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Israel routinely abuses Palestinian prisoners
Posted By Karima Saifullah Torture is defined by the United
Nations Convention Against 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 a
confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has
committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating
or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on
discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is
inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or
acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an
official capacity." Torture doesn't only ruin the
victim's life, but also shake the whole community. It's
therefore an abomination that, although strictly prohibited by
international law, torture is practiced in more than half of
the world's countries. The Palestinians' suffering at the
hands of the Israelis is worse than in any other part of the
world. Recent reports by human rights groups and legal experts
document widespread, systematic violation of international
laws at Israeli detention centers, where several prisoners are
children under the age of 18, most of whom are subjected to
torture, harsh interrogation tactics, physical beatings,
deplorable living conditions and no access to fair trial. A new report by two Israeli human
right groups, released on Sunday, accused the Israeli Security
Agency of routinely abusing Palestinian detainees, saying that
in some cases the ill-treatment amounted to torture. The two right groups, B'Tselem and
the HaMoked Centre for the Defense of the Individual,
questioned 73 Palestinians from the occupied West Bank who
were detained by Israeli forces between July 2005 and January
2006. Most of those interviewed said
they were routinely held in appalling conditions, subjected to
"beatings, painful binding, swearing, humiliation and denial
of basic needs" from the moment of their arrest to their
transfer to the Shin Beth internal security service for
interrogation, the report said, adding that the maltreatment
was intended to "break the spirit" of those who were
being interrogated. Such techniques "are defined by
international law as ill-treatment and may reach the level of
torture," it said. Detainees suspected of possessing
information that could prevent attacks against Israel are
subjected to the harshest treatment, the rights groups said.
The abusive techniques include sleep deprivation for more than
24 hours, beatings, and shackling prisoners in painful
positions. One of those questioned said Israeli
interrogators made him arch his back over a bench with his
hands and legs joined in what detainees call "the banana
position". "They brought a chain and used it
to hook together the handcuffs and leg shackles. The way this
made my body stretch was unbearable,'' said the man,
identified as A.Z., 29. "Then the interrogators lifted the
bench from both ends and dropped it suddenly. At that point I
lost consciousness.'' Such measures defy a 1999 ruling by
Israel's Supreme Court which outlawed what the Shin Bet
security service call "moderate physical pressure,'' such as
sleep deprivation, exposure to extreme temperatures and tying
up detainees in painful positions. The rights groups criticized the
Supreme Court's ruling as ambiguous, because it stated that
members of the security service who abused detainees may be
exempted from criminal liability if they believed that the
people they were interrogating had information about an
imminent "terrorist act". "These measures are defined as
torture under international law. Their use is not negligible,
even if not routine," the report said. Defending the illegal techniques,
Israel's justice ministry condemned the report as
unrepresentative and inaccurate. But the rights groups said: "The
testimonies provided a snapshot of the treatment of
Palestinian detainees… We are convinced that they represent
a valid indication of the frequency of the phenomena." What's more shocking is that at
least 500 prisoner abuse complaints have been filed against
the security service since 2001, but not one criminal
investigation has been opened, the report said, urging the
Shin Beth to immediately stop using harsh interrogation
techniques "that injure the dignity or physical
integrity" of prisoners and to back the ban with
legislation. "Like murder, rape and slavery,
torture is a form of absolute evil that justifies the
imposition of an absolute prohibition,'' the report said.
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