No country on the planet does not have blood on its hands and collective soul from the filthy process of torture. Not one.
It is known that the countries of the Middle East are particularly skilled at these things. Whether done with skill or the brutality of the "rebels" in Libya, it goes on. Consider China. The torture there is also beyond belief. We all know about the horrors suffered by Americans soldiers in WW2 under the Japanese.
There is the School of the Americas where such skills are taught. Every stinking special service has its own particular skill at breaking down the human psyche. However, Israel has a special place because of its open torture of Palestinians. Despite our collective horror over the doings of Abu Ghraib, however, the world is appallingly indifferent when at the fate of the Palestinian victims of Israeli torture.
The ugly truth about Zionism and Israel. Body thefts are just part of the atrocities these people do in the "safety" of their own borders. Or, excuse me, the ever-fluctuating borders they have stolen from the Arab populace, in this case the Palestinians. But remember, these things are done to any Arab. These things are also done to young detainees, not just seasoned adults. And note, discussed here are primarily male prisoners. It goes on with both genders and is not age specific. It seems, with the Israelis, even babies are fair game.
October 4, 2011
Recognition of ‘Israel’ is tantamount to approval
of the crimes against humanity that forged its existence. Such recognition is
absolutely inexcusable on any level, moral, legal, or otherwise.
Amnesty International has
concluded that there is no nation on the face of the planet in which torture is
as well-established and documented as in the case of the state of Israel(1).
This, coming from an organization
not exactly renowned for its tenacity with respect to the Zionist entity’s
crimes, is particularly telling. In addition to this the Zionist entity has a
long history of refusing to investigate or even acknowledge the brutal torture
that it visits upon its occupied, dispossessed, and terrorized victims.
The Shin Bet (known
officially in English as the ‘Israel Security Agency’) is Israel’s domestic
‘security’ force, which boasts the motto “Defender that shall not be seen”.
Reporting directly to the
Office of the Prime Minister, the Shin Bet is responsible for carrying out the
most unimaginably depraved torture on innocent Palestinian detainees, a handful
of which will be documented herein.
Ever since its birth,
forged in the fires of Jewish terrorism, ethnic cleansing, massacres and rape,
the Zionist entity has encountered resistance (peaceful and armed) from
dispossessed and occupied Palestinians.
Having absolutely zero
moral or legal claim to the land it now occupies, Israel responds to righteous
peaceful or armed resistance in the only way it can: with violence and force characterized
by unmitigated brutality.
Through a mere handful of
examples, the reader will see how with unspeakable cruelty, the Zionist entity
destroys individuals and families alike, physically and psychologically. Lives
are torn apart; human beings are subjected to nightmarish treatment, inflicting
unthinkable pain and distress.
Their only crime?
Exercising their right to self-determination in the face of a violent foreign
occupier.
Torture by the Israeli
regime is systemic in Occupied Palestine. It is the Zionists’ bulwark, indeed
their only bulwark, against the
rightful resistance mounted by the dispossessed and occupied Palestinians.
What is euphemistically
called ‘interrogation’, ranges from beatings, to isolation and sensory
deprivation. From assault and mutilation of the genitals, to sodomy and rape.
Electric shocks at the mouth, temples, and testicles are widely used, as are
attack dogs.
Invariably detainees are
held in stress positions within tightly confined cells, and deprived of sleep,
food and water. Detainees often have committed no crime other than having been
politically active, voicing opposition to the occupation.
The
source materials he cites include the Al-Fajr Jerusalem Palestinian Weekly,
case studies carried out by himself and Mya Shone, as well as a five-month 1977
study by the London Sunday Times.
I cannot stress enough
the importance of reading these accounts in full; the pure brutality visited
upon the victims stretches even the cruelest imagination.
Fazi
Abdel Wahed Nijim was arrested in July 1970. He was tortured at Sarafand and
set upon by dogs. Arrested again in July 1973, he was beaten in Gaza prison.
Zudhir
al-Dibi was arrested in February 1970 and interrogated in Nablus where he was
whipped and beaten on the soles of his feet. His testicles were squeezed and he
was hosed with ice water.
Shehadeh
Shalaldeh was arrested in August 1969 and interrogated at Moscobiya. A
ballpoint refill was pushed into his penis.
Abed
al-Shalloudi was held without trial for sixteen months. Blindfolded and
handcuffed while at Moscobiya, he was beaten by Naim Shabo, an Iraqi Jew, and
Director of the Minorities Department.
Jamil
Abu Ghabiyr was arrested in February 1976 and held in Moscobiya. He was beaten
on the head, body and genitals and made to lie in ice water.
Issam
Atif al Hamoury was arrested in October 1976. In Hebron prison the authorities
arranged his rape by a prisoner trustee.
In
February 1969, Rasmiya Odeh was arrested and brought to Moscobiya. Her father,
Joseph, and two sisters were detained for interrogation. Joseph Odeh was kept
in one room while Rasmiya was beaten nearby. When they brought him to her she
was lying on the floor in blood-stained clothes. Her face was blue, her eye
black. In his presence, they held her down and shoved a stick into her vagina.
One of the interrogators ordered Joseph Odeh “to fuck” his daughter. When he
refused they began beating both him and Rasmiya. They again spread her legs and
shoved the stick into her. She was bleeding from the mouth, face and vagina
when Joseph Odeh fell unconscious.
THE CASE OF GHASSAN HARB
Ghassan
Harb, a 37-year-old Palestinian intellectual and journalist for Al Fajr, a
prominent Arabic daily, was arrested in 1973. He was taken by Israeli soldiers
and two plain-clothes agents from his home to Ramallah prison where he was held
fifty days.
During
this time he was neither interrogated nor accused. He was denied any contact
with his family or a lawyer. On the fiftieth day, Ghassan Harb was taken with a
sack over his head to an undisclosed place. Here he was subjected to sustained
beating: “Fifteen minutes, twenty minutes beating with his hand across my
face.”
Stripped
naked and a bag placed over his head, he was forced into a confined space. He
began to suffocate. He managed by moving his head against the “wall” to remove
the bag and found himself in a cupboard-like compartment some 2 feet square and
5 feet high [60 cm. and 150 cm. Respectively].
He
could neither sit down nor stand up. The floor was concrete with a set of stone
spikes set at irregular intervals. They were “sharp with acute edges,” 1.5
centimeters high. Ghassan Harb could not stand on them without pain. He had to
stand on one leg and then replace it continuously with the other. He was kept
in the box for four hours during the first session.
He
was then made to crawl on his knees on sharp stones while being beaten for an
hour by four soldiers.
After being interrogated, Ghassan Harb was returned to
his cell and the routine was repeated: beatings, stripping, forced to crawl
into a dog kennel two feet square and then the “cupboard.” While in the
cupboard at night he heard prisoners pleading, “Oh my stomach. You are killing
me.”
Ghassan
Harb was released two-and-a-half years later, never having been charged with a
crime or brought to trial. His lawyer, Felicia Langer, succeeded in taking the
matter of his maltreatment to the Israeli Supreme Court. No full statements
were taken or admitted into the court hearing; no witnesses were called. The
court dismissed out of hand all charges of torture.
THE CASE OF NADER AFOURI
Nader
Afouri was a strong, vital man, the weight-lifting champion of Jordan. When he
was released in 1980 after his fifth imprisonment, he could not see, hear,
speak, walk or control his bodily functions.
Between
1967 and 1980, Nader Afouri was held ten and a half years as an administrative
detainee. Despite the brutal treatment and torture inflicted upon Nader during
five imprisonments, the Israeli authorities could neither extract a confession
nor produce any evidence with which to bring Nader Afouri to trial.
The First Imprisonment-1967-1971:
“I was arrested initially in 1967, the first year
of the occupation. They took me from my home in Nablus, blindfolded me and
hanged me from a helicopter. All the people of Beit Furik and Salem villages
near Nablus witnessed this.
“They
brought me to Sarafand, the harshest prison, a military prison. I was the first
man from the West Bank or Gaza to be brought there. When they set the
helicopter down, they pushed me out and ordered me to run. I heard gunfire and
ran as they were shooting at me.
“They
took me to a large room full of red, yellow and green lights. I could hear
screams and the sounds of beatings. I heard a man yell: ‘You’ll have to
confess.’ Then I heard a man confessing. Soon, I discovered this was a
recording meant to intimidate me.
“Then
they took me to the interrogator. They tied me with chains to green doors. Each
door had a pulley. They opened the door, spreading my hands and legs, and then
wound the pulleys till I fell unconscious.
“They
made me get up on a chair, tied my hands to chains hanging from a window and
slowly removed the chair. My muscles tore as the weight of my body pulled on my
hands. The pain was terrible.
“There
were five or six men. They all beat me. They hit me with blows on the head.
They chained me to a chair. One would beat me and some of the other men in the
room would say ‘Stop.’ Then they would change from one to the other, each
hitting me in turn. I was kept chained in that chair and never allowed to stand
up.
“They
kept torturing me. An interrogator sucked on a cigarette. When it was red, he
placed it on my face, chest and genitals ~ all over.”
“One
shoved a pen refill up my penis while the others watched. As they did this they
asked me to confess. I started to bleed from my penis and was taken to Ramle
Prison Hospital but was soon brought back again to Sarafand for further
interrogation.”
“I
was in Sarafand twelve-and-a-half months and was interrogated continuously. No
one can endure twelve-and-a-half months. On four occasions my friends in the
other prisons were informed officially that I had died.”
“The
first month in Sarafand, I was always blindfolded and had chains on my hands
and legs. After one month they removed the hand chains and blindfold. But I
wore leg chains for twelve-and-a- half months. Day and night I had chains on my
legs. The marks are still on my ankles.”
“This
was the routine: They would beat me, interrogate me, and then throw me in the
cell. I would rest awhile; then they would take me again.”
“The
cell was 3 feet by 4 feet by 4 feet high [1 meter by 1.3 meters by 1.3 meters].
My height is 5 feet 6 inches [1.7 meters]. I slept crouched with my legs up
against my stomach. There were no windows in the cell and no furnishings, only
a pot for shitting. I had two blankets.”
“The
stones on the floor were very sharp. They punctured my feet when I walked. They
began to bring other prisoners. They gave us army clothes with numbers on the
back. I was number one. They would only call me by my number, never by my name.
They were always insulting me, yelling ‘Maniuk (Faggot), I will fuck you.’ When
we were chained outside they brought savage dogs. The dogs jumped at us,
grabbed our clothing and bit us.”
“Over
thirty people were arrested after my own detention and all underwent the same
torture. All, however, broke down under torture and wrote confessions and are
in prison for life. I didn’t confess.
The torture destroyed my penis and I
could only urinate drop by drop. I could not walk for three-and-a-half months
when I finished the interrogation. But I did not confess. I never spoke a word
in twelve- and-a-half months.”
Nader
Afouri was sent to Nablus Prison where he began a hunger strike demanding his
freedom. He took only water and a little salt. After ten days he was promised
his release. Ten days later when Nader Afouri had not been released, he renewed
the hunger strike for yet another week. Again the Administrative Vice-President
of Nablus Prison promised to release him. When there was still no action after
twenty-five days, Nader Afouri announced another hunger strike.
“I
was sent to the cells of Ramle prison after twenty-two days of this hunger
strike. Dr. Silvan, the director there, brought several soldiers with him. They
beat me on the head. I passed between life and death. They chained my hands and
forced a tube in my nose. It was like an electrical shock. I began to shake. I
became hysterical when the food reached my throat and began to scream
constantly. They gave me an injection in the hip and I relaxed. When this
torture failed to make me talk I was placed in the Prison Hospital at Ramle and
then sent back to Nablus Prison.”
Each
time a confession was extracted from another prisoner incriminating him, Nader
Afouri would be called for interrogation. Often he did not even know the people
who spoke against him. But still he did not confess, nor was he brought to
trial.
Nader
Afouri was well respected in Nablus and became a leader of the prisoners. When
Abu Ard, an informer, accused him of leading the other prisoners, Nader Afouri
was sent to Tulkarm prison.
“Fifteen
soldiers came in and beat me on the head with a chair. I fell unconscious. They
put my shirt in my mouth and beat me more. I became hysterical as I was
gagging. They gave me an injection and I fell unconscious. I awoke alone in the
corridor. I couldn’t see. All Tulkarm Prison went on strike and the prisoners
met with the Director to speak about me. He promised he would release me the
next day if they stopped their strike.”
“The
Director came the next day and shook hands with me and said: “I swear by my
life that you are a man.” They brought me socks and a jacket and promised me a
private visit with my family.”
Nader
Afouri was not freed. Instead he was sent to Bet Il prison from which he was
eventually released in 1971. His four years of imprisonment were without trial
and labeled administrative detention.
Only
a few months lapsed before Nader Afouri was detained again. His second
imprisonment lasted from 1971 until 1972 and a third from November 1972 until
1973.
The Fourth Imprisonment: Nov. 1973 ~ Nov. 1976:
“Hebron,
Moscobiya, Ramallah and Nablus: I stayed three months in a cell in each of
these four prisons and the interrogation and torture continued.”
“It
was snowing during the interrogation in Hebron. They stripped me and put me
outside in the cold. They tied me with chains to a pole and poured ice water
over me. They let me down and brought me to a fire to warm up only to bring me
outside again for the ice water treatment.”
“Iron
balls were put into my scrotum and squeezed against the testicles. Pain just
enveloped me. “One of the investigators, Abu Haroun, said he would turn my face
into a bulldog’s. He was scientific. He hit me with rapid punches for two
hours. Then he brought a minor and said: ‘Look at your face.’ I did indeed look
like a bulldog.”
“In
Nablus they burned me with cigarettes and again pressed the metal balls against
my testicles ~ squeezing the egg against the iron. They used pliers to pull out
four of my teeth.”
“I
was detained three years administratively. During that time as an act of
revenge, they also dynamited my house.”
The Fifth Imprisonment: November 1978 ~ 1980:
“They
arrested me again in November 1978 and sent me directly to Hebron. They greeted
me, sneeringly, declaring: ‘We will make you confess from your asshole.’ I told
them I speak from my mouth, not my asshole.”
“At
first they spoke nicely to me because they knew torture wouldn’t work. Then
they brought the men in charge of interrogation: Uri, Abu Haroun, Joni, the
Psychiatrist, Abu Nimer who has a finger missing, Abu Ali Mikha and Dr. Jims.”
“They
chained me to a pole and concentrated their beatings on my chest. They lay me
down on the floor and jumped high in the air landing on my chest. Uri did this
seven or eight times. It was savage, unending torture for seven days. They
smashed their boot heels on my fingernails, breaking my fingers.”
“It
was snowing so they poured ice water on me. They handed me a paper and gave me
two hours to confess. I said I knew nothing. They chained me to a chair. All of
them began to beat me with their hands and feet. I fell down. My head was on
the floor. I saw Uri fly through the air and I felt his karate chop on my head.
This was the last memory I had for two years.
“I
have been told that I was dragged back to the cell. The other prisoners had to
feed me, clean me and turn me over. I was incontinent and shat on myself. I
could not move my hands or walk. I could not hear.
I could not recognize
anyone. Only my lips could move and I would swallow whatever was put in my
mouth. People had to move my head. They had to move my limbs from under my
body. My weight fell to 103 pounds [47 kilos].”
“Two
years later, I woke up in a mental hospital. I had five fractures in my hips
and I couldn’t walk.” His friends were able to arouse public concern throughout
Israel and the Occupied Territories. Israeli officials and journalists wrote
that Nader Afouni was “feigning” and that he was an excellent “actor.”
But
the prisoners who had taken care of him and the journalists and sympathizers
who visited him when he was finally transferred from prison to a hospital, as
well as the hospital staff that eventually treated him, bore witness to his
condition. Nader Afouni became a cause célèbre for the Palestinian people, a
symbol of the torment inflicted upon them and of the heroic dimension of their
resistance.
THE CASE OF DR. AZMI
SHUAIBY
Azmi
Shuaiby, a dentist, was an active member of the El Bireh City Council in the
West Bank and an elected representative to the National Guidance Committee.
Since 1973, Dr. Shuaiby has been arrested, brutally tortured and imprisoned
seven times. Between 1980 and 1986 he was forbidden to leave the limits of El
Bireh and was confined to his house after 6 p.m. In 1986, he was again
imprisoned and then deported from the West Bank.
He
has never been accused of armed actions or of promoting violence. But Dr.
Shuaiby refuses Israeli demands that he collaborate. He has written articles
against the occupation and settlements and in favor of an independent
Palestinian state.
In
1973, when first arrested at the age of twenty, Azmi was told:
“We
have been watching you. You were first in your class at the University. We can
make you a very rich and powerful man in the West Bank. You must cooperate with
us and join the Village Leagues.”
Upon
his refusal, the series of arrests and savage torture began. Dr. Shuaiby
described the methods of torture, both physical and psychological to which he
was subjected.
“They
used heavy batons. They put my legs between chair legs so I couldn’t move. Then
they beat the soles of my feet.
My
feet swelled. After one minute I could no longer feel my legs. The pain was
excruciating. I was unable to stand. They would stand behind me. I couldn’t
tell if anyone were there. Suddenly, the interrogator clapped his hands over my
ears with great force. It caused sudden, terrible pressure in my nose, mouth,
and ears ~ a loud ringing which went on for five minutes. I lost my balance and
hearing.
They
used a giant guard to punch me constantly. He said: “You are a dentist? Which
hand do you use? If we break your hand you will no longer be a dentist.” Then
he beat my hand until I felt it break.
They
tied my hands behind my back and suspended me on a hook. They spread my legs
and beat me on the testicles with sticks. Then they squeezed my testicles. I
cannot describe the agony produced by squeezing the testicles. You feel
stabbing pain in your stomach, in all your nerves.
You
want to faint.
They
put me outside in the winter, naked and fully exposed, with my cuffed hands suspended
from hooks. I was hung this way from 11 p.m. at night until just before
sunrise. Then I was returned to my cell. They had put water on the cell floor
so that I couldn’t sleep. They told me I must collaborate with them and that
when I did I must tell neither the Red Cross nor anyone else that I was working
for them.
I
replied: “OK, I will tell them that you said I must not tell anyone you want me
to work for you.” I refused to collaborate. They beat me endlessly.”
In
1980, the Israelis introduced new techniques. Dr. Shuaiby designates these
methods “psychological torture”; he found them harder to endure than the
physical torment. “Your brain is affected.”
Dr.
Azmi Shuaiby was subjected to the following ordeal: Isolation: “No one was
allowed to speak to me, not even the soldiers. The cell was 4.5 feet by 5.5
feet and 9 feet high [1.5m by 1.8m by 3m]. In one corner was a stinking hole
used as a toilet. There was only a tiny window near the floor. I could never
see the sky. The bare light was on day and night. I had nothing to read. I
heard no voices. Food was put in the corner and the door opened very slightly.
I had to strain to reach for it piece by piece.
“The
bedding consisted of a plastic cover less than one half inch [1 cm.] thick. It
was always wet. Once a week I was allowed to go out for a few minutes to air
the bedding. No soldier was permitted to speak to me.
To
maintain my sanity I collected small pieces of orange peel and made shapes with
them. I would ask myself questions and then answer them. I also pulled threads
from the blanket and knit them together.”
The
Cupboard:
“I was entombed for four days and
nights, squeezed into a bent but standing position in a cupboard 20 inches by
20 inches [50cm. by 50cm.]. It was very dark. A filthy sack had been tied over
my head. My hands were handcuffed behind my back with special cuffs. If I moved
my hands in any way the cuffs automatically tightened. I was unable to move in
the cupboard. I had to sleep while standing. I slept a minute at a time, awakening
abruptly, convinced that I was suffocating.”
The
Interrogators:
“The interrogation and torture were
carried out by a team. All were officers and captains, their names Gadi, Edi,
Saini, Yacob and Dany. The interrogation room is their kingdom; no one can enter.
During
the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the interrogation team was sent to
Lebanon and a new staff brought to the West Bank prisons. The ‘new staff’
consisted of former torturers. One man had been an interrogator ten years
before; now he was a businessman.
‘Captain
Dany’ returned from Lebanon during my imprisonment. Captain Dany is a very
tall, handsome man of thirty-five years. He is very crude, constantly yelling
‘Fuck your sister, fuck your mother.’
He
would force my mouth open and spit in it. In 1973, he tried to force a bottle
into my anus. When he saw me on his return from Lebanon, he said: ‘Oh, Azmi is
here,’ and proceeded to tell me about the young children in Ansar. ‘I
interrogate children 10, 11 and 12,’ he began, giving me accounts of their
beatings.”
Dr.
Azmi Shuaiby was imprisoned three times in 1982. Between December 7, 1981, and
January 16, 1982, he was kept in isolation during the General Strike in the
West Bank and the closure of Bir Zeit University. From April 1 to May 3, when
the Israelis disbanded the West Bank City Councils, Azmi was placed in the
“cupboard” and then again in isolation. He was kept in isolation throughout the
Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
“Recently
they told me: “We will destroy your clinic by jailing you every alternate
month. Our computer will determine when you are scheduled to be imprisoned
again.” In 1986, Dr. Azmi Shuaiby was deported.
THE CASE OF MOHAMMED
MANASRAH
Mohammed
Manasrah was a trade union activist, secretary of the Bethlehem University
Student Senate and is currently a writer and journalist. He was imprisoned
three times for a total of four-and-a- half years and then placed on additional
probation for two years.
His
torture during interrogation was unrelenting, resulting in sexual dysfunction
and hearing loss. He also endured numerous additional briefer detentions as
well as house arrest and town restrictions.
The First Imprisonment:
“I
was nineteen years old in 1969 when I was arrested for the first time. I was
taken with a group of people and held in the Moscobyia [the Russian Compound in
Jerusalem] for six months, where I was interrogated about demonstrations,
publications and organizations.
“Moscobiya
was barbaric. They took our clothes and covered our eyes. They cuffed our hands
and chained ten of us in a row. We were stripped naked. They threw water on us.
Then they beat us in turn, using sticks on our heads and on our sexual organs.
They would alternate throwing water on us and beating us on our sexual organs.
We would hear them filling the buckets and brace ourselves, but no matter how
we tried, we could never prepare ourselves for the beatings.
“My
friend, Bashir al Kharya, a lawyer, has been in prison since 1969. They beat
his head with heavy sticks for three days. His head became green from mold and
was infected with bacteria for five years. He is still held in Tulkarm Prison.”
The Second Imprisonment:
“In 1971, the authorities accused me of membership
in both the P.F.L.P. (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) and Fatah
[Yasser Arafat’s group in the P.L.O.] even though one couldn’t be a member of
both organizations.
“The
security services lacked any evidence but they gave me the choice of being
charged with membership in an illegal organization and being sentenced to
prison or voluntarily moving to Amman [Jordan]. I told them I would rather be
imprisoned for a lifetime than be exiled. I confessed to membership in the
United Student Council, the council of all student organizations which had been
declared illegal. I was then imprisoned for one year in Ramallah and Nablus
prisons.”
The Third Imprisonment:
“In 1975, they raided my house in Dheisheh camp and
confiscated all my books. They brought me to Bassa Police Station where they
beat me for two days. They asked no questions. One interrogator stood in front
of me and another behind me.
Suddenly
the one behind would clap his hands with great force on both my ears. Blood
flowed from my ears and mouth. I suffered brain damage.
One
prisoner, whom they were trying to terrify, fainted when they brought him to
where I was being tortured. “They imprisoned me for three years. I was held in
Hebron, Ramallah, again in Hebron, Farguna, Beersheba, again in Hebron and then
again in Beersheba. They would transfer me for ‘security reasons’ as punishment
after hunger strikes.”
Torture
in Hebron Prison:
Mohammed Manasrah was taken to
Hebron and tortured in many different ways: They tied me upside down and beat
me endlessly on the feet with a piece of wood. You can’t imagine how much they
hit me.
My feet swelled to a huge size and turned blue. I bled under the skin.
They stripped me of my clothes and hung me by chains with my hands above my
head and my feet barely touching the ground. They beat me constantly on the
feet, always concentrating on my feet. Sometimes they would let me down and put
my feet into a basin of filthy, stinking cold water. This would relieve the
pain. Then they would hang me up again. I had to sleep chained up, with my
hands above my head. This went on for fourteen days.
Maisara
Abul Hamdia was with me. For every blow I received, he got two.
Maisara
would be hanging when I entered the torture room. Then Maisara would find me
hanging when he was brought to the torture room. [Maisara was later deported to
Jordan.]
After
fourteen days, I would lose consciousness constantly. I was put in Cell #5. It
was 5 feet 3 inches by 2 feet and 5 feet 6 inches high [160cm. by 60cm. by
168cm.]. It was as high as I am tall and its length was such that I had to put
my legs on the wall when I lay down. The only sound I ever heard was that of
the keys. I became terrified whenever I heard that sound. I don’t know exactly
how long I was there.
It was somewhere between five days and one week.
I
was beaten all night when they transferred me from Cell #5 to Cell #4. They
used wide sticks and beat me on the head and sexual organs. They pulled my hair
and hit my head on the wall. I have a permanent problem with my sexual organs
and have had many X-Rays taken of my head and sexual organs.
I
was brought to the military courtroom early in the morning and made to wait all
day. But there was no session. Instead, Abu Ghazal, the famous interrogator,
came. He grabbed my hair and swung me around the room, smashing me against the
wall. My hair was pulled out. He threatened to send me to Sarafand or “Akka” [a
secret prison used in 1974 and 1975] if I didn’t confess within two days.
I
was put in a cell and slept the entire time. I didn’t know if it were day or
night, two days or ten. I still feel cold when I recall this period. I get
chills in my legs. After two days, ten soldiers rushed into my cell and started
to beat me. They dragged me along the floor to the torture room. They told me
that my friends and comrades had confessed.
I
said: “Bring them to me.” I knew these were lies. They brought two types of
people to me in order to make me confess: kind, weak people who couldn’t bear
to see how I was being tortured and “asafir” [spies]. Now they initiated other
methods ~ alternating between beatings and soft talk in the hope that I would
crack and “confess.” They accused me of being a member of the P.F.L.P., Fatah
and the Communist Party. They would change their accusation, but one thing
remained constant: after each accusation-they would beat me savagely.
They
brought two Majors to see me who lectured me for six hours ~ about the Soviet
Union’s crimes against the Jews and China’s oppression of its national
minorities. They accused me of being a communist because they found books on
Marxism in my house. I told them there couldn’t be peace here without
self-determination for the Palestinian people. They asked me to write this down
and sign it and I did.
After
forty-six days of interrogation and detention they sent me to a military court
in Ramallah. I was accused of having carried out actions against the
authorities. My lawyer, Ghozi Kfir, asked for specifics. The court responded:
“This is a revolutionary and a deceiver.”
Before
the hearing my lawyer and the prosecutor had worked out a deal. I was to be
released without charge if I did not speak in court about how I was tortured.
But the judge ignored the agreement and sentenced me to five years. I served
three years and was placed on probation for two.”
The above testimonials are from:
THE
HIDDEN HISTORY OF ZIONISM BY RALPH SCHOENMAN;
CHAPTER
10: THE PREVALENCE OF TORTURE.
The Zionist entity
doesn’t limit its thirst for cruelty to adults; Palestinian youths are targeted
with brutality in equal measure. In 1983 Himsam Safieh and Ziad Sbeh Ziad, from
the Galilee, committed the crime of raising the Palestinian flag on the first
anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila massacre.
As a result they were
detained for six months, during which time they were stripped naked and left in
a cold room. They were sprayed with cold water and beaten from head to toe,
including their genitals. On top of this they were electrocuted ~ all in an
attempt to extract false confessions. At the end of their detention, they were
released without charge.
During the first intifada
in 1987, over 17,000 Palestinian youths were detained by Israel, many of whom
were subjected to this kind of treatment.
In an attempt to crush
the uprising (which consisted of mass strikes and demonstrations), Israeli
soldiers roamed Palestinian villages and towns, terrorizing the population.
Youths as young as 13
years of age were taken from their homes, beaten senseless, and then buried
alive. Some were subsequently dug up and rescued by villagers who had seen
where they had been buried, others were not so lucky.
Israeli soldiers poured
boiling water over a two-year-old infant, rendering her catatonic.
Israeli helicopters flew
over towns, dropping an unknown green gas on the defenseless population.
They fired canisters of
the mysterious gas into homes and prevented the residents from leaving.
Throughout the West Bank
and Gaza, cases of miscarriages, vaginal bleeding, and asphyxiation occurred as
a result. Needless to say, the gas was a gift from the U.S.A, bearing the
markings: “560 cs. Federal Lab.
Saltsburg, Pa. USA MK2 1988”.
What is most significant
about these horrifying cases of torture and brutality is that they are not
uncommon, nor are they the results of ‘rogue’ cops or soldiers.
They are a direct result
of Zionist policy.
As discussed by
Schoenman, the patterns of torture reported are “similar to those found in hundreds of testimonies published by Israeli
lawyers, Felicia Langer and Lea Tsemel, by Palestinian lawyers Walid Fahoum and
Raja Shehadeh, by Amnesty International and the National Lawyers Guild and the
series of accounts this author documented from former prisoners.”
Furthermore, it is worth
reiterating the fact that Amnesty International has found the Zionist entity to
be the world’s most prolific torturer.
Israel’s Shin Bet, the
very group responsible for perpetrating the horrific torture outlined in the examples
above, continues its savage practices to this day. From 2001 to 2009 inclusive,
the Israeli State Attorney’s Office received over seven hundred complaints of
torture carried out by the Shin Bet; the Zionist entity refused to investigate a single one of these cases(2).
In a recent example a
Palestinian youth was held for six years by Israeli jailers, during which time
he was held mainly in solitary confinement, and had boiling oil poured over him(3). As a
result, Raf’at Bani Odeh now suffers from serious physical and psychological
scars.
As brutal, vicious, and
barbaric as these practices may be, it is difficult for one to be surprised.
The usurping Zionist
entity is literally built on lies, blood, and hate. Al Nakba, euphemistically
referred to by historical revisionists of the negationist persuasion, as ‘The
War of Independence’, was an orgy of violence levied at an innocent, defenseless
indigenous population.
Massacres of men, women,
and children were committed in an attempt to terrorize the Palestinian
population at large into flight. Hundreds of villages were razed to the ground
so that their rightful residents could never return. ‘Israeli’ towns and
villages took their places, with Hebrew names to supplant the Arabic. As
‘Israeli’ war criminal Moshe Dayan would say: “There is not a single community in the country that did not have a
former Arab population”.
To this very day, Al
Nakba continues in slow motion as Israel ‘Judaizes’ the entirety of Occupied
Palestine and ethnically cleanses the rightful occupants from their land.
It is not enough to decry
the ethnic cleansing, land theft, and occupation that afflicts the ‘West Bank’
and Gaza, whilst recognizing ‘Israel’.
The violent, racist,
usurping Zionist entity occupies the entirety of Historic Palestine. What is
happening to the West Bank and Gaza is simply a continuation of the very crimes
that forged Israel’s existence: terrorism, massacres, extra-judicial murder,
torture, ethnic cleansing, and land theft. Recognition of ‘Israel’ is
tantamount to approval of these crimes against humanity, and such recognition
is absolutely inexcusable on any level, moral, legal, or otherwise.
NOTES
(1) ‘The
Hidden History of Zionism’ by Ralph Schoenman, 1988.
(2) ‘Failure
to investigate alleged cases of ill-treatment and torture’ ~ B’Tselem.
(3) ‘Family
says Israeli jailers poured boiling oil on its son’ – The Voice of Palestine.
