Palestinians 'routinely tortured' in Israeli jails

Palestinians detained by Israeli security forces are routinely tortured and ill-treated, according to a new report published by Israeli human rights groups on May 6. The ill-treatment, which includes beatings, sensory deprivation, back-bending, back-stretching and other forms of physical abuse, contravenes international law and Israeli law, the report says. The Center for the Defense of the Individual and B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, compiled the report after interviewing 73 Palestinians who had been arrested in 2005 and 2006. The report found that almost 50 percent of detainees who were arrested in raids or at random were beaten by the army or police before they were handed over to the Shin Bet security agency for interrogation. The prisoners were interrogated for an average of 35 days and spent most of their time in tiny cells in solitary confinement. They were interrogated from five to 10 hours a day. More than half did not see a lawyer or representative of the Red Cross for the whole period of interrogation. The report found that prisoners were effectively starved by being offered food designed to appear rotten or unappetizing. Their only exercise was the walk from the cell to the interrogation room during which they were shackled, handcuffed and blindfolded. In some cases more extreme treatment was used. One in five detainees were deprived of sleep for up to three days and a quarter were beaten by their interrogators. Israel's justice ministry said Shin Bet interrogations were carried out in accordance with the law, although it declined to comment on the "interrogation techniques" detailed in the report. The methods for trying to extract information include solitary confinement "in putrid, stifling cells," the painful binding of a detainee's hands and feet to a chair, sleep disturbance, cursing and humiliation, the report said. Such practices, the groups said, constitute "ill-treatment" under international law and violate an Israeli Supreme Court ban against interrogation methods aimed at breaking a detainee's spirit. In the cases of "ticking bombs," a reference to Palestinians suspected of having information about an imminent attack on Israelis, the Shin Bet also uses "special methods" that mostly involve direct physical violence, according to the findings. The abuse includes beatings, sleep deprivation and forcing detainees into a "frog" crouch on their tiptoes or bending them backwards in a "banana position" while they were seated on a backless chair, the report said. "These measures are defined as torture under international law," said the groups, which define their mission as protecting Palestinian human rights in Israeli-occupied territory. "Their use is not negligible, even if not routine." Israel's legal authorities, the report said, received more than 500 complaints of Shin Bet ill-treatment since 2001 but did not carry out a single criminal investigation. Israel's Supreme Court, citing its opposition to torture, said in a landmark ruling in 1999 the Shin Bet did not have legal authority to use "physical means" of interrogation that are not "reasonable and fair" and cause the detainee to suffer. "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 one man interviewed, identified as A.Z., 29. "Then the interrogators lifted the bench from both ends and dropped it suddenly. At that point I lost consciousness." Israel's Justice Ministry described the report as badly flawed. B'Tselem research director Yehezkel Lein, the report's author, said, "We are convinced that they represent a valid indication of the frequency of the phenomena." B'Tselem called on Israeli authorities to immediately order a halt to interrogation methods that cause bodily harm or strike at human dignity, and to back the ban with legislation. It delivered its recommendations to the Justice Ministry, Israeli lawmakers and international organizations. "Like murder, rape and slavery, torture is a form of absolute evil that justifies the imposition of an absolute prohibition," the report said. International law is clear in prohibiting ill-treatment or torture, and it allows for no extenuating circumstances.