0% Conviction rate for Israeli interrogators who use torture

Conviction rate for Israeli interrogators who use torture: 0%
Allison Deger on February 20, 2014





Israeli actor demonstrates the “shabach” position for the human rights group B’tselem. (Photo: AP)

In Israel torturing Palestinian prisoners is against the law, but since 2001 there has not been a single conviction—even when the state admits its use. Over the past 13 years Palestinian detainees have filed over 800 petitions to criminally prosecute and in 15 percent of those trials, the state admitted to the abuse. That’s right, zero.

Read more here from Mondoweiss

http://mondoweiss.net/2014/02/conviction-interrogators-torture.html

Released Palestinian detainees struggle with life outside prison

Released Palestinian detainees struggle with life outside prison

Liberated prisoner Oweida Kalab, 50, closed all the windows and turned on the radio to listen to Hebrew-language stations. He locked himself inside his room and refused to see visitors or go outside, except for the rarest of occasions, as he relived his 25 years in prison. For 18 of these years he was in solitary confinement, unable to hear anything but the voices of his Israeli jailers.

His brother’s wife, Ferial Kalab, who takes care of him with her family, told Al-Monitor, “The [Israeli] occupation forces arrested him in 1988. We used to go visit him when he was still a young man. But in 1992 he began refusing to come out and meet with us, so we stopped going to see him. We got word from other prisoners that his mental state was deteriorating.” She explained that his comrades attributed this deterioration to the solitary confinement and interrogation methods used inside the prison.

Oweida is not the only detainee who has continued suffering after his release pursuant to the Shalit deal. Liberated prisoner Mohammad Karim, 31, who was incarcerated for nine years and released in the same deal, expressed his frustration to Al-Monitor. He said, “I feel that everyone is better than me. They all can plan for their futures, but I cannot. Despite my smile, this freedom pains me. I would rather remain alone and away from people.”


Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/01/palestine-released-prisoners-challenges.html#

Children in Chains - Documentary Trailer by Jonathan Pullman

Israel's Military Prosecution Denies parents Rights to accompany Children to Court

Israel’s Military Prosecution Denies Parents Right to Accompany Children






Israeli soldiers severely beat Hendi S, 17, after arresting him on Sept. 19 on suspicion of stone throwing, according to his affidavit, and one of them burned his arm with a cigarette.

Ramallah, January 16, 2014—Israel’s military prosecution denied last week the parents of a Palestinian child called upon to testify in an investigation over his alleged abuse by Israeli soldiers from accompanying their son. The decision contradicts a previous precedent set by the prosecution in summer 2012, allowing “a close relative (father or mother) who is not a lawyer” to be present during a child’s deposition.

Read the full report at
http://www.dci-palestine.org/documents/israel%E2%80%99s-military-prosecution-denies-parents-right-accompany-children

Protest against G4S for their complicity in the torture of Palestinian women prisoners

PROTEST G4S COMPLICITY IN TORTURE OF PALESTINIAN WOMEN - FREE LENA AL-JARBONI

DATE: Friday 17th January 2014, 2pm - 4pm
LOCATION: G4S HQ, 105 Victoria Street (Closest public transport: Victoria Tube/Rail station)
FACEBOOK EVENT: https://www.facebook.com/events/691875460844559/

PALESTINIAN WOMEN POLITICAL PRISONERS

We are launching a campaign to highlight the plight of Palestinian women in Israeli prisons, and specifically G4S complicity in their torture and suffering.

Currently there are 17 Palestinian women political prisoners in Israeli prisons. All but one is in HaSharon prison in Israel. The British private security contractor G4S provides the full security system at HaSharon including the central command room for the entire prison. The transfer of Palestinian prisoners from the occupied West Bank and Gaza to into Israel (to HaSharon Prison) is illegal under international law and constitutes a war crime, G4S is complicit in this by the services it provides to HaSharon Prison.

Before being brought to prison the women have to endure weeks, sometimes months, of torture at one of Israel's interrogation centres to extract confessions from them - usually the infamous 'Russian Compound' in Jerusalem or the notorious Al-Jalame torture den - both these facilities are also secured by G4S.

The longest serving Palestinian women prisoner is Lena Al-Jarboni who has endured 11 years in HaSharon. The campaign will centre around her as an example of what Palestinian women have to endure and their resilience and steadfastness in the face of the occupation prisons.

LENA Al-JARBONI

Lena was born in 1974 to a Palestinian family near Acre in 1948 Palestine. Due to financial difficulty she could not complete her studies and worked in sewing workshops to help her family. In 2002 she was picked up by Israeli security. After 30 days of severe torture at Israels notorious G4S secured Al-Jalame torture den they charged her with "collaborating with the enemy" - she unlike her Palestinian friends has an Israeli citizenship. They sentenced her to 17 years in HaSharon women's prison.

At HaSharon prison Palestinian women prisoners have to endure beatings, insults, threats, sexually explicit harassment and sexual violence, and humiliation at the hands of Israeli guards. Often they are forced to undergo degrading and intrusive body searches during the middle of the night for no reason other an as a punitive measure. Women have been beaten and left tied to their bed for a day and a half and not allowed to go to the toilet as punishment for spilling water. The cells at HaSharon prison are overcrowded, dirty and infected with rodents and cockroaches. There is a total absence of basic hygiene, women have even been denied sanitary pads when menstruating. The heat is unbearable, The windows are closed and covered so that hardly any air or daylight can enter. The food is insufficient, and of inferior quality & dirty, often containing insects & worms, at times there are not enough portions for all the women.