Israeli Torture of Palestinian Detainees

by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)

Israel wages war on Palestinians for not being Jewish.

Falsely portraying them as gun-toting terrorists, they're persecuted for their faith, ethnicity, and at times prominence and activism.

They're lawlessly hunted down, rounded up, held in detention, kept in isolation, restricted in their right to counsel, administratively detained uncharged, or tried on secret evidence.

Pronounced guilty by accusation, they're extrajudicially held, tortured and otherwise abused for praying to the wrong God.

On Monday, Haaretz reported that Israeli Arab Nazareth citizens were unlawfully arrested and detained on the phony charge of rioting during IDF aggression on Gaza last month.

They said police "ordered them to sit on the floor with their heads bowed and proceeded to beat them with various objects." 

They were painfully handcuffed and denied medical treatment. 

Omaiyer Lawabne said he was arrested, detained, and brutalized despite being uninvolved in protest activity, adding:

"I felt like I was going to die."

Handcuffed from behind, seated on the floor with heads ordered face down, he and others were brutally beaten.

"I started to scream," he said.

Another Arab detainee said he and many others were beaten with batons and kicked repeatedly.

Falsely charged with rioting, arson, assaulting an officer, and disturbing the peace in Nazareth Magistrates Court, no evidence supported the phony charges.

A released detainee called what happened in the police station "a madhouse."

Despite having committed no offenses, Arab detainees were brutally beaten for not being Jews.

A police spokesperson denied reality by dismissing accusations of beatings, typical of how Jewish state tyranny operates.

Torture and abuse of Occupied Palestinians and Israeli Arab citizens is longstanding Jewish state practice.

When wrongfully detained on phony charges, brutal interrogations routinely include beatings, painful binding and shackling, swearing, humiliation, denial of food, water, medical treatment and other basic needs, sleep deprivation, isolation under appalling conditions, and other forms of physical violence, torture and abuse.

Palestinian children are as brutally mistreated as adolescents and adults.

Virtually never informed of their right of silence and other legal rights, they're denied access to lawyers and family members during interrogations.

Victims report being "softened up" for brutal interrogation straightaway when arrested.

Common practices inflict pain and suffering to break the spirit of detainees.

Psychological pressure is exerted from solitary confinement in what detainees call putrid, stifling cells three to six square meters in size.

They're windowless with no access to daylight and fresh air.

A fixed overhead light stays on round-the-clock.

Bedding includes what's described as a dirty, damp mattress and filthy putrid blankets on the floor, nothing else in cells.

Reading and writing materials aren't allowed.

In many cells, toilets are holes in the floor.

Detainees are denied all human contact except for guards and interrogators.

They're ill-treated by sleep deprivation, inadequate food and liquids, as well as lack of medical treatment.

Throughout long hours of interrogation, they're shackled to a chair, unable to move hands or legs.

Shackling in the shabah position is commonplace.

It includes painful binding of detainees' hands and feet to a standard-sized unupholstered, metal frame, rigid plastic chair fixed to the floor with no armrests. 

Hands remain tightly bound behind the back in adjustable plastic handcuffs.

They're connected to a ring at the back of the seat to stretch them uncomfortably below the backrest. 

Legs are bound so detainees are unable to stand throughout interrogation.

It continues for hours without a break — at times for days under maximum discomfort conditions.

Most detainees complain of severe back, neck, shoulder, arms and wrist pain from the ordeal, as well as numbness or loss of sensation in limbs.

In 1999, Israel's Supreme Court banned shabah shackling.

It continues anyway, including humiliating cursing, strip and body cavity searches, shouting, spitting, threats, and other forms of intimidation.

B'Telsem earlier explained Israeli torture and abuse during interrogations, saying the following:

"(C)ruel, inhuman and degrading treatment (amounting to torture during) interrogations persists with the aid and backing of the Israel Prison Services (and) attorney general."

Even though Israel's Supreme Court banned "painful binding, shaking, placing a sack on a person's head for prolonged periods of time…sleep deprivation," and other forms of brutal mistreatment when detained, these practices continue anyway because nothing is done to hold responsible individuals responsible for what constitutes crimes against humanity.

At the same time, the High Court ruled that agents employing brutal "physical pressure" may not be held criminally responsible in so-called "ticking bomb" cases based on alleged "necessity defense" — that virtually never exists.

Research by B'Tselem and likeminded human rights groups reported that the "ticking bomb" exception became "standard interrogation policy."

"(I)n blatant violation of international law and basic moral standard," torture and other forms of abuse are regularly used against Palestinians during interrogation — as well as other times while detained.

Hundreds of complaints after the fact failed to halt what continues routinely.

Israel calls itself a civilized democratic state (sic).

Its contempt for the rule of law brutality prove otherwise.

VISIT MY WEBSITE: stephenlendman.org (Home - Stephen Lendman). Contact at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

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"Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity"

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