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From: MER FlashBack <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Torture in Israel - MER FlashBack
Date: Wednesday, January 13, 1999 12:53 PM
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M I D - E A S T R E A L I T I E S
News, Information, & Analysis That Governments, Interest Groups,
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MER FLASHBACK - 3rd Week January 1997:
ISRAELI TORTURE IS SYSTEMATIC AND "LEGAL"
[MER - Torture of Palestinians is not only routine and systematic, in
it actually sanctioned by the Israeli legal system that has been
twisted to serve Israeli policies. Going back to the Shinbet scandal
of the early 1980's, even more sadistic forms of torture have given
way to the kinds of 'legalized' torture methods outlined in this
important article from one of the few independent and courageous
media sources in Israel, The Alternative Information Center (AIC).
Among the reasons the Israelis get away with such systematic torture
of Palestinians is that hardly anyone is willing to protest. The so-
called "Palestinian Authority" practices similar and even worse
torture techniques, as do nearly all of the Arab governments in the
region -- so they are hardly in a position to protest. And the
"liberal" American Jewish community has been morally bankrupt about
such issues for so long now that to speak up at this point would be to
condemn themselves for permitting, and even encouraging in many cases,
such Nazi-like behavior by the Israelis for decades.]
ISRAELI JUSTICE ON TORTURE
A Shining Light Unto Nations?
"The entire Israeli establishment
countenances torture..."
First, his head is covered with a thick rancid sack. Its difficult to
breathe. Handcuffed, he is bound in a twisted position to a
kindergarten chair with hardly any back support and held there for
four days straight. Every time his head falls when sleep overcomes
him, he is slapped on his face to wake up. Maybe on the fifth day the
handcuffs are removed and he is allowed to sleep in a tiny windowless
cell. Music is blaring in the cell around the clock. It is difficult
to sleep with noise and the constant glare of the shining fluorescent
light. On the sixth or seventh day, his head is covered again with the
rancid sack, but this time, he is chained to a pole in the corridor
and made to stand there for four more days. Or perhaps, he is
handcuffed to a hook a meter from the ground and is forced to squat
for three days; three days continuously that is. Or he is undressed
and made to sit in front of a blasting air-conditioner for hours.
There is no sleep. His hands are swollen from the tight handcuffs; he
is vomiting from the prolonged contorted position he is held
in. He smells, unshaven, he wants to sleep.
This is moderate physical pressure under Israeli law and it is
legal. Under international law this is torture and is completely
prohibited at all times. This moderate physical pressure is
routinely used by the Israeli secret police (GSS) to extract
confessions from Palestinian detainees under interrogation. The UN
Convention Against Torture, of which Israel is a signatory, states
that the use of any physical or psychological pressure which causes
pain or humiliation is absolutely prohibited at all times.
What constitutes torture and degrading treatment is subjective --
determined by the victims sensation of the physical and mental pain
caused to him. Sitting in front of cold air may not on its face
compare to torture methods like electric shock, but after two weeks of
little sleep and sitting in contorted positions, undressed in the
middle of the rainy winter, 12 hours of the air conditioner feels
like hell. One detainee described it as putting the air in a state of
war with me.
