August 28, 2008 at 05:16:15

Torture As Official Israeli Policy

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By Stephen Lendman (about the author) Page 11 of 14 page(s)

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-- sharp twisting of the head sideways or backwards as well as painful twisting of arms, wrists and hands under conditions when they're tied to backs or other parts of chairs;

-- the painful and injury prone "frog" crouch on tiptoes with hands cuffed behind the back;

-- the "banana" position involving bending the back in a painful arch while extending the body horizontally to the floor on a backless chair - with arms and feet bound beneath it;

-- cuffing behind the back and shackling legs in the "shabah" position - a prolonged, painful binding of detainees' hands and feet to a standard-sized unupholstered, metal frame, rigid plastic chair fixed to the floor with no armrests;

-- using informer-collaborators to get information;

-- prolonged isolation, including psychologically harmful solitary confinement in tiny cells under painfully oppressive conditions designed to crush human resistance; as well as

-- cursing, humiliating and degrading treatment, strip searches, physical threats, and other practices designed to soften up detainees for questioning.

NGOs also harshly criticize Israeli prison conditions and family hardships faced to visit loved ones. Restrictions are onerous:

-- only first-degree relatives may come; and

-- male visitors between 16 and 35 are severely restricted; brothers get only one visit a year and sons only two; wives are also restricted; and

-- families need ICRC transport help to visit prisoners inaccessible to them otherwise because of distances involved and travel prohibitions.

UAT believes that human rights violations "are at the heart of the Middle East conflict" and directly affect "Israel's own stability and security." Yet Israel won't discuss them, and little compliance pressure is applied because of the country's "special status" with the EU and, of course, Washington. As a result, in spite of persistent human rights violations, the US turns a blind eye, and EU countries prefer dialogue to punishment, including sanctions against Israel with teeth.

Palestinians throughout the Territories lose out, but Hamas and Gazans under siege feel it most. They believe the international community and fellow Arab states abandoned and betrayed them and are leaving them to rot in spite of EU member states pledging billions to help build a Palestinian state at the December 2007 Paris Conference. Given Israel's alliance with the West, past pledges made and broken, and current conditions in Occupied Palestine, it's hard to imagine any of these funds going for meaningful improvements on the ground. It's easy to believe they'll finance Israel's security state and harm Palestinian interests.

UAT underscores the problem this way:

"Israel's sensitivity (in) dealing with....human rights (issues) and the problem of torture and ill-treatment makes any dialogue on these matter particularly slow and complex...." So much so that EU member states "may become overly reluctant to raise such issues systematically, consistently and firmly, notwithstanding their legal and political duty to put human rights in the centre of their foreign and security policy."

Dialogue nonetheless is ongoing. Human rights are addressed, but "apparently not the subject of torture and ill-treatment....Given the political realities in Israel and the OPT, progress in preventing and eradicating torture and ill-treatment must be regarded as a mid-and-long-term goal" in spite of modest NGO successes.

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I am a 72 year old, retired, progressive small businessman concerned about all the major national and world issues, committed to speak out and write about them.

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