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When will Israel stop persecuting Palestinian prisoners? | | Human Rights

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On June 15, 2016, Israeli forces arrested Mohammed El-Halabi, the Gaza branch chief of World Vision, a Christian humanitarian organization. Mohammed was charged with fundraising from World Vision to protest groups in Gaza. Surveys are performed on both World Vision and Australian Government found no evidence of fraud or misappropriation of funds.

Mohammad remained in custody for 52 days being interrogated and tortured. His father, Khalil El-Halabi, testified about the torture his son endured in those months in prison: “The Israeli intelligence police placed a dirty sack over his head and hung him on the roof for a long time.”

Muhammad also suffered from insomnia and frequent beatings by Israeli officials who slapped him, “pushed her, mostly on her genitals, and then killed her until she felt she was about to die … in a small room and sang loud noises until she was in agony. In the summer, they would strip her naked, and then blow her away in the hot air. She would do the same thing in winter, but with cold air instead.

More than five years later, Mohammed remains in prison in Israel.

For Palestinian prisoners in Israel, these incidents are unfortunate. To mark the 37th anniversary of the United Nations Convention Against Torture (UNCAT), the international community must call for an end to systematic persecution of Palestinian and Israeli prisoners.

UNCAT was established on June 26, 1987, and was approved by Israel on October 3, 1991. Israel’s participation may seem strange in view of the repeated human rights abuses that have been blamed for the past several decades, including human rights abuses. and well-respected human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

Until 1999, torture was considered a legitimate way to gain recognition in Israel, especially for Palestinian “security” prisoners. However, after being barred by the Israeli Supreme Court, the Israeli attorney general promised to protect any interrogator who continues to use “special methods”. And, of course, special tactics continued to be used when Israel ceased to follow the law, especially in the so-called “bombshell”. According to Amnesty International, “Shin Bet’s supporters have tortured hundreds of Palestinians, based on” the bomb blast “.

Not only does this allow these bad habits to continue unchecked, but they are a direct violation of Article 2 of the Convention. Paragraph 2, section 2, it says, “No special circumstances, such as war or threat of war, political instability or any other public accident, can be attributed to torture.” Israel has been rebuke and the UN Committee Against Torture for failing to meet this standard.

In addition, the failure of Israeli courts to express their views on torture does not disqualify Israel from its role in the UNCAT definition of torture. According to the Convention, the word “torture” is explained such as:

“[A]anything that a person experiences severe pain or suffering, whether physically or emotionally, intentionally with the intent to obtain information from a third party or to disclose it, to punish him or her for what he or she has done or for a third party. he or she is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or her or a third party, or in any other way on the basis of any form of discrimination, when such pain or suffering arises with or on the basis of the consent or consent of a government official or other legal practitioner. ”

Well-known forms of physical and emotional torture often perpetrated by Israeli interrogators and officers, especially among Palestinians during interrogations and while in prison, include painful handcuffs, detention in pain severe, as well as sleepy. There have also been reports and reports of threats of rape, as well as actual rape or rape, in particular, Palestinian women and Israeli prison staff. Former inmates also said they were forced to watch the torture of fellow inmates to intimidate them into complying with their demands, or to be threatened with detention and torture by their relatives, which has sometimes happened.

Physical and emotional abuse and abuse of Palestinian children is alarmingly common. The Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCIP) has obtained oaths from 752 children detained between January 1, 2014, and December 31, 2019. These are the evidence. revealed that 95 percent of children were handcuffed, 72 percent were physically abused, 21 percent were depressed, and 18 percent were imprisoned for two days or more.

On October 22, DCIP and five other civil rights groups were present selected as “terrorist” organizations by the Israeli Ministry of Defense in a vicious attempt to destroy their publicity for Palestinian children and senior prisoners.

Much of this atrocity is justified by Israel’s differences between “security” prisoners and criminal prisoners, as well as its greater limitations on what is considered a security issue. This allows Israel to persecute the people secretly so as not to undermine the security of the state. In particular, the “security” offenses in Israel including throwing stones, common conviction among children.

According to a reports Human Rights Watch reports: “Israeli authorities have detained thousands of Palestinian people for what they perceived to be ‘security violations’ since 1967, including hundreds of almost every time they were detained in prisons for confidential evidence without charge. or to bring them to trial over an extended period of time.

The distribution of “security” to a prisoner or detainee is very important because it deprives that person of the freedom to be granted to other prisoners in Israel. For example, according to the US Department of State’s 2020 Country Reports on Human Rights, the group frees interrogators in Israel from the practice of recording audio and video recordings by protected detainees, which allows aggressive interviewers to avoid responding.

While hope for a position of responsibility may seem hopeless, there have been recent attempts by the US to create a mechanism to hold Israel accountable, especially with the adoption of a bill by Congresswoman Betty McCollum, HR 2590: Protecting the Human Rights of Palestinian Children and Living Families. Under the Israeli Military Occupation Act. HR 2590 raises the issue of Israeli detention by military courts, and seeks to provide assistance in addressing the ongoing human rights violations under this unfair system.

As nations around the world commemorate the establishment of the UN Convention Against Torture, they should also remember many Palestinians such as Mohammed El-Halabi who were persecuted by a country that often promotes a genuine response to the UN.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Al Jazeera.



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