Examples of Israeli Ruthlessness

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

Israeli viciousness occurs daily throughout the Occupied Territories - ignored by US media scoundrels, supporting a gangster state instead of condemning its high crimes.

In late October,  B'Tselem reported on lawless Israeli detentions of Palestinian teens - part of its diabolical intimidation and persecution of defenseless Arab families, including their children.

B'Tselem: "Palestinian teenagers from East Jerusalem are pulled out of bed in the middle of the night, unnecessarily handcuffed and then made to spend a long time waiting for their interrogation to begin."

Exhausted and scared, abusive questioning begins. Most often unaware of why they're detained, children are isolated from parents and legal counsel - most often followed by harsh detention for days or weeks, facing "threats, verbal and physical abuse - before or during the interrogation," said B'Tselem.

Parents are powerless and frantic, separated from their children, denied contact, not told what's going on.

Detainees "find themselves in a threatening and bewildering situation," isolated under hostile conditions. 

"No one explains to them where they are being taken, what they are suspected of, what their rights are, who they may confer with, how long the process will take and when they will return to their families and homes," B'Tselem explained.

Many involuntarily sign confessions in Hebrew they don't understand following intense pressure - used to indict them unjustly.

B'Tselem: "What we are dealing with is not a few individual rogue interrogators or prison guards who defy regulations." 

"Rather it is a case of a plain and clear policy followed by the various authorities: the police who carry out the arrests; the IPS (Israel Prison Service) which keeps the boys incarcerated in harsh conditions; and finally, the courts, where judges virtually automatically extend the boys' custodial remand, even in cases when the arrest was unwarranted to begin with, even when the interrogation is already over, and even in cases of boys complaining of being subjected to physical abuse."

Mostly boys are targeted, some girls. Israel treats children as harshly as adults. Binding international Convention on the Rights of the Child provisions are ignored. So is Israel's Youth Law.

When it comes to Palestinians, Israeli authorities do what they please.

Abuses include lawless arrests, painful restraints, harsh interrogations in isolation, often at night. 

Rights of detainees are ignored, including the right to remain silent, the right to counsel, the parental right of contact with their children and to be present during interrogations, emotionally stressing isolation, deplorable detention conditions, and other abuses.

Israel wants East Jerusalem entirely Judaized, brutalizing and intimidating Palestinians to leave voluntarily or by forced displacement.

Separately on November 13, Haaretz columnist Amira Hass reported on the IDF "order(ing) some 300 Palestinians who have lived for decades in the northern Jordan Valley to remove all their property from the area."

It's part of longstanding Israeli ethnic cleansing, forcefully displacing Palestinians, stealing their land, wanting it for exclusive Jewish development - one of many examples of how apartheid ruthlessness works.

For the first time, the IDF used military order authorization meant for "evacuat(ing) unauthorized settlement outposts," Hass explained.

The order is officially called a "declaration of delimited land," barring anyone from "entering the specified area for purposes of construction and mandates the removal of all property from that area within eight days of the day the notice was posted," Hass added.

Attorney Tawfique Jabareen called what's going on "a mass expulsion order against the Palestinian population that violates international law."

Rule of law principles never interfere with whatever Israel wants to do - no matter how harsh or lawless.

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