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Torturing Each Other: The Widespread Practices of Arbitrary Detention and Torture in the Palestinian Prisons
by Al Haq
This report documents and analyses arbitrary arrests, acts of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment against individuals in the West Bank and Gaza Strip by various Palestinian security or military agencies and personnel.
These illegal practices have had a horrific physical and psychological effect on hundreds of Palestinian citizens and the society at large.
Today Al-Haq, as a Palestinian human rights organisation
dedicated to the promotion and protection of human rights in the
Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), is releasing its report,
“Torturing Each Other: The Widespread Practices of Arbitrary Detention
and Torture in the Palestinian Territory.”*
In the wake of Friday’s explosion in Gaza that killed six people
and injured tens more, Al-Haq is again reminded of the importance and
timing of this report. The ensuing arrests of Fateh-affiliated
individuals and attacks on Fateh buildings and offices in Gaza over the
weekend, which were then followed by widespread arrests of Hamas
members in the West Bank, are evidence that the political infighting
that has sparked the growing use of torture and ill-treatment of
detainees has not waned. In this moment, Al-Haq therefore calls upon
the authorities and security forces in both the Gaza Strip and the West
Bank to refrain from exacting revenge on these detained individuals, to
release those who have been arrested arbitrarily and to properly
monitor the treatment of all detainees under their control. The
alternative would be to further deepen the pain and instability within
Palestinian society that has resulted partly from the growing use of
torture and ill-treatment by these groups over the past year.
Ever
since the de facto Hamas authority seized control of the Gaza Strip and
the OPT became effectively divided along authority and territorial
lines, Al-Haq has diligently monitored and documented the outbreak of
the use of torture within the OPT. By taking sworn statements from
victims, eyewitnesses, lawyers, families and others, we have monitored
the situation inside prisons and detention centres in both the Gaza
Strip and the West Bank, and in evaluating our findings, have
discovered a host of unsettling and unacceptable facts.
Al-Haq
has found that the use of torture is driven primarily by political
interests within the fractured political context of the OPT, and most
often as a form of revenge against perceived political enemies. In the
past year alone, Al-Haq has taken more than 150 sworn statements and
documented over 2000 arrests in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. This
documentation confirms that the use of torture and ill-treatment
against detainees has clearly become a widespread trend. And while
there are some discrepancies between the intensity and rate of these
practices in different areas, this trend prevails throughout the entire
OPT.
In
the immediate aftermath of the creation of the de facto Hamas authority
in the Gaza Strip, when political tension was most severe and peace
most fragile, virtually all security groups in the West Bank shared in
arresting, and then using torture or ill-treatment against,
Hamas-affiliated targets. Although after the first three months many of
these groups stopped these practices, torture, ill-treatment and
arbitrary arrests continued to be used by the General Intelligence
Service and the Preventative Security Force. Meanwhile, in the Gaza
Strip, the Executive Force and the Hamas-affiliated Izz-al-Din
al-Qassam Brigades were using similar tactics against Fateh targets.
The practices have been vicious and inhuman, even leading to the deaths
of at least three detainees in the Gaza Strip and one in the West Bank.
As Al-Haq reports in detail, they are all in violation of Palestinian
law, human rights law and the basic standards of humanity as embodied
in international law.
This
widespread use of torture to terrorise, extract information from, and
intimidate perceived political enemies within the OPT decreased in
intensity by the end of 2007 and early 2008, but it still continues
today. New trends have included an increase in psychological torture,
an increase in arbitrary arrests, and arrests and detention carried out
in violation of the Palestinian Basic Law and penal procedural laws.
And while government officials have pledged to bring the security
forces into line with the law and punish those responsible, the reality
on the ground remains bleak. By not taking action against the
perpetrators, and in the absence of legitimate and sustained monitoring
– internally and externally – of their security forces, these officials
are encouraging these illegal practices.
With
this report, Al-Haq hopes to highlight and expose this horrifying and
blatantly illegal trend, and to bring to light an aspect of Palestinian
life that is spreading fear amongst the population and undermining the
legitimacy of the authorities throughout the OPT. Most importantly,
Al-Haq calls upon the respective Palestinian authorities in the West
Bank and the Gaza Strip to put an end to arbitrary arrests, torture and
ill-treatment of detainees and to punish those responsible. Finally,
Al-Haq would like to thank all those who shared their stories for their
courage in speaking out against these abhorent practices.
*This report is available in Arabic. An executive summary in English is available here.
- Ends -
Al-Haq releases new report on arbitrary detention and torture in Palestinian prisons
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