Dear Mr. MacKay and Mr.Harper,
How can Palestinians function normally in society after receiving the kind of
treatment described in the article below? I was reading the same articles about
Israeli torture 30 years ago. And the abuse continues. I'm deeply saddened by
the internal fighting in Gaza and call for humanity, but I recognize the
Palestinian on Palestinian fighting as a result of Israeli occupation and
brutalization, Canadian withdrawal of aid, and US strategic and military
interests in the area.
Susan Howard-Azzeh
Suite 112,
111 Fourth Ave., Ridley Square,
St Catharines, Ontario
L2S 3P5
905-984-6515
Alaaeddin Hammoudeh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Date: Sat, 16 Jun 2007 20:31:27 -0700 (PDT)
From: Alaaeddin Hammoudeh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: 'Now you are paralyzed, as we promised'
To: alaaeddin hammoudeh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Just one example of what goes on in an Israeli dentention facility... there are
roughly 10,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails. A mere piece of reality in 21st
century in the "democratic and free land of Israel" - what hapenned to basic
human rights, international law and the Geneva conventions?
By Haaretz
The twilight zone / 'Now you are paralyzed, as we promised' By
Gideon Levy
"We have to make you do a little sports," the Shin Bet interrogator
said, launching four successive days of questioning accompanied by brutal
physical torture. The result: Luwaii Ashqar can no longer stand on his feet. He
sits in his wheelchair, dressed in a fashionable quasi-military suit,
super-elegant, new Caterpillar-brand shoes on his paralyzed feet.
"I love this color," he says about his uniform. "It's the color of the soldiers
who came to arrest me for the interrogation that did all this to me."
His smile is captivating, his Hebrew rich and incisive. He is a young man whose
world fell apart. He entered prison sound of body and mind and emerged a broken
man. For four days and four nights nonstop, he says, he was interrogated and
subjected to torture of the most brutal kind. The result is the person we see
before us in the wheelchair, in the elegant home high in the village of Saida,
north of Tul Karm, which was placed at his disposal by a friend after he was
released from Israeli prison a month ago.
Was there a judgment by the High Court of Justice? There was. It banned
precisely the types of torture he underwent: the "banana posture," the "shabah"
(body stretching with hands tied to a chair), "invisible" blows and the "frog
posture" (being forced to stand for hours on the toes in a crouching position)
- all the way to a vicious kick to his chest that bent his body backward while
he was tied to a chair with his arms and legs, and which was the probable cause
of the partial paralysis of his legs.
Throwing up with the vomit entering his nostrils, losing consciousness and
being given only saltwater to drink, relieving himself in his pants, not
sleeping or resting - all of that for four consecutive days and nights.
What does the interrogator Maimon tell his children when he goes home? What do
Eldad and Sagiv tell their wives about their daily labors before they turn in?
That they tortured another helpless prisoner until they turned him into a
cripple? That they beat this charming young man brutally and that at the end of
the interrogation he was tried for only marginal offenses? And where is the
Supreme Court, which in 1999 prohibited precisely the chain of torture that
Luwaii Sati Ashqar, 30, who was married three years ago, underwent in the
Kishon detention facility?
Ashqar is not alone. The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel has just
issued a new report containing the testimonies of nine torture victims (English
version: www.stoptorture.org.il//eng ). As the authors of the shocking report
say, the testimonies "paint a dismal picture in which can be discerned various
categories of secret-keeping collaborators, who, in keeping silent, protect the
[Shin Bet] system of torture." ...
On the wall is a picture, a fine drawing of a kneeling prisoner, his head
between his knees. The caption: "I am in the darkness of the prison, living on
your memory. I am far from you, lying in my bed, my spirit cruising your land
all night. God will release all the prisoners, the strong will triumph."
Ashqar is sitting in his wheelchair, his left leg completely enclosed in a
cast, his right leg shaking nonstop. When he tries to get up and lean on his
crutches, he threatens to topple over. "I was married in 2004, and I started to
work in aluminum in the village to provide for my new household. On April 22,
2005, at 2:30 A.M., the soldiers came and started to throw grenades and to
shout for everyone in the house to go outside. They blindfolded me with
whatever they use and handcuffed me. I was taken in a jeep to prison and I was
examined by an army doctor. He looked over my body - no operations, doesn't
take medication, no illnesses. Again I was taken in a military jeep, this time
to Kishon. 'Yehuda, incoming,' the warder said and transferred me to the
interrogation office. They opened my eyes: Good morning. An excellent morning.
One of the interrogators, Maimon, told me: I am responsible for your file. What
file? The one you were arrested for. This is the major, and this
tall guy is the colonel, this is Sagiv and this is Eldad. Eight interrogators.
"They said: We have no time, it will soon be our Passover and you have to
finish everything in a short time. Finish what? You have to tell us what you
have. I don't have anything to tell you. I begged. They said: We know all that
nonsense. We are talking about security. Plans for terrorist attacks at
Passover. I said: I don't understand what you are talking about. They said: The
suicide bomber was at your place. What suicide bomber?
"After two hours of talking they said to me: If you don't give everything you
have, we will have to take it by a different way. What is the different way?
Did you hear of a military interrogation? You might leave here with your body
battered or crippled. I was taken to a military interrogation. Here you pray to
God that you will die, they said, but we won't give you that. We will let you
die only after you spill out what we are looking for. He gave me a prison
uniform and I told him that if I was going to die, I preferred my own clothes.
"They sat me down on a square chair without a back, which was attached to the
floor and had sharp metal ends [sticking up]. My legs were tied to the legs of
the chair with metal cuffs and my hands were tied behind my back with metal
cuffs. One interrogator sat behind me and the other in front of me. The
interrogator opposite me said: We have to give you a little sports, so you will
be able to hold out in the military interrogation. The sports was that they
pushed me backward by the chest, a backward somersault, and I would hold myself
so my bones would not break. After a minute or two I would automatically fall
on the floor, but the interrogator behind me would put his foot on my chest and
press, and the interrogator in front would grab my hands and pull and pull
behind the chair. They kept on like that until I don't know what happened to
me, heat in every part of my body, puking everything I had in my stomach and it
would go into my nostrils. I would wake up when they
poured water on my face. When I woke up, we went back to the same situation.
It went on like this 15-20 times an hour.
"After that they made me crouch on my toes, not letting me lean on the back of
my foot. I was in that position for 40-50 minutes, maybe an hour - that was my
estimate - until I felt my soles swelling and they turned blue and there was
tremendous pain. After that, stand up, and they tied my hands and pressed as
hard as they could on the metal handcuffs until the metal dug into my hand.
Here are the signs, you can still see them. Because of the pressure, the key of
the handcuffs didn't always work and they would bring huge metal scissors, like
they use in construction, and tear off the handcuffs and then bring new ones,
to go on. The color of my hands changed to blue, and when they opened [the
handcuffs] my hands shook. The interrogator stood on the table and pulled me
with a chain of handcuffs. When I fell, they pulled me by the hair.
"I would cry, beg, shout, and they came back to me with words, that it was
impossible to stop, only after you start talking about what we want. I said to
them: Tell me what you want. Tell me I am responsible for the attack on the
Pentagon, I am ready to confess to everything, just tell me what. I want to end
this death."
"There were always four interrogators and two rotated every four hours, day and
night. The new ones would tell me they were stronger than the ones before, that
the ones before were a joke, we are the strong ones. And that was true. The new
ones tied me and started to beat me all over my body. One interrogator pressed
hard on my testicles and on my feet with his shoes. When they slapped me and I
tried to pull back, the major would say: What are you doing? If you move back,
I will break your nose, and if you move forward I will rip off your ear. Be
strong and take it sportingly, because you are a soldier and a fighter. They
broke this tooth."
Ashqar suddenly stops talking. He turns pale and his face is covered with beads
of perspiration. His father, Sati, quickly wipes his face with a damp cloth.
"Every time I try to remember I get dizzy, even when I am alone." Quiet
descends in the room. It will take Ashqar another few minutes to pull himself
together.
"I was taken into detention on Friday morning, and that was the last light of
day I saw before the interrogation. I came out for the first time on Monday
night or before dawn on Tuesday morning. On those long days I sat in a chair
and did not even go to the toilet. So you won't kill yourself, they said. I
urinated in my clothes, and a terrible stench started. For four days I didn't
eat anything. They told me: If we give you something to eat, something will
happen to your stomach and your intestines. Maybe they will explode under the
pressure of the food when we push you backward. You will drink only half a cup
of saltwater. That is what they gave me every time after they bent me and I
vomited. Why with salt? I asked. Give me without salt. No, so nothing will
happen in your stomach and intestines. I would drink it and vomit.
"On Monday evening, they told me that five witnesses had testified that Luwaii
had transported a wanted man. I told them that there was a famous wanted man
named Luwaii Sadi, but my name is Luwaii Sati, and maybe they had mixed us up.
He said to me: Are you saying the Shin Bet is that stupid? We know exactly what
we're doing, and it is all correct. I said: Put me on trial for whatever you
want. He said: Ya'allah, sports again. He pushes me backward in the chair. I
will help you become a story in Palestinian history. He is talking to me and my
head is down below. He pushes strongly with his leg and presses on my chest. I
felt something like an explosion in my body. Like something broke. After that I
don't know what happened. I woke up and they were pouring water on my face.
Again they pushed me backward and again I fainted.
"He said to me: Stand on your feet. I felt that my legs were cold, like pins
and needles in the legs. I said: I can't. He said: Now you are paralyzed. I
said: I guess I am. He said: That is what we promised you and that is what you
want."
"I discovered I had a wound in the back and it was bleeding - because of the
sharp chair - and one of my bones was protruding. Because of the blood and
because of the urine of four days there was such a stench that the interrogator
could not come close to me. He said: Why do you stink like that? I told him:
That is your perfume. A warder took me to the shower and threw me on the floor
and said to me: Ya'allah, you have two minutes to shower. I looked at the
faucet up above and I could not reach it. I pulled down my pants and the
underpants stayed in place. I tried to pull them down - I could do it in front
but behind it was stuck to my back. The two minutes went by and the warder
started to pound on the door. Time's up. I told him: Give me another two
minutes, I can't reach the faucet. He came in and asked: What do you have on
your back? I said: I don't know.
"He called the interrogator and said: Come and see the prisoner. The
interrogator came and asked: What do you have, Luwaii? I said: I don't know
what I have on my back, I can't pull the underpants down and I can't reach the
faucet. He said: Ya'allah, we will go up and finish the story and take you to
the doctor.
"Two warders took me in a Prisons Service vehicle to Rambam [Medical Center in
Haifa]. In emergency, my hands and feet were tied and a Russian doctor asked
me: What hurts you? I told him: My whole body hurts from the interrogation. The
Druze warder said: Shut up. The doctor turned me on the side and stuck a finger
into my ass. I asked him: What are you doing? He said: I am checking whether
you have hemorrhoids. Why didn't you ask me first? I am a professional, he
said. I said: What about the wound on the back? He put ointment there and
dressed it. After 10 minutes I was taken back to interrogation. Again I was
tied to the square chair. The bandage fell off and the wound started to bleed
again. After that, they stopped the military interrogation."
He was interrogated for another two months, but without physical torture. He
was told that his wife had been arrested because of him - a complete
fabrication - and he was given a lie detector test ("the falsehoods machine,"
in his Hebrew). For two weeks he was placed in a cell with stool pigeons. In
the end, he was indicted on only two counts, in Prosecution File 2157/05:
assisting a wanted person to hide and using a forged document. No ticking and
no bomb. Ashqar was sentenced to 26 months in prison and was released a month
ago. In the meantime, his younger brother, Osaimar, disappeared. Soldiers came
to the house looking for him, but he was not there. His family has not seen him
since: He told them that he was not willing to undergo what Luwaii did.
Luwaii is now looking for a way to get medical treatment in Israel or abroad,
after his physician told him that he would not be able to get rehabilitation in
the West Bank. His lawyer told him that the Shin Bet will almost certainly
prevent him from going anywhere.
This is the response received by Haaretz from the Shin Bet:
Luwaii Ashqar was arrested in April 2005, after serious suspicions were raised
against him concerning his involvement in terrorism, including possession of
weapons and assistance to wanted individuals - terror activists from Islamic
Jihad.
One of the suspicions was that he had provided accommodation, ahead of a
terrorist act, for Sirhan Sarhan, the perpetrator of the attack in Kibbutz
Metzer, who murdered Revital Ohayon and her two children, Noam and Matan, of
blessed memory.
The suspect was tried and convicted in a plea bargain, and sentenced to 14
months in prison and another 14 months in prison stemming from a pending
conditional sentence, so that all told he was sentenced to 26 months in prison.
In addition, he received a 28-month suspended sentence.
His interrogation was carried out according to the rules and directives, with
constant review of the interrogation process.
During the interrogation, the above-named put forward medical complaints, which
were examined and treated by the appropriate medical authorities, including an
examination he underwent in hospital.
It should be noted that during the interrogation he did not cite medical
complaints of the same seriousness as those mentioned in the query.
Complaints relating to his interrogation, from, among other sources, the
Committee Against Torture and the Red Cross, were referred to the State
Prosecutor's Office for examination, which ordered an examination by the
Ombudsman of Interogees' Complaints.
The examination of the complaints did not turn up any excesses in the
interrogation, and in the wake of this, the official in charge of the OIC in
the State Prosecutor's Office decided to close the examination file.
---------------------------------
Be a PS3 game guru.
Get your game face on with the latest PS3 news and previews at Yahoo! Games.
---------------------------------
The best gets better. See why everyone is raving about the All-new Yahoo! Mail.
