Vermonters
for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel
Prisoners Archive - April 2008
Treatment of Prisoners and Detainees by Israel and Others
Prisoners Archive - April 2008
Treatment of Prisoners and Detainees by Israel and Others
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for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel Prisoners Archive - April 2008 Treatment of Prisoners and Detainees by Israel and Others |
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Custody death man was tortured, report reveals Ma’an News Agency 4/30/2008 Hebron – Ma’an – A Hamas member who died in custody at the Palestinian general intelligence service headquarters in Ramallah in the central West Bank was tortured, a fact-finding report revealed on Wednesday. Majd Al-Barghouthi was found dead in his cell in a Ramallah prison on February 23. Fatah-affiliated security services said he died of natural causes, but Hamas claimed he was badly beaten before his death." Barghouthi was subjected to different kinds of torture including physical and psychological torture," the fact-finding report, compiled by the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens Rights, claimed. The report also documented a series of failures on the part of the Palestinian security services. According to the report, during Barghouthi’s apprehension and detention legal procedures were not followed. Unidentified virus infects several detainees in Al Ramla Prison Hospital Saed Bannoura, International Middle East Media Center News 4/30/2008 The Ahrar Center for Detainees Studies reported that an unidentified virus infected several detainees who are already sick and hospitalized at the Al Ramla Israeli prison hospital which already lacks the basic equipment. The Center added that it received a letter from one of the detainees who was receiving treatment at the hospital before he was transferred to Ofer Prison. The detainee said in his letter that this virus infected several detainees while the hospital was unable to identify it. The virus apparently infected 30 detainees which forced the prison administration to isolate each detainee in one room. Fouad Al Khuffash, the director of the center, voiced an appeal to human rights groups to intervene and ensure adequate medical attention and checkups to the detainees in order to ensure that they would receive proper treatment and avoid complications. Human rights organizations on a joint call - Cease restrictions on Gaza’s fuel supply Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, Gisha, ReliefWeb 4/29/2008 Al-Haq * Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights * Al Dameer Association for Human Rights – Gaza * Gaza Community Mental Health Programme * Gisha - Legal Center for Freedom of Movement * Hamoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual * Physicians for Human Rights-Israel * The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel * Yesh Din: Volunteers for Human Rights Palestinian and Israeli human rights groups today issued an urgent call to cease restrictions on Gaza’s fuel supply and stop the unprecedented harm to Gaza’s humanitarian needs. The above-listed rights groups warned: "We express concern and outrage at the systematic dismantling of the Gaza Strip’s vital systems by preventing the residents of Gaza, a territory under Israel’s occupation,. . . IOF troops kidnap wife of detained Jihad leader, 30 others in one village Palestinian Information Center 4/29/2008 JENIN, (PIC)-- IOF troops have kidnapped Nawal Al-Saadi, the wife of detained Islamic Jihad leader Bassam Al-Saadi, at one of the Nablus city’s roadblocks leaving their seven children parentless. Fuad Al-Khafash, the director of Ahrar center for prisoners’ studies, denounced the kidnap of the 49-year-old mother of seven for no known reason except pressuring her husband. Khafash noted that Bassam was already sentenced to five years imprisonment term while one of her children was detained for one and a half year. He charged the IOF command with deliberately detaining wives of Palestinian prisoners in an attempt to pressure those internees and to weaken the moral of Palestinian families and their social life. The Saadi family had adopted a child from Bosnia a few years ago while two of their children (twins) were killed by IOF soldiers in Jenin refugee camp within a period of 40 days. Lebanese detainee transferred to administrative detention after serving 6-year term Saed Bannoura, International Middle East Media Center News 4/29/2008 The Ahrar Center for Detainee’ Studies reported on Tuesday that the Israeli Prison Authorities transferred the Lebanese detainee Naseem Nasr, to administrative detention after he served a six-year term. The Center slammed the Israeli order and stated that it comes in direct violation to the basic principles of human rights as the detainee should be freed instead of being transferred to administrative detention without charges or trial. The Center added that Nasr was informed of the new decision and that the prison administration told him that the Israeli authorities do not intend to release him. Furthermore, the Center said that these violations contradict the basic international law and that this decision comes to practice pressure of Naseem as the Lebanon based Hezbollah party demanded his release during the 2004 prisoners swap deal. Three Palestinian escape Occupied West Bank jail Agence France Presse - AFP, Daily Star 4/29/2008 JERICHO: Three Palestinians, including two members of an armed group mostly confined to the Gaza Strip, escaped from an Occupied West Bank prison overnight, Palestinian security officials said on Monday. Two of the men, Nidal Awdi Malash and Mohammed Yusef Sobh, were members of the Gaza-based Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), according to a security official who asked to remain anonymous. The third man, Hani Ezzat Halawa, was being held on criminal charges, the official added. Jericho police chief Qaid Khaled Abu Kamel confirmed the three had escaped but refused to provide details about their identities. "People escape from prisons all over the world. We are investigating," he said. - [end] Border Police officer convicted of killing Hebron teen jailed for 6 years Haaretz Service, Ha’aretz 4/29/2008 The Jerusalem District Court on Monday sentenced a Border Police officer, convicted of killing a Palestinian teen six years ago, to six and a half years in prison. The officer, Yanai Lalza, was also convicted of robbery, destroying evidence and obstructing justice. Lalza and three other border policemen were posted in Hebron in 2002. One day the four abducted several Hebron residents, among them 17-year-old Amran Abu Hamadiya, and took them for a ride in their jeep. They abused the Arabs and beat them with truncheons and rifles. They hurled Abu Hamadiya out of the moving vehicle, causing his death. Lalza was convicted in November 2006, as part of a plea bargain. He confessed, among other things, that he and one of the officers, Shahar Botbeka, had beaten Hamadiya, then opened the jeep’s back doors before Lalza pushed Hamadiya out of the vehicle. Demonstration in Nablus to commemorate International Day of Solidarity with Political Prisoners International Solidarity Movement 4/27/2008 Nablus Region - Photos - On Saturday 26th April, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Committee in Nablus organised a demonstration to commemorate the 4th International Day of Solidarity with Political Prisoners. Sponsored by the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, the Ministry of Prisoners, Palestinian Women’s Union and Palestinian political factions, the demonstration started in the centre of Nablus, before marching through the city to the main park in Nablus, where approximately 300 people congregated to protest against the incarceration of more than 11000 Palestinian political prisoners. Once in the park, speeches took place, with a number of speakers, including Sameh Gazelle, a representative of joint Palestinian Factions, as well as May Mir’ee, who spoke on behalf of prisoners and martyrs, calling for the issue of Palestinian political prisoners to be made a top priority in Annapolis negotiations. Relatives banned from visiting detained MP for 20 months Palestinian Information Center 4/26/2008 NABLUS, (PIC)-- The Israeli prisons authority has been barring relatives of detained Palestinian MP Mahmoud Musleh from visiting him in Ofer jail ever since his detention 20 months ago despite suffering acute rheumatism. The MP told the lawyer of the Nafha legal society that ever since his arrest on 27/8/2006 no clothes or any other personal needs were allowed for him. The lawmaker was arrested along with more than 50 of his PLC colleagues and ex-ministers on that same day. The lawyer met eight detained PLC members during his recent visit to Ofer and Nitzan prisons. [end] Minister of Prisoners detained at Israeli checkpoint within West Bank Palestine News Network 4/25/2008 Tulkarem / PNN -- Under occupation all Palestinian are subjected to similar treatment. An official from the Palestinian Legislative Council was detained at a checkpoint within the West Bank for 40 minutes on Friday. Despite his diplomatic status as Palestinian Minister of Prisoner Affairs, Ashraf Al Ajrami was not allowed to move. It was early evening, around 6:00 pm, when the Minister attempted to pass through of hundreds of Israeli military checkpoints that are imposed throughout the West Bank. This happened to be the Attara Checkpoint, no better or worse than any other. His car and body were subjected to the invasive searches that many others are. When the Israeli government can openly declare assassination threats against elected officials in the Gaza Strip, it is clear that the Diplomatic Status of the occupied is not of import to the occupier. Palestinian detainees tortured in Israeli custody, PLC member says Ma’an News Agency 4/24/2008 Bethlehem – Ma’an - A member of the Palestinian Legislative Council said on Thursday that the Israeli army policy of abuse and humiliation of Palestinian detainees is illegal. Issa Qaraqe’ issued a press statement in which he claimed Palestinian civilians are being illegally tortured during official investigations and these torture tactics are being ignored by senior army officials and often take place in Israeli military jeeps. "This policy isn’t aimed at getting information from the detainees as much as it is an act of revenge and constitutes sadistic and immoral behavior exercised by the Israeli army and border guards against Palestinian prisoners, and these practices are barbaric," Qaraqe’ said. Qaraqe revealed that 85% of detainees, and especially children, are subject to abuse, beatings and humiliation before and during questioning. Palestinian boy found mutilated in Israeli settlement Palestine News Network 4/23/2008 Forwarded by Rana Al Arja - At 3pm on Wednesday, 16th April, the mutilated body of 15 year old Hammad Nidar Khadatbh was found in lands of the illegal Israeli settlement of Al-Hamra by his father, who was out searching for his missing son. Hammad had left the house at 9am on Tuesday, 15th April to work on the family’s land, located near the stolen agricultural lands of the settlement. As the second eldest son, he was picking cucumbers for the family rather than going to school, to help with the income of his struggling family. At evening he failed to return home, and so his father and other family members immediately went searching for him. They found nothing. They set out again the next day, Wednesday, and found his body in a place they had searched the day before - clearly dumped overnight. Hammadi’s body was naked, bloated, and tortured. ICRC concerned by suspension of family visits to prisoners - IRIN report Ma’an News Agency 4/23/2008 JERUSALEM/GAZA - IRIN report - For families in the Gaza Strip with sons or daughters in Israeli jails, the past 11 months have been especially hard, as they could no longer visit their imprisoned relatives and have only had contact through brief written messages. "This issue is a humanitarian concern for us, for the families and the prisoners," Katharina Ritz, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Jerusalem, told IRIN. "It is very important the families have contact with the people in jail; and psychologically, for the prisoners, it is important to have contact with the family," she said, noting that families bring books and clothes for their relatives. According to the Israeli rights group B’tselem, over 760 Gazans, including four women, are in Israeli jails. They are all there for "security" crimes - anything from alleged membership of an "illegal group" to proven acts of militancy. ISRAEL-OPT: ICRC concerned by suspension of family visits to prisoners Shabtai Gold/IRIN, IRIN - UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 4/23/2008 JERUSALEM/GAZA, 22 April 2008 (IRIN) - For families in the Gaza Strip with sons or daughters in Israeli jails, the past 11 months have been especially hard, as they could no longer visit their imprisoned relatives and have only had contact through brief written messages. "This issue is a humanitarian concern for us, for the families and the prisoners," Katharina Ritz, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Jerusalem, told IRIN. "It is very important the families have contact with the people in jail; and psychologically, for the prisoners, it is important to have contact with the family," she said, noting that families bring books and clothes for their relatives. According to the Israeli rights group B’tselem, over 760 Gazans, including four women, are in Israeli jails. Detained Mayor of Qalqilia facing a deteriorating health condition Saed Bannoura, International Middle East Media Center News 4/22/2008 The Municipality of Qalqilia city, in the northern part of the West Bank, voiced on Tuesday an appeal to several human rights groups to save the life of its Wajeeh Qawwas, imprisoned by Israel under administrative detention orders since one year, and facing bad health conditions. Media spokesperson and member of Qalqilia City Council, reporter Mustafa Sabri, stated that the municipality dispatched lawyer Mohammad Abed to visit the detained mayor. The lawyer managed to visit the detained mayor and found out that he is suffering from complications in his heart as he suffers from a heart and blood condition. The mayor will be examined in Al Ramla prison hospital in the coming days as in order to check his heart and the artificial valve which was implanted previously. Sabri stated that the municipality contacted the Red Cross and appealed it to. . . Wa’ed society: Israel intends to make serious changes in visit programs in jails Palestinian Information Center 4/21/2008 GAZA, (PIC)-- The Wa’ed society for detainees and ex-detainees revealed Monday that the Israeli prisons authority intends to make very serious changes in prison visit programs, which were frozen for ten months, by introducing a video conferencing system through which families and prisoners could communicate with each other. In a press release received by the PIC, Adullah Qandil, the Wa’ed spokesman, stated that this measure is a dangerous precedent in history added to the record of Israel’s crimes and violations against Palestinian men and women imprisoned in Israeli jails, ignoring all international norms and charters which guarantee prisoners’ right to be visited. Qandil called in this regard on the Red Cross and the international community to assume their responsibilities towards this Israeli violation of human rights because it is inconsistent with the Geneva convention and international humanitarian laws. Palestinian administrative detainees appeal to PLC to activate their file Palestinian Information Center 4/21/2008 NABLUS, (PIC)-- The Palestinian administrative detainees in Israeli jails called in a letter to the PLC for activating their issue with international forums, the Hague tribunal and human rights organizations in order to end the arbitrary measures taken against them in Israeli courts. In the letter, a copy of which was received by the PIC, the detainees called for activating the file of administrative detention through conducting a legal study in cooperation with local and international committees, pointing out the Israeli judge issues his rulings based on an unknown secret file fabricated by the Israeli intelligence. The detainees also called for exposing the Israeli practices towards their families and relatives who are not allowed to attend their trials, explaining that when trials are held in the Negev desert area, prisoners’ families are not allowed in at the pretext that they. . . Gaza police violently disperse peaceful assembly Report, Al Mezan, Electronic Intifada 4/21/2008 A police force violently dispersed a march in Rafah, Gaza organized by the Fatah Movement, honoring Palestinian and Arab Prisoners Day. Fatah announced that the march would start after Friday prayers. According to eyewitnesses, members of the police assaulted demonstrators. Al Mezan field investigations show that on 17 April 2008, Fatah announced a solidarity march to honor Palestinian and Arab prisoners held by Israel to marj Prisoners Day. The march was supposed to take place after Friday prayers, starting from al-Awda Mosque in central Rafah town. At approximately 12:45pm on 19 April 2008, the police deployed forces in the town before the prayer ended. They stopped Emad al-Ajrami, a cameraman of the Media Group, prevented him from filming and confiscated his video camera. The police informed al-Ajrami that he could collect his camera from the public investigation office at Rafah police station. IDF officer to compensate infiltrator he assaulted Hanan Greenberg, YNetNews 4/22/2008 In precedential ruling, military court orders major convicted of assaulting asylum seeker from Ghana to pay him NIS 1,500 in damages. ’I got a double punishment: I was beaten and I am in jail,’ refugee tells Ynet - The Southern Command Military Court ordered an IDF officer in the rank of major to pay an African infiltrator he assaulted NIS 1,500 ($430) in damages, a precedential ruling in the army. However, the court rejected the prosecution’s demand to have the officer demoted, but recommended that his promotion be suspended. In response to the officer’s sentence the infiltrator, John Good Yaboa, told Ynet, "I am waiting to be released from prison and to get the compensation. I got a double punishment - I was beaten and I am in jail. "Yaboa expressed contentment at the officer being brought to justice: "He claimed he was trying to. . . 7-year-old girl denied visit to jailed mother Ma’an News Agency 4/20/2008 Bethlehem – Ma’an – Israeli forces have denied a 7-year-old Palestinian girl permission to visit her Ukrainian-born mother who is serving 20 years in an Israeli jail. Ghazala Sarahna has lived with her grandparents in the Deheisha refugee camp south of Bethlehem since her mother was jailed on 23 May 2002. She has a Palestinian birth certificate, but she does not have a Palestinian identity number. She used to visit her mother in jail using her birth certificate as identification. Recently the Israeli authorities decided to stop her visits to her mother because she has no identity number. She can not be issued an identity card issued as her parents are both serving prison sentences. Ghazala’s grandfather appealed to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority to intervene to help Ghazala visit her mother. Prisoner club appeals for Palestinian prisoner who lost sight in both eyes Palestinian Information Center 4/20/2008 NABLUS, (PIC)-- The Palestinian prisoner club in Jenin appealed to all human rights organizations to raise the issue of a Palestinian prisoner called Allam Attari in the Israeli Galboua prison who lost vision in both eyes due to medical neglect, pointing out that he needs a medical follow-up immediately. The club had already warned in January that prisoner Attari might lose vision in both eyes if immediate treatment was not accorded to him and appealed to human rights organizations to intervene, but to no avail. The Israeli prison authority had refused to accord proper treatment to Attari, who is serving a 16-year-sentence, despite his repeated appeals. For their part, Galboua prisoners appealed to all institutions concerned with prisoners’ rights to fulfill the medical needs of prisoners Othman Younis and Khaled Abu Hamad, where the prison administrations refused to provide them with even gauze bandages to wrap their wounds. Israeli incursion in West Bank, total closure of territories Missionary International Service News Agency - MISNA, ReliefWeb 4/18/2008 A Palestinian militant was killed this morning in a gunbattle with Israeli forces near the Balata refugee camp in the north of the West Bank. Hani al Kaabi, alleged local leader of the Al Aqsa martyr brigades, armed wing of Fatah, was shot dead by Israeli special forces that penetrated into the territory. Witnesses said that after the exchange of fire the soldiers, disguised as civilians, searched the camp and arrested Kaabi’s second in command. An Israeli army spokesperson, in confirming the operation, referred that Kaabi escaped from a prison a few weeks ago and was wanted for masterminding a foiled plot to poison food in a restaurant near Tel Aviv. Meanwhile, Israel closed off the West Bank and Gaza for the Jewish Passover holiday in a measure to impede attacks that entered into effect in the early morning until the end of the holiday on April 26. The closure, announced last night, impedes some 50,000 Palestinians from their regular entry into Israel for business or work. Commission to investigate murder of Palestinian intelligence officer in Gaza Ma’an News Agency 4/20/2008 Ramallah – Ma’an – A fact-finding committee has been set up to investigate the abduction and murder of a Palestinian intelligence officer in the Gaza Strip, representatives from Palestinian parliamentarian blocs and independent lawmakers announced at a press conference in Ramallah in the central West Bank on Sunday. 35-year-old Sami Khattab from Deir Al-Balah was found dead in a field south of Gaza City on April 15. His mutilated body showed signs of torture. He was abducted by unknown assailants on April 13. Khattab’s family accused the Palestinian internal security services of murdering him. The committee will consist of independent lawmakers Hasan Khraisha and Husam At-Tawil, Qays Abu Layla and Bassam As-Salihi from Badil bloc, Mustafa Barghouthi representing Independent Palestine, Khalida Jarrar representing the Abu Ali Mustafa bloc in addition to Mamdouh Al-’Ikir chair of the independent association of human rights. Palestinian detainees demand proper medical attention, direct treatment to urgent cases Saed Bannoura & agencies, International Middle East Media Center News 4/20/2008 One of lawyers of the Palestinian Prisoners Society visited Galboa’ Israeli prison and met with a number of Palestinian detainees who informed him of ongoing violations and of urgent cases of detainees who need immediate medical treatment. This report includes number of detainees imprisoned by Israel, including detainees who died in prison, female and child detainees. The Lawyer met with detainee Mohammad Sabbagh, a spokesperson of the detainees, and also met with detainee Ahmad Abdul-Qadir Salim. Both detainees demanded more attention to the detainees’ case especially since there are dozens of detainees who are seriously ill and need medical treatment. The detainees demanded to receive the forensic report of detainees Fadi Abu Al Rob who died in prison apparently of medical negligence and torture. The lawyer also met with detainee Hilal Odeh who said that the detainees are not. . . Israeli police bans Palestinian Prisoner’s Day commemoration in Jerusalem Ma’an News Agency 4/20/2008 Jerusalem – Ma’an – Israeli police banned a festival on Saturday afternoon in Jerusalem commemorating Palestinian prisoner’s day. Ma’an’s reporter said the commemoration was scheduled to be held in the Palestinian National Theatre "Al-Hakawati" in Jerusalem. Israeli policetemporarily closed the theatre to stop the event taking place. Palestinian minister of prisoners’ affairs Ashraf Al-Ajrami had been due to attend the event, which was organized by the Jerusalem committee of prisoners’ families and other organizations from Jerusalem. [end] Detainee critically ill after Israeli soldiers injected him with contaminated needle IMEMC Staff, International Middle East Media Center News 4/19/2008 Family of detainee Othman Mohammad Abu Khurj, 38, from Zababda village near the northern West Bank city of Jenin, said that their son is facing gradually deteriorating medical conditions after a soldier injected him with a needle polluted with Hepatitis C. His wife said that her husband, who was sentenced to one life-term and additional twenty years, suffered last summer from pain in his teeth, and one of the soldiers injected him with a polluted needle causing Hepatitis C. She added that the Prison Administration is refusing to provide him with the needed medical treatment, although prison doctors said that he needs urgent treatment which is not available at the prison clinic. She also said that he submitted his case to an Israeli court and the soldiers admitted to that they did inject him with a dirty needle, but insisted that he should first drop the case before he receives the needed treatment. Israeli Authorities transfer 23 detainees to administrative detention IMEMC Staff, International Middle East Media Center News 4/19/2008 The Nafha Society for Defending Human Rights and Detainees Rights reported on Saturday that the Israeli Prison Authority issued administrative detention orders against 23 without charges of trial. One of the lawyers of the society stated that detainee Fadil Ibrahim Abu Salim, Bashar Mtei’ Touqan, Mohammad Mahmoud, Mohammad Al Shawawra, and Firas Jawarna, all from Bethlehem received administrative detention orders for six months each. Also the army issued four months administrative orders against detainees Shaker Rostom, Shadi Karakra, Montasir Al Beirooty, Mubarak Sawarka and Tha’er Jawarish, from Bethlehem, in addition to Mohammad Sha’ban and Fahid Sbeih from Hebron,Sufian Qabha from Tulakrem and AhmadKhadraj and Shadi Salim from Qalqilia,Moreover, the following detainees received three months administrative detention orders; Mona Qa’dan from Jenin, Omar Aslan from Nablus, Ibrahim. . . Expected: No cuffs for some prisoners at hospital Jonathan Lis, Ha’aretz 4/21/2008 Low-risk prisoners may no longer be shackled during trips to hospitals for medical treatment, under an anticipated change to Israel Prisons Authority policy. The authority is expected to draft its first-ever regulations concerning the transport of prisoners for medical treatment. Previously, regulations did not differentiate between prisoners bound for hospitals and those en route to courts and police stations, and required that all must be shackled. The initiative was announced following a meeting at the deputy attorney general’s office, in response to inquiries by Physicians for Human Rights. Representatives of PHR, the Prisons Service, the Israel Police and the Israel Medical Association attended. "The idea is to focus on the prisoner’s welfare," a Prisons Service official said. Palestinian child ’beaten’ by Israeli soldiers for possession of water pistol Ma’an News Agency 4/19/2008 Jerusalem – Ma’an – Israeli soldiers beat a nine-year-old Palestinian child named Saqer Omar Abdel Hamid Al-’Aramin on his way home in the town of Al-Ezeria, east of Jerusalem, on Saturday morning, an information office for Palestinian prisoners’ issues said. Munqeth Abu-Rumi, the director of the Asarna (literally "Our Prisoners") Information office said that Israeli troops stopped Al-’Aramin in the street and assaulted him for possession of a toy water gun. Abu Rumi called on the human rights organizations, the Arab League, the International Quartet and the United Nations to intervene to protect Palestinian children from Israeli assault. [end] Body of 15 year old Palestinian boy found mutilated in Israeli settlement International Solidarity Movement 4/18/2008 Nablus Region - Photos - At 3pm on Wednesday, 16th April, the mutilated body of 15 year old Hammad Nidar Khadatbh was found in lands of the illegal Israeli settlement of Al-Hamra by his father, who was out searching for his missing son. Hammad had left the house at 9am on Tuesday, 15th April to work on the family’s land, located near the stolen agricultural lands of the settlement. As the second eldest son, he was picking cucumbers for the family rather than going to school, to help with the income of his struggling family. At evening he failed to return home, and so his father and other family members immediately went searching for him. They found nothing. They set out again the next day, Wednesday, and found his body in a place they had searched the day before - clearly dumped overnight. Hammad’s body was naked, bloated, and tortured. People of Nablus show solidarity with Palestinian political prisoners International Solidarity Movement 4/18/2008 Nablus Region - Photos - On Thursday 17th April, 2008 approximately 800 protesters marched through the streets of Nablus as part the International Day of Solidarity with Political Prisoners. Organised by the Palestinian Prisoners’ Socieity, demonstrators protested against the imprisonment of the 11500 Palestinians currently being held in Israeli prisons, demanding their release. Since 1967 over 650,000 Palestinians have been illegally imprisoned by Israel, which forms 40 percent of Palestine’s male population. The current number of prisoners includes 360 children and 99 women. There are also 1200 in administrative detention, a process which allows for the arbitrary imprisonment of Palestinians for an unlimited period under the pretext of "security reasons". Since 1967, 197 Palestinians have died in prison, among them 48 who died of medical negligence. Carter defies US and Israeli critics to meet Hamas leader The Independent 4/18/2008 The former US president Jimmy Carter met the exiled leader of Hamas yesterday, despite US and Israeli objections to talks with a man accused of masterminding kidnappings and suicide bombings against Israelis. In Israel, the cabinet minister Eli Yishai said he had asked Mr Carter earlier this week to arrange a meeting with Hamas to discuss a prisoner exchange. Israel refuses to deal with the militant group, which is pledged to its destruction. Mr Carter’s convoy arrived yesterday afternoon at the Damascus office of Khaled Mashaal under tight security. Earlier in the day he met the Syrian President Bashar Assad after travelling to Syria from Egypt. Mr Carter has already met Hamas officials twice this week. In Cairo on Thursday, he asked senior officials from Gaza to halt rocket attacks against Israel. And in the West Bank on Wednesday, he angered Israelis by embracing a Hamas representative. Iman: six months in prison is nothing, but torture and sexual abuse are still present Kristen Ess, Palestine News Network 4/17/2008 Iman’s brother was recently sentenced to 21 lifetimes plus 50 years in Israeli prison. He built the explosives that were detonated in an operation which killed 21 Israelis. He is a member of Katab Shohada Al Aqsa, the armed resistance wing affiliated with Fateh. Before he was arrested, Israeli forces took his sister, Iman, as "bait. " She describes being put in a cell one meter by one meter where she was able to sit with her arms around her knees and not allowed to sleep. "Every time I started to sleep they came and took me for more questions. They thought if I was tired I would say something about my brother or my friends. I never said anything. " Approximately 10,000 Palestinians are in Israeli prisons. One hundred of them are Palestinian Legislative Council members. Torture is widespread in Israeli prisons, as reported by the Palestinian Prisoner Society,. . . Palestinians mark "Prisoner Day,"¯ demand freedom of 12,000 captives Khalid Amayreh in Occupied East Jerusalem, Palestinian Information Center 4/17/2008 Palestinians all over the West Bank and Gaza Strip are marking the "Prisoner Day,"¯ with a series of activities and events meant to highlight the enduring plight of more than 12,000 Palestinians languishing in Israeli dungeons and detention camps, some for over thirty years. Israel resorts to mass arrests of Palestinian activists and intellectuals in order to weaken the Palestinian society’s will to resist Israel’s Nazi-like occupation of Palestine. Israel also hopes to use the prisoners as a bargaining chip in any prospective final-status deal with the Palestinian Authority. More to the point, the apartheid Israeli state routinely uses physical and psychological torture against prisoners, mostly for the purpose of extracting confessions from them. Some of the prisoners who undergo the nightmarish experience are forced to give false confessions to escape further torture. Palestinian boy found dead near Israeli settlement Ma’an News Agency 4/17/2008 Nablus – Ma’an – A Palestinian boy from the northern West bank village of Beit Fureik near Nablus was found dead on Wednesday afternoon near the Israeli settlement of Al-Hamra. 15-year-old Hamid Khatatba had been missing for tor two days before his body was found, his cousin told Ma’an. The boy was employed as an agricultural worker in the Jordan Valley northeast of Nablus. His cousin accused Israeli settlers of the killing, pointing out that the boy’s neck was broken and there were signs of torture and blood on the body. He also highlighted that the Israeli authorities have refused to hand over Hamid’s body to his family. [end] 3 more dead today and 33 arrested on Palestinian Prisoners Day Palestine News Network 4/17/2008 PNN - Israeli forces killed a 23 year old member of Saraya Al Quds, the armed resistance wing of Islamic Jihad, Thursday morning, Bilal Kamil. The attack came this morning to Jenin’s town of Qabatiya in the northern West Bank. Israeli forces also killed a 16 year old boy, Izzadin Zakarna, during the invasion. Members of the armed resistance were defending against the invasion and particular house. Israeli forces had encircled a home and began firing. The armed resistance returned fire. During this exchange the resistance member and the teenager were shot by Israeli forces. Also throughout the West Bank this morning Israeli forces arrested 26 Palestinians, on this day, "Palestinian Prisoners Day. "Another 10 were taken from Nablus during an early morning invasion. And another man died of injuries sustained during recent Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip. Major demonstration for Palestinian Prisoners Day Najib Farrag, Palestine News Network 4/16/2008 Bethlehem -- A massive march took to the streets of Bethlehem on the occasion of Palestinian Prisoners Day. Tomorrow is the official day, with West Bank activities planned for Ramallah. The Palestinian Prisoner Society hosted the demonstration which began at the new Red Cross headquarters in the southern West Bank city. People in the streets hoisted photos of their imprisoned loved ones, some 11,000 Palestinians are currently in Israeli prisons. Others held banners in memorial of those who "defend the dignity of our people" and those who have "fought for our national rights without tiring. " Upon the arrival of the march in front of the office of the International Red Cross, Ibrahim Njarjh, Director of the Office of the Ministry of Prisoners in the province of Bethlehem, spoke. "The families of the prisoners and all national figures from the Palestinian. . . Family appeals for allowing them to visit their son in solitary confinement Palestinian Information Center 4/14/2008 OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The family of prisoner Mahmoud Issa from the Anata town in occupied Jerusalem appealed to human rights organizations to help them to see their son imprisoned for 15 years and isolated in solitary confinement since seven years. In a telephone conversation with the Nafha society for the defence of human rights, Issa’s mother called on advocates of human rights to help her get a permit to visit her son even for one time before she passes away. Prisoner Issa, 40, was kidnapped 15 years ago in the summer of 1993, and the IOA issued three life sentences against him in addition to a 45-year prison term. The IOA renews his detention in solitary confinement year after year and issued a sentence against him depriving him from seeing his family during his prison term. PLC member speaks out from Israeli prison Palestine News Network 4/14/2008 Nablus / PNN - Palestinian Legislative Council member and political prisoner, Jamal Tirawi, said that 17 April will be the day that no one forgets the prisoners. "Our messages will be heard clearing from behind bars. " The deputy wrote a letter delivered through his lawyer calling for the people to "unite and move away from selfish and personal interests which are a waste of time. " He called on President Abbas and all Palestinian leaders and people to keep the issue of prisoners in their minds. In one form of resistance, Tirawi said, "The prisoners are boycotting the products and commodities in the Cantina in protest against rising prices. "The Cantina is the prison store where many people buy food to supplement the inadequate meals they are given, and also to buy personal products such as toothpaste and soap. Shin Bet admits to using relatives to pressure detainees Aviram Zino, YNetNews 4/13/2008 ’Interrogation method flawed and inconsistent with the agency’s regulations,’ top security official tells Knesset committee. MK Gal-On: In a democratic state, not everything is allowed even during times of war - Responding to claims that the Shin Bet is exerting severe and illegal pressure on the family members of Palestinians detainees in the course of investigations against them in an attempt to extract confessions, the head of the General Security Service’s investigations branch said Sunday that "things could have been done differently". Speaking at special meeting convened by the Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee on the heels of a report released by the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), the Shin Bet official said that in at least one case the interrogation method was flawed and inconsistent with the agency’s regulations. -- See also: PCATI Report Israeli Public Committee Against Torture: Israeli methods against Palestinians contravene law Yoav Loeff, Palestine News Network 4/13/2008 The Public Committee against Torture in Israel (PCATI) report published today reveals the cruel practice of the prohibited and illegal exploitation of family members to pressure of those being interrogated and force them to confess. In an extraordinary move, the report will be launched and discussed today at 1:30 PM in the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee. Committee Chairman, Professor Menachem Ben Sasson, demanded that the GSS submit its reaction to the report for consideration by the Committee. The illegal exploitation of family members, who, in most instances, are not suspects themselves, has on many occasions caused severe psychological suffering to interrogees and to their innocent relatives. In more extreme cases, this method takes the form of psychological torture of a detainee rendering him a victim of a cruel psychological manipulation via the illegal exploitation of a close relative. Shin Bet admits using relatives to pressure jailed Palestinians Haaretz Service, Ha’aretz 4/14/2008 The Shin Bet security services on Sunday admitted to arresting relatives of individuals under interrogation to extract confessions from the prisoners. The head of the Shin Bet’s interrogration department told the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee: "Certainly we used this method, but only on one occasion. The admission was in a response to a report submitted to the committee on Sunday by the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel. The group alleged in its report that the Shin Bet makes unjustified arrests of family members, or creates the pretense of such arrests to pressure suspects. The report further states that such methods are used against individuals who are already subjected to severe physical torture. In at least one case, the report states that the pressure led to suicide attempts by the individual under interrogation. PA source warns: Sheikh Eliewi may face the same fate of slain Barghouthi Palestinian Information Center 4/13/2008 NABLUS, (PIC)-- A PA security source in the Junied prison warned that sheikh Sameeh Eliewi, a prisoner in the PA intelligence’s jails may face the same fate of martyr Majd Al-Barghouthi who was tortured to death at the hands of PA security apparatuses. The sources revealed, on condition of anonymity, that sheikh Eliewi, 46, was transferred from the PA intelligence headquarters in Ramallah to the Junied prison and then to a hospital in Nablus, pointing out that the sheikh is suffering from diabetes and hypertension. The source underlined that sheikh Eliewi’s health condition is deteriorating very badly, where he sometimes cannot move himself, and his legs and hands becomes paralyzed, adding that the sheikh often loses his ability to speak and recognize anyone surrounding him. The source said that when the sheikh’s family was allowed to visit him, he could not move out of his cell. . . Rights group: Shin Bet uses relatives to extract prisoners’ confessions Shahar Ilan, Ha’aretz 4/13/2008 The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel has accused the Shin Bet security service of using relatives of individuals under interrogation to extract confessions. In a report to be submitted today to the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, the organization says the Shin Bet makes unjustified arrests of family members, or creates the pretense of such arrests to pressure suspects. The report further states that such methods are used against individuals who are already subjected to severe physical torture. In at least one case, the report states that the pressure led to suicide attempts by the individual under interrogation. Attorney Aviel Linder, who compiled the report, noted that a series of international treaties prohibit psychological torture, including threatened or actual harm to family members. Israeli forces target nonviolent leader in Hebron Palestine News Network 4/12/2008 Mousa Abu Maria, co-founder and Coordinator of the Palestine Solidarity Project and a nonviolent activist for several years, was taken from his home at 4 o’clock in the morning by Israeli Shabak agents. His current whereabouts are not known. He was last in the custody of Shabak in 1999 when he was held for three months without charge and tortured, after which he was hospitalized for over a week. The Palestine Solidarity Project is an initiative committed to organizing non violent resistance in Palestine based in the village of Beit Ommar in the southern West Bank’s Hebron District. [end] Nafha society appeals for releasing imprisoned mother in Israeli jails Palestinian Information Center 4/12/2008 NABLUS, (PIC)--The Nafha society for the defence of human rights appealed to international human rights organizations especially those concerned with women’s rights to pressure Israel for the release of a Palestinian mother called Zuhour Hamdan, 44, from Nablus detained in the Israeli Hasharon prison. The society added that this prisoner spent more than five years of her an eight-year sentence issued against her at the pretext of being affiliated with the Palestinian resistance, pointing out that she left behind nine children the youngest is two years old. In a telephone conversation, a daughter of the prisoner told the society that her mother suffers from hypertension, rheumatism and toothache and appealed to everyone to move immediately for her release. The Findings of the Palestinian Legislative Council Committee Investigating the Death of Majd abdel Aziz Bargouthi Must be Implemented Al Haq, Palestine Monitor 4/12/2008 On 24 February 2008 Al-Haq publicly called for the Monitoring and Public Freedoms Committee of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) to investigate the death in custody of Majd abdel Aziz Barghouti, who died on the evening of Friday 22 February 2008, and the inaction of the Attorney-General in relation to this incident. The deceased had been in the custody of the Palestinian General Intelligence Service (GIS) since 14 February 2008. Al-Haq’s preliminary investigations into the case raised serious concerns that the arrest, detention and interrogation of Majd abdel Aziz Barghouti, and his treatment during GIS custody, were in violation of fundamental human rights protections relating to the treatment of prisoners and the administration of justice. . On 3 April 2008, an ad hoc PLC Committee that was formed to investigate the death of Majd abdel Aziz Barghoutireleased its findings, which confirmed Al-Haq’s initial concerns. Israeli forces seize 21 across West Bank Ma’an News Agency 4/10/2008 Nablus – Ma’an – Israeli press sources said the army arrested 21 Palestinian activists in the West Bank districts of Qalqilia, Jenin, Nablus, Bethlehem and Ramallah on Thursday. Israeli forces apprehended four Palestinians from the northern West Bank village of Beita near Nablus on Thursday morning after raiding several homes. Ma’an’s reporter quoted local sources as saying that the Israeli forces raided the village in the early hours of the morning and conducted house-to-house inspections before arresting four teenagers. A 37-year-old man was also arrested and released after a few hours. In Qalqilia in the northern West Bank, Palestinian medical sources said several Israeli military vehicles raided the city and arrested one Palestinian. They also dug up a field belonging to the father of Palestinian prisoner, Mahmoud Abu Ash-Sheikh, currently being held in an Israeli jail. Two injured by Palestinian security forces during arrest raid in Nablus Ma’an News Agency 4/9/2008 Nablus – Ma’an – A Palestinian fighter and a bystander were injured during an arrest raid by Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces in the northern West Bank city of Nablus on Wednesday, medics and witnesses said. Twenty-year-old Muhammad Al-Kharraz, and Sufyan Qandeel, an activist with the armed wing of Fatah, the Al-Aqsa Brigades, were both injured, medical sources said. Palestinian security forces surrounded several houses in the old city of Nablus, searching for 12 Al-Aqsa Brigades fighters who fled the PA’s Al-Jneid Prison in Nablus last Friday, witnesses said. Eyewitnesses told Ma’an’s reporter that Palestinian security forces besieged several homes in the old city of Nablus and began inspection looking for 12 activists who fled Al-Jnaid detention centre a few days ago. The PA is attempting to arrest or kill the Al-Aqsa Brigades Fighters who fled Al-Jneid. . . Hamas: American officers trained PA investigators to torture prisoners Palestinian Information Center 4/7/2008 GAZA, (PIC)-- The Hamas Movement stated Monday that it has unequivocal information that the investigators of the PA chief Mahmoud Abbas who question and torture its cadres in the West Bank jails were trained by Zio-American officers to practice heinous ways of torture similar to those used in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib prisons. Hamas explained that reliable reports received from some insiders who closely know what is going on inside Abbas’s jails, clearly prove that those investigators were appointed by US generals William Fraser and Keith Dayton and affirm that the latter himself supervises the PA security apparatuses, manages their meetings, makes decisions and issues orders to them. The Movement underlined that the assassination crime of Sheikh Majd Al-Barghouthi represents compelling evidence of the size of oppression and torture exercised against Hamas cadres and the other Palestinian resistance factions inside Abbas’s jails. 11,000 prisoners to go on mass hunger strike on the Palestinian prisoner day Palestinian Information Center 4/7/2008 TULKARM, (PIC)-- More than 11,000 Palestinian prisoners announced their intention to go on mass hunger strike in all Israeli jails on 17 of April on the occasion of the Palestinian prisoner day in light of the serious violations exercised by the Israel prisons authority against their human rights. The prisoners accused the concerned international institutions of neglecting the Palestinian prisoners’ file and renouncing their responsibilities for protecting prisoners’ rights. In the same context, many institutions and organizations active in the Gaza Strip and other occupied Palestinian cities will hold activities and festivals in solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. During a visit paid by the lawyer of the Nafha society for the defense of human and prisoners’ rights to the Shatta prison, prisoner Adnan Asfour, a prominent Hamas leader, charged that the. . . Ging: Prisoners’ lives around the world much better than living in Gaza Palestinian Information Center 4/7/2008 GAZA, (PIC)-- John Ging, the director of UNRWA operations in Gaza stated during a ceremony held Monday by the agency and the WHO on the occasion of the world health day that lives of prisoners all over the world are much better than the besieged Gaza people’s lives, describing the Israeli siege as "unjust and illegal". "Journalists always refer to Gaza as an open prison, and when we talk about the levels of services and livelihood in Gaza, we could say that the jails’ conditions abroad are much better than (living condition) in Gaza," Ging said, pointing out that a prisoner in Europe receives health care better than the people of Gaza can get. In the same context, Dr. Basim Naim, the health minister in Gaza, warned that the health condition is close to the edge of the abyss and the death became closer to Gaza patients from the jugular vein. HRW Urges Abbas to punish killers of Majd Barghouthi Palestinian Information Center 4/6/2008 NEW YORK, (PIC)-- The American Human Rights Watch organization has called on PA chief Mahmoud Abbas to bring to trial those who tortured Majd Al-Barghouthi, a Mosque Imam, to death while in PA detention. Following are excerpts from the HRW report:"The Palestinian Authority should promptly implement the recommendations of the Palestinian Legislative Council’s investigation into the recent torture and death in custody of Majid al-Barghuti, Human Rights Watch said today. The Palestinian Authority should hold accountable members of the security services who violated Palestinian or international law in his death. "The evidence collected by Human Rights Watch and the PLC committee strongly suggest that al-Barghuti died from torture,"¯ said Joe Stork, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "We hope President Abbas will help end torture by bringing to justice those who apparently killed Majid al-Barghuti. Detained Aqsa channel correspondent hospitalized Palestinian Information Center 4/6/2008 AL-KHALIL, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation authority carried Mohammed Al-Halaika, the detained correspondent of the Aqsa TV channel, to hospital after deterioration of his health condition for the third time. Mohammed’s father said that the IOA carried his son to Ramle hospital Saturday evening after his health condition worsened anew. He said that the IOA was holding his son in very bad incarceration conditions that led to difficulty in breathing amidst refusal to treat him but he managed to obtain a court order to allow his treatment. Mohammed has been held in Ofer prison near Ramallah for the past four months and was subjected to intensified interrogation for a month and a half. He attended a number of court hearings but no verdict was passed against him so far. Palestinian prisoners go on hunger strike in solidarity with Hashlamon Palestinian Information Center 4/5/2008 OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The number of Palestinian prisoners, who are going on hunger strike in solidarity with the Palestinian detainee Nora Al-Hashlamon, is on the rise, according to a Palestinian legal center. The director of the prisoners’ studies center, Ra’fat Hamdona, said in a press release that the Israeli prisons authority (IPA) was concerned over the expanding number of those joining Hashlamon’s hunger strike that started 12/3/2008 in protest over her unjustified administrative detention. He said that the IPA moved a number of prisoners from Negev jail to other prisons fearing expansion of the strike in Negev, where Hashlamon’s husband is incarcerated. Hamdona quoted a prisoner in Negev as saying that the husband along with four others was transferred from the jail a couple of days ago for starting an open-ended hunger strike and for instigating others to join the strike. Investigation by Palestinian Parliament blames security forces for Hamas cleric’s death in custody Agence France Presse - AFP, Daily Star 4/4/2008 RAMALLAH, Occupied West Bank: A parliamentary investigation on Thursday blamed the Palestinian intelligence service for the death of a Hamas cleric in a prison last month, and claimed he was tortured. Imam Majd al-Barghuti, 42, from Kobar village in the north of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, died in a Ramallah prison on February 22, eight days after his arrest. Security officials have said Barghuti died of heart failure, but the independent deputies who conducted the inquiry said tests taken two days before his death did not indicate any cardiovascular problems. A member of the commission of inquiry, Hassan Khreisheh, told journalists there were "signs of torture" on Barghuti’s "wrists, thighs, knees and back" and that the prisoner had complained of a stomach ache but "did not receive the necessary care up to his death. IOF troops kidnap 103 Palestinians last March only in Al-Khalil Palestinian Information Center 4/3/2008 AL-KHALIL, (PIC)-- The Palestinian prisoner club said Wednesday the IOF troops kidnapped during last March 103 Palestinian citizens including 15 patients and 11 children in Al-Khalil city [Hebron], southern West Bank. In a report received by the PIC, the club stated that the IOF troops during its kidnapping campaigns deliberately beat the kidnapped citizens and destroy furniture during home raids as happened during the kidnapping of Tariq Erziqat who suffers from rheumatism in his joints, where the IOF troops beat and forced him to carry heavy bags. In another context, the popular committee against the siege appealed Wednesday to the UN and international community to intervene urgently to prevent Israel from continuing to close charities in Al-Khalil which support thousands of orphans and poor families in the West Bank who have no other breadwinners.  Articles
International Humanitarian Law: The Siege on the Gaza Strip Yasmin Abou-Amer, MIFTAH 4/29/2008 Since the declaration of Gaza as a “hostile entity” in September 2007, Israel has employed a strategy which aims to politically cripple Hamas into submission at the expense of the 1.5 million innocent Palestinians who populate the Gaza Strip.Israel justifies its actions by asserting that Hamas is an Islamic group which refuses to recognize Israel and is intent on destroying it by launching homemade Qassam rockets into southern Israel. Although Israel claims that it no longer bears the responsibilities of an occupier since its withdrawal from Gaza in September 2005, Israel still controls the borders, the airspace and the sea of the 365km2 area, exploiting this fact to impose a blockade on Gaza.Israel periodically releases resources on a drip and fails to provide adequate amounts of fuel, food and medical supplies.This isolation has plunged the area into a dire humanitarian crisis, with commentators describing Gaza as “the largest open air prison in the world”. By collectively punishing the Palestinians to ensure political gain, Israel is in complete violation of international humanitarian law, a fuller discussion of which will now follow. Israel suspends family visits to prisoners Report, Electronic Intifada 4/24/2008 JERUSALEM/GAZA, 22 April 2008 (IRIN) - For families in the Gaza Strip with sons or daughters in Israeli jails, the past 11 months have been especially hard, as they could no longer visit their imprisoned relatives and have only had contact through brief written messages. "This issue is a humanitarian concern for us, for the families and the prisoners," Katharina Ritz, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Jerusalem, told IRIN. "It is very important the families have contact with the people in jail; and psychologically, for the prisoners, it is important to have contact with the family," she said, noting that families bring books and clothes for their relatives. According to the Israeli rights group B’tselem, over 760 Gazans, including four women, are in Israeli jails. They are all there for "security" crimes -- anything from alleged membership of an "illegal group" to proven acts of militancy. 32 years in an Israeli prison cell Luisa Morgantini, Palestine News Network 4/23/2008 This article, written by the Vice President of the European Parliament, was published in the Italian newspaper ’Liberazione.’ The last time that Widad hugged her son was eight years ago, in a prison in Ashkelon, Israel: for many years since she was not allowed to see him, as the Israeli Authorities repeatedly denied her the permit for "security reasons." Widad Naief Mohammad Atabeh lives in Nablus, is 78 years old, suffers from hypertension, diabetes and her sight has strongly worsen since the last time she saw Saed, "He hugged me and said that in that moment he was born again to life. Those minutes for us were the most precious, but the moment we had to depart from each other was the hardest and most disappointing." This is what she writes today in an appeal to all mothers in the world, in an effort to put pressure on the Israeli Authorities to allow her to see Saed for the last time making her dream come true. Report: Family members used to pressure Palestinians in Israeli detention Report, PCATI, Electronic Intifada 4/22/2008 The following is the introduction of a report by the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel entitled "’Family Matters’: Using Family Members to Pressure Detainees." "They said that if I confessed to everything they wanted, they would release my wife, and that she was in the isolation cell because of me." "The interrogator told me that my father was in detention (afterwards I discovered that he had lied), and threatened that they would also arrest my grandmother if I didn’t confess." These and similar testimonies of detainees interrogated by the Israel Security Agency (GSS, also known as the Shin Bet or Shabak) during the past year indicate a phenomenon whose gravity must not be minimized: the use of a detainee’s family to "break" him. The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) is determined to combat and eliminate this immoral practice of "psychological torture." Psychological torture does not usually receive the same degree of public attention as physical torture. The Israeli public generally associates torture with the terms "moderate physical pressure," "shaking," "bending the detainee’s back," and "painful shackling," and relatively little attention is given to psychological torture. -- See also: PCATI No peace without Hamas Mahmoud al-Zahar, Electronic Intifada 4/17/2008 US President Jimmy Carter’s sensible plan to visit the Hamas leadership this week brings honesty and pragmatism to the Middle East while underscoring the fact that American policy has reached its dead end. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice acts as if a few alterations here and there would make the hideous straitjacket of apartheid fit better. While Rice persuades Israeli occupation forces to cut a few dozen meaningless roadblocks from among the more than 500 West Bank control points, these forces simultaneously choke off fuel supplies to Gaza; blockade its 1.5 million people; approve illegal housing projects on West Bank land; and attack Gaza City with F-16s, killing men, women and children. Sadly, this is "business as usual" for the Palestinians. Last week’s attack on the Nahal Oz fuel depot should not surprise critics in the West. Palestinians are fighting a total war waged on us by a nation that mobilizes against our people with every means at its disposal -- from its high-tech military to its economic stranglehold, from its falsified history to its judiciary that "legalizes" the infrastructure of apartheid. Resistance remains our only option. Sixty-five years ago, the courageous Jews of the Warsaw ghetto rose in defense of their people. We Gazans, living in the world’s largest open-air prison, can do no less. Our reign of terror, by the Israeli army Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem, The Independent 4/18/2008 In shocking testimonies that reveal abductions, beatings and torture, Israeli soldiers confess the horror they have visited on Hebron. The dark-haired 22-year-old in black T-shirt, blue jeans and red Crocs is understandably hesitant as he sits at a picnic table in the incongruous setting of a beauty spot somewhere in Israel. We know his name and if we used it he would face a criminal investigation and a probable prison sentence. The birds are singing as he describes in detail some of what he did and saw others do as an enlisted soldier in Hebron. And they are certainly criminal: the incidents in which Palestinian vehicles are stopped for no good reason, the windows smashed and the occupants beaten up for talking back – for saying, for example, they are on the way to hospital; the theft of tobacco from a Palestinian shopkeeper who is then beaten "to a pulp" when he complains; the throwing of stun grenades through the windows of mosques as people prayed. And worse. The young man left the army only at the end of last year, and his decision to speak is part of a concerted effort to expose the moral price paid by young Israeli conscripts in what is probably the most problematic posting there is in the occupied territories. Not least because Hebron is the only Palestinian city whose centre is directly controlled by the military, 24/7, to protect the notably hardline Jewish settlers there. He says firmly that he now regrets what repeatedly took place during his tour of duty. It’s time to free Vanunu Yossi Melman, Ha’aretz 4/17/2008 Next week the interior minister will renew, for the fifth time, the order banning Mordechai Vanunu from leaving Israel. This comes on top of restrictions issued by the Home Front Command, relying in part on British Mandate Emergency Regulations, forbidding Vanunu from approaching foreign embassies and from speaking with foreigners. He has been confined to Jerusalem, and must report his movements outside the city. The restrictions effectively continue to punish him for his crimes, for which he already has paid. Vanunu’s harassment by the Israel government is unprecedented and represents a distortion of every accepted legal norm. Vanunu, who in the 1970s and 1980s worked as a junior technician in the Dimona nuclear reactor, gave Israel’s nuclear secrets to The Sunday Times in 1986. As a consequence, he was abducted by Mossad agents while in Italy, drugged, transported back to Israel, tried, convicted on charges of espionage and treason and sentenced to 18 years in prison, some of which he spent in solitary confinement that nearly drove him insane. LinksAdalah Adalah (Justice in Arabic) is the first non-profit, non-sectarian Palestinian-run legal center in Israel. The main goal of Adalah’s work is to achieve equal rights and minority rights protections for Palestinian citizens of Israel. Addameer Prisoners’ Support and Human Rights Organization: Addameer (conscience) is a Palestinian non-governmental, civil institution which focuses on human rights issues. Supports Palestinian prisoners, advocates for rights of political prisoners, works to end torture. Amnesty International Amnesty International (AI) is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognized human rights. AI’s vision is of a world in which every person enjoys all of the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards. Amnesty International USA Amnesty International (AI) is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognized human rights. AI’s vision is of a world in which every person enjoys all of the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards. Arab Association for Human Rights - HRA The HRA was founded in 1988 to promote and protect the political, civil, economic, and cultural rights of the Palestinian Arab minority in Israel and to further the domestic implementation of international human rights principles. It is an independent non-governmental organisation registered in Israel. Association for Civil Rights in Israel - ACRI In Hebrew - The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) was founded in 1972 as a non-political and independent body, with the goal of protecting human and civil rights in Israel and in the territories under Israeli control. B’tselem The Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories Boycott Israeli Medical Association UK: The Medical Committee for Boycott of the Israeli Medical Association (IMA) will document the systematic torture of Palestinian people by agents of Israel. It will publicise the practice in order to bring world opinion to bear on Israel. And it will challenge the Israeli Medical Association which has repeatedly failed to issue advice to doctors who are involved in any way with torture. Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch is an independent, nongovernmental organization, supported by contributions from private individuals and foundations worldwide. Human Rights Watch is dedicated to protecting the human rights of people around the world. Occupation Prisoners News stories and reports about Palestinian prisoners from International Press Center, of the Palestinian National Authority’s State Information Service. Palestinian Centre for Human Rights The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) is an independent legal body based in Gaza City dedicated to protecting human rights, promoting the rule of law, and upholding democratic principles in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Palestinian Prisoners Society The Palestinian Prisoner Society is a social and human institution and its members are prisoners inside prisons and released prisoners. Membership is open to every Palestinian prisoner inside and outside prisons who meets the conditions of membership. Physicians for Human Rights - Israel Physicians for Human Rights - Israel (PHR-Israel) was established in 1988 as a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, dedicated to promoting and protecting the medical human rights of all residents of Israel and the Occupied Territories. Public Committee Against Torture in Israel - PCATI An independent human rights organization founded that monitors the implementation conditions in detention centers and continues the struggle against the use of torture in interrogation in Israel and the Palestinian Authority. United Nations Information System on the Question of Palestine The main collection contains the texts of current and historical United Nations material concerning the question of Palestine and other issues related to the Middle East situation and the search for peace. World Organisation Against Torture OMCT is today the largest international coalition of NGOs fighting against torture,summary executions, forced disappearances and all other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in order to preserve Human Rights. It has at its disposal a network, SOS Torture, consisting of some 240 non-governmental organisations which act as sources of information.
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