Category: Press Releases

“Ticking Bombs”

Testimonies of Torture Victims in Israel

A New Report by
The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI)

The report will be presented to the press on Wednesday, 30 May 2007, at 10:00 AM at the office of The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), 31 Blumenfeld Street, Kiryat Yovel, Jerusalem. Copies of the report (in PDF or Word files) will be sent to journalists upon request.

This report, issued by PCATI, describes the routine of torture in Israel from the point of view of its victims. Nine detailed case studies narrating the victims’ experiences from the moment of arrest, through interrogation and trial and through the routine refusal of the Ministry of Justice to investigate their complaints will provide us with a glimpse into the world of torture in Israel.

The detailed testimonies of these torture victims reveals the extent to which the practice of torture is widespread and not limited to General Security Service (GSS) interrogators. Practitioners and facilitators of torture include soldiers and their commanders, prison wardens and police officers, physicians and medical staff in hospitals, military attorneys and judges, the heads of the Ministry of Justice – the Attorney General, the State Attorney and the attorney responsible for the GSS Official in Charge of investigation Interrogees’ complaints in the (the MAVTAN) and members of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, all of whom, in practice or through lack of action, through knowledge or through their silence, are accomplices to the torture described in the report. The report, in addition, reveals the bureaucratic, almost banal, environment in which torture is carried out in Israel.

The report challenges and refutes the “ticking bomb” scenario that forms the basis for the legal “the necessity defence,” which facilitates the use of torture following the High Court of Justice ruing of 1999. The testimonies that make up the core of this report, which are among the harshest cases to reach PCATI in the years 2004-2006, contradict the “ticking bomb” scenario. These testimonies illustrate the fact that any Palestinian detainee might find himself tortured during interrogation under the pretext that he is a “ticking bomb” and that today in Israel there is no effective legal control –and certainly not moral control – against of the use of torture.

The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel underscores that the use of torture is absolutely prohibited under International Humanitarian Law (The Fourth Geneva Convention ratified by Israel in 1951) and under international human rights law (The UN Convention on Civil and Political Rights and the UN Convention against Torture and Other Forms of Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment that were ratified by Israel in 1991).

The automatic immunity that the Israeli prosecution and judicial authorities grant torturers and their collaborators will not protect them. Each of the 142 member states who ratified the UN Convention against Torture or the 193 member states of the Geneva Convention (all the nations in the world) are obliged to bring to justice or extradite for the purpose of legal action, any person in their territory who is suspected of involvement in torture. The decision of the House of Lords in Britain on the matter of Chile’s former dictator, Augusto Pinochet, and the legal process initiated in Germany (that was subsequently dismissed) against form US Secretary of State, Donald Rumsfeld, prove that this is more than a theoretical option.

In its recommendations, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, continues to call on the State of Israel to absolutely prohibit the use of torture, without exception and without “special permits”, and to pass legislation specifically outlawing and criminalizing torture. To do otherwise will cast doubt on Israel’s claims of upholding the most basic moral and democratic principles expected of members of civilized society.

For additional details please call:

Eyal Hareuveni, PCATI Spokesperson

Tel: 972-2-6429825, 972-54-4660248

Fax: 972-26432847

E-mail: eyal@stoptorture.org.il

Building Design: Big names urge Israelis to end ‘oppressive’ works

Alsop, Farrell and MacCormac join call to stop work on schemes that oppress Palestinians
by Helen Crump, 25 May 2007

A host of celebrated architects including Will Alsop, Terry Farrell, Richard MacCormac, Rick Mather and Ted Cullinan have waded into the politics of the Middle East with a challenge to fellow professionals in Israel to cease work that “excludes and oppresses” Palestinians.

The architects, who also include RIBA president Jack Pringle and president-elect Sunand Prasad, have signed a petition organised by Architects & Planners for Justice in Palestine which accuses construction professionals working on three separate Israeli developments of “social, political and economic oppression.”

“APJP asserts that the actions of our fellow professionals working with these enterprises are clearly unethical, immoral and contravene universally recognised professional codes of conduct,” a spokesman said.

“We ask the Israeli Association of United Architects (IAUA) to meet their professional obligations … to declare their opposition to this inhuman occupation.”

The IAUA was unavailable for comment, but the action was condemned as foolish and damaging by Michael Peters, founder and chairman of the Identica brand agency, who has worked extensively with architects in Israel.

“British architects are going to burn their bridges with a number of developers — Israeli, British and European,” he said.

Last year Richard Rogers faced stinging criticism from US clients after he hosted a meeting of APJP (News March 10, 2006).

The petition, which focuses on the village of Silwan in east Jerusalem, the E1 plan for the expansion of Israeli settlement Ma’ele Adumim, and former Palestinian village Lifta, was strongly defended by Alsop.

“I think the Palestinians are living in a prison and they deserve better than that,” he said. “I’d like fellow colleagues in Israel to feel some responsibility about this shabby treatment. Architects are a fairly humanitarian lot and perhaps they could help.”

He added: “This is not against Israel, it’s for Palestine.”

Petition organiser Abe Hayeem, a London-based architect and APJP chair, called his fellow architect supporters “pretty courageous”, and insisted architects would not be deterred from backing causes they supported.

But Peters said British architects did not understand the situation in Israel.”Getting involved in a lobby group can only do a disservice to the whole architectural profession,” he added. “To accuse [Israeli] architects of being complicit is nonsense.”

Demonizing the Non-violent Resistance

IDF spokesperson’s campaign to demonize Non Violent peace activists
by the ISM Media Crew, 26 May 2007

According to the Israeli news internet site Walla on Friday, May 25, the Israeli military spokesperson claimed that the demonstration in Bil’in “ended in relative quiet.” The military spokesperson claimed that “this relative quiet stems from the fact that there were almost no leftist Israeli activists present”, since they “cause most of the friction between the demonstrators and the IDF”.

During this “relatively quiet” demonstration, soldiers fired tear gas and rubber bullets into the crowd from a distance of 200 meters without provocation, injuring six Palestinians, including an AFP journalist, who was rushed to the hospital after being shot in the head with a rubber-coated steel bullet. Two activists were detained during the demonstation. The first, Mohammad Khatib, from the Bil’in popular committee against the wall and settlements, was beaten during his arrest and after he was handcuffed. The second, Israeli David Reev, was approached by a soldier who twisted David’s arm while demanding that David hand over his camera.


Video of Mohammad Khatib being arrested and abused

Abbas Momani, 33, a photographer for Agence France-Presse, was shot when Israeli soldiers fired at a group of journalists. Turkish Daily News reported that Momani stated he was outside of a Palestinian residence in Bil’in when soldiers confronted them and told them to leave. Momani said, “We explained that we would leave but that we were waiting for the army jeeps who were blocking our cars from getting out. One of the soldiers, who was barely two metres away from us, then fired.”

For full AFP story click HERE

Is it really these leftist Israeli activists who incite “friction” and “provoke” the soldiers into throwing tear gas and sound grenades, and to shoot rubber-coated steel bullets?

Or is there another reason why the military wants to be rid of the Israeli and International activists? Israeli soldiers have stated in court that their regulations regarding opening fire differ when Israelis are present than when Palestinians demonstrate alone. If the soldiers assess that Israelis are present they are restricted from firing live ammunition on the crowd. A striking example is Beit Likya, a village neighboring Bil’in. In contrast to its neighbor, there have been no organized demonstrations against the wall and therefore no Israeli or International activists present in Beit Likya over the last two years. And yet within this time, three of the villages children were murdered, shot dead with live ammunition by a solider and a private security guard in incidents related to the Apartheid wall.

This demonization of nonviolent activists is not original or surprising. Muhatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King were also labeled provocateurs and trouble makers by those that supported the racist systems that they worked against.

One arrested at demonstration against land destruction

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
25 May 2007

One arrested at demonstration against land destruction in Artas, Bethlehem

UPDATE 26 May 2007, Gaby Lasky, George’s lawyer, relayed the news that George has been released from Israeli police custody in Hebron.

George was scheduled to appear for trial in 5 hours, around 20:00, this evening at the Russian compound in Jerusalem. Gaby stated that the Greek consulate was very active, which may have pressured the police to release George before the trial.

Greek consulate representatives and solidarity activists were planning to bring video evidence of George’s innocence to the court. George was being faced with trumped-up charges of “assaulting an office leading to injury” and “disrupting soldier’s work.” The video, to the contrary, shows George and other activists being assaulted by the soldiers immediately prior to George’s arrest.

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Today, May 25th, the residents of the south of Bethlehem area held a large demonstration against Israel’s Apartheid Wall which separates them from Bethlehem and steals their lands. The demonstration started in the village of Umm Salamuna, where Palestinians, Israelis, and internationals held a soccer game on the path of the Wall.

From there, at least 150 activists made their way to the village of Artas to protest Israel’s land destruction. This was a non-violent demonstration, aimed at reaching the land of the Abu Swai family, which soldiers claimed today was a “closed military zone.” After Friday prayers on the land, the non-violent demonstrators attempted to cross the barricade of Israeli soldiers. The army responded with force. George, an activist from Greece, was arrested and is currently being held in an Israeli jail in Hebron.

Martinez described the incident: “The demonstrators were completely non-violent. Not a single stone was thrown. But the soldiers started to beat and kick people. I saw at least two people being choked by soldiers. Then they went after George. He wasn’t doing anything but they arrested him anyways.”

An Israeli activist heard one of the detaining officers say that George was being arrested for “assault.”

After half an hour, the demonstrators sat on the ground affront the soldiers, refusing to leave the area. The demonstrators all then began shouting, “We want George! We want George!” The army, however, placed George in a police jeep and escorted him to an unknown destination, though it is believed that George is in one of the police stations in the Hebron area.

Earlier this week, the struggle reached the village of Artas, near Al Hader. It happened when Israeli construction crews reached the fertile lands of the village. The reason for the planned route of the wall is for the construction of two new neighborhoods in the illegal settlement of Efrata, stretching from it’s current border to the route of the wall.

Early Sunday morning, an Israeli bulldozer destroyed an entire orchard of apricot trees in spite of attempts by villagers and other activists who slept on the land to stop it. Occupation soldiers continued their work and ate sandwiches as farmers wept at the site of their ancestral land being ripped apart. Three Palestinians were arrested the following day for continuing to protest the land destruction. They have all recently been relased.

(Video and photos of land destruction here:
https://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2007/05/21/in-the-belly-of-the-wailing-democracy-called-israel/)

Video of today’s action available upon request.

For more information, contact:
ISM Media Office, 0599-943-157, 0542-103-657

Palestinian Information Minister: international community must impose sanctions against Israel

Dr. Barghouthi condemned the Israeli government aggression against a number of offices for the PLC and other West Bank charities

Press Statement, 23-05-2007

Ramallah – Minister of Information and Government spokesperson Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi condemned the Israeli storming of a number of offices for the Legislative Council and other organizations and charitable societies in Jenin, Jericho, Hebron and Bethlehem in addition to confiscating and vanadalizing their property.

Dr. Barghouthi said that the Israeli army targeted the Nafha society for the defense of prisoners in Jenin, where these forces destroyed the doors and confiscated computers and files for the prisoners from the society. The Minister of Information added that the Israeli occupation forces also stormed the PLC office in Tubas and confiscated office property and computers, in addition to storming the Naqa Women Society in Bethlehem, Isra’ charitable society in Jericho and the Haj Musbah abu Hanak school in Hebron where the invading forces confiscated two computers and other school records.

Dr. Barghouthi described the Israeli targeting of Palestinian institutions as another crime committed by Israel against the Palestinian people. He pointed out that Israel has gone out of control in violating all rights by targeting and destroying the Palestinian institutions; especially the humanitarian and educational institutions. The Minister of Information expressed dismay over the Israeli targeting to the Natsheh school run by Muslim Youth society in Hebron where 450 student study.

Dr. Barghouthi explained that Israel is perpetrates war crimes and violates the international law by bombarding Gaza and destroying Palestinian institutions and resources in the West Bank and by building the apartheid wall.

Dr. Barghouthi said that the international community is expected, more than ever, to take up its responsibilities and to impose sanctions against Israel to deter it from continuing with its crimes in the Palestinian territories.