakened
detainees between midnight and 5AM; various type oppressive noises used
at night to interfere with sleep;
- -- use of "dry" beatings that included punching, kicking all parts of
the body, striking with rifle butts and face slapping; detainees hit
with clubs, helmets and other objects; heads slammed against a wall,
floor or hard surface; beatings inflicted when detainees' hands were
bound behind their back, and they were blindfolded; additional beatings
during physical inspections with their hands cuffed;
- -- painful binding with handcuffs or other devices tight enough to cut
off blood flow circulation and cause swelling;
- -- sharp twisting of the head forcefully and suddenly sideways or
backwards;
- -- forced "frog" crouching on tiptoes with cuffed hands behind the back
accompanied by shoving or beating until detainees lost their balance and
fell forward or backward; this method inflicts pain by increasing
pressure on leg muscles and also hurts wrists after falling;
- -- use of forced "banana" position that involves bending the back in a
painful arch while the body is extended horizontally to the floor on a
backless chair with arms and feet bound beneath it.
Prison killings also occur like the October 22 one at the notorious
Ketziot Detention Center in the Negev desert where 2300 Palestinians
are held under very harsh conditions. It happened at 2AM when prison
guards began searching tents and strip-searching inmates in a
deliberate middle of the night provocation. Prisoners resisted and
about 550 members of the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) Metsada riot
dispersal unit responded with excessive force by beating them with
plastic clubs and rifle butts as well as firing rubber-coated bullets,
live ammunition, tear gas and stun grenades that set tents ablaze and
caused as many as 250 inmate injuries and at least nine serious ones.
During the assault, Mohammed Al Ashqar was killed after being shot in
the head.
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) maintains that prisoner
abuse, repressive tactics and killing Palestinians is official Israeli
policy that's become even worse under current IPS director, Beni Kaniak.
PCHR re****ts he instituted these punitive measures:
- -- reductions in food and cleaning materials rations;
- -- additional items prisoners forbidden to have;
- -- confiscated prisoners' money and prevented none sent from families to
reach them;
- -- widespread use of solitary confinement;
- -- periodic movement of prisoners to new facilities to prevent any
sense of stability;
- -- repeated unannounced harsh late night raids like the October 22 one
at Ketziot.
These tactics and Palestinian detainee torture and abuse are condoned
"under the auspices of the Israeli law enforcement system." B'Tselem
re****ted since 2001, Israel's State Attorney's Office got over 500
complaints of these practices but investigated none of them. Overall,
instances of detainee mistreatment are rarely looked into and even
fewer ever result in indictments. Further, despite its 1999 ruling,
Israel's High Court of Justice (HCJ) aids ISA interrogations by
refusing to accept even one of hundreds of petitions brought before it
for redress. HCJ also lets ISA conceal information from detainees that
abusive orders were issued against them or that legal petitions were
filed on their behalf. It further allows evidence obtained under
torture to be used in criminal proceedings.
B'Tselem and HaMoked are committed to ending Israel's use of torture
against Palestinian detainees. They cite the example of the US Army's
September, 2006 Field Manual for Human Intelligence Collector
Operations as a proper guide to conducting interrogations even though
authorized physical and psychological brutality became official
administration policy under George Bush post-9/11. Nonetheless, this
manual covers 18 interrogation methods experience showed work under
varying situations and conditions. They range from establi****ng trust
between interrogator and detainee to the use of ruses and psychological
manipulation. In all cases, they don't involve torture or other
unlawful practices.
It's one thing to have rules and laws and another to abide by them. The
US under George Bush condones and practices "the harshest interrogation
techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency" according to
once secret Department of Justice (DOJ) legal opinions. It's no
different in Israel where the ISA systematically and routinely uses
banned interrogation measures with impunity. B'Tselem and HaMoked want
these practices ended and urge the Israeli government to halt them by
enacting enforceable laws "strictly prohibiting torture and cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment" in accordance with international law.
They further recommend every complaint of abuse and torture be
investigated by an independent body, persons found to have broken the
law to be prosecuted, and that "every detainee receives minimum humane
conditions." Israel claims to be a civilized state. It's about time it
acted like one.
*
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