August 28, 2008 at 05:16:15

Torture As Official Israeli Policy

SAVE AS FAVORITE

VIEW FAVORITES

By Stephen Lendman (about the author) Page 3 of 14 page(s)

opednews.com Permalink

The Landau Commission condemned the practice but approved the Penal Law's "necessary defense" provision (in violation of international law) and sanctioned "psychological and moderate physical pressure" to obtain evidence for convictions in criminal proceedings. It said coercive interrogation tactics were necessary against "hostile (threats or acts of) terrorist activity" and all expressions of Palestinian nationalism.

Israel's High Court of Justice (HCJ) legitimized coercive interrogations in three 1996 cases - by plaintiffs Bilbeisi, Hamdan and Mubarak for interim injunctions against abusive General Security Service (GSS - now the Israeli Security Agency or ISA) practices. Ones cited included violent shaking, painful shackling, hooding, playing deafeningly loud music, sleep deprivation, and lengthy detainments. After due consideration, the HCJ ruled painful shackling illegal, but not the other practices.

Israel claims it never uses torture and complies with international laws and norms. International law experts, the UN Committee Against Torture, and sources like B'Tselem, United Against Torture (UAT), and the Public Committee against Torture in Israel (PCATI) disagree.

So does Dr. Afi Rabs in testimony to Israel's High Court on 14 Palestinian prisoners. They were all detained for trivial offenses like stone-throwing and tire-burning and weren't "ticking bombs." Yet they all were tortured as one detainee explained:

"I was shackled in iron cuffs that entered my flesh, and a bag was put on my head as a certain music roared in my ears and almost deafened me. They used to beat me up and kick me, and my body was full of wounds and bruises. After that I was sent to a doctor who asked me if I was tortured, and I said yes, but he didn't reply or say something. Then I was taken back and tortured again."

PCATI petitioned the HCJ, and it responded with a landmark September 1999 ruling. It reversed the Landau Commission's recommendations, barred the use of torture against detainees, but left a giant loophole. It ruled that pressure and a measure of discomfort are legitimate interrogation side-effects provided they're not used to break a detainee's spirit. But it sanctioned physical force in "ticking time bomb" cases in direct violation of international laws allowing no exceptions under any circumstances. Moreover, Israeli security forces routinely claim detainees are security threats enough to justify its interrogation practices.

In November 2001, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights disagreed. It issued "Conclusions and Recommendations of the Committee against Torture" and addressed the 1999 HCJ ruling in the case of the Public Committee against Torture in Israel v. the State of Israel. It held that: "the use of certain interrogation methods by the Israel Security Agency (ISA) involving the use of 'moderate physical pressure' was illegal as it violated constitutional protection of the individual's right of dignity....While recognizing the right of Israel to protect its citizens from violence, it reiterates that no exceptional circumstances may be invoked as justification of torture" or abusive interrogation practices.

Since its 1967 occupation, the Palestinian peace and justice group MIFTA estimates that over 650,000 Palestinians have been imprisoned - or the equivalent of about one-sixth of today's Occupied Palestinian population. Currently, Israeli security forces hold around 10 - 12,000 Palestinian men, women and children detainees under deplorable conditions and many administratively without charge. According to human rights organizations like B'Tselem, Hamoked, UAT and PCATI, up to 85% are subjected to torture and abusive treatment.

PCATI's June 2008 Torture Report

PCATI is a 1990-founded "independent human rights organization" that monitors and decries "the use of torture in (Israeli) interrogations (and works for its) complete prohibition." It also provides legal counsel, aids victims, and helps lawyers representing them.

Its June 2008 report is titled "No Defense: Soldier Violence against Palestinian Detainees." It begins with a question asked Brig. General Yossi Bachar (former commander of Israel's Paratrooper Brigade) at the trial of one of his soldiers accused of abusing a Palestinian detainee: "How common is the phenomenon of beating shackled Palestinian prisoners?"

His answer: " Unfortunately I want to admit something that we are not fully aware of. These cases are not all that exceptional in their quantity....to my great regret. Many of them are not the subject of any complaint and are cloaked in various kinds of conspiracies of silence," only revealed years later and "usually only through anonymous statements...."

PCATI and other human rights organizations break the silence publicly:

-- "to describe the scope and frequency of (torture);"

-- its "moral, legal, and practical gravity;

-- to publicize (it);

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14

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.

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author
and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.