Israel embeds torture without shame!
The release of some of the Palestinians incarcerated by Israel is to be welcomed, however, the evidence and accounts of systematic and brutal torture are horrifying to read and unimagineable to those of us who have not experienced this. Possibly as many as 11,000 Palestinians remain in Israeli jails, several thousands under “administrative detention” ie without charge or trial.
Torture of those on the Flotilla
Several of those who were taken from the Sumud Flotilla have also described the brutal treatment they received; while they are keen to emphasise that their terrible experience over just a few days is as nothing compared with what Palestinians have to endure over many months and often years. We must also remember that many of those released and thousands more still in Israeli jails have not been charged with anything or even gone through the heavily biased Israeli courts. If those taken from Gaza since October 7th are prisoners of war, then they should be treated as such and in accordance with the Geneva Convention on their treatment.
Sarah Wilkinson about whom we have posted before was on the flotilla. She is awaiting trial for terrorism and on her return was arrested by the British police.
When Greta Thunberg was released she was clear that she did not want to be the story. She later spoke to a Swedish newspaper and her account about her own and others’ treatment makes important reading. The failure of the Swedish Embassy in Israel is also noteworthy and to be condemned.
Thunberg’s (mis)treatment, as a well known western woman with a Swedish passport, illustrates how the Israeli government seems to have no shame about how it treats human beings and, hopefully, serves to further highlights the ubiquity of torture being meted out to Palestinians, torture which is nothing new as this report illustrates.
Systematic Torture of Palestinians in Israeli jails
The condition of many of the Palestinians who were released was so serious that even mainstream, legacy media covered it: The Daily Mirror headline was Tortured Palestinian prisoners so badly starved they are ‘unrecognisable’ after release and face exile. “One prisoner said he lost more than nine stone (59kg) in captivity, in what was “an indescribable journey of suffering”. Kamal Abu Shana, 51, from the West Bank town of Tulkarem said it was “hunger, unfair treatment, oppression, torture and curses – more than anything you could imagine”.
The Mirror report also notes that 1,700 of the nearly 2,000 who were released were among “the several thousand Palestinians that Israeli troops seized from Gaza during the two-year war and have been held without charge.”
On October 10th Le Monde published “In Israeli prisons, hunger and torture are ever-present” in which they “collected the accounts of three civilians from the West Bank who were detained for months without trial or judgment and subjected to food deprivation and regular beatings.”
Administrative detention is a form of torture itself; you do not know what you are charged with or how long you will be kept in prison. None of the three who were interviewed gave their names for fear of being arrested again. One said “For two years, I was hungry,” he explained. “No sugar, no salt. They only gave us enough to keep us alive, and the quality of the food was very poor.” All three of the prisoners lost substantial amounts of weight from 47 to 56 kilos. Itamar Ben-Gvir, in charge of security has boasted that he wanted only to provide Palestinian prisoners with “minimal food”.
As well as extreme hunger, prisoners have report Beatings, deprivation, torture and rape. They reported that “at every transfer, they stripped us naked”. In addition there was little if no medical care. one of the three prisoners had his hand broken during the many beatings along with a fractured elbow and torn muscles.
Tortured to death?
They were sent back to Gaza with numbers instead of their names, leaving family members of missing Palestinians to pore desperately through pictures of the bodies, hoping to spot their loved ones.
Returning to what?
For many of the Palestinians released, they have returned to Gaza after many months or years of incarceration and return to find Gaza has been largely destroyed, they may find that many – or even all- their family members have been killed. One man was told that all his family had been killed but they had not and his relief is, of course, enormous, but that also is a dreadful form of cruelty.
Some are not even allowed to return to the West Bank or Gaza but are exiled to Egypt where it will be almost impossible to see, let alone be reunited with family members.
Final Words
It is difficult but necessary to read about Israel’s quotidian brutality. It must make us angry. We can empathise but I, for one, cannot understand how this level of dehumanisation is possible but more seriously how Israel is allowed to carry out such actions and yet still be welcomed into the international community, still invited to participate in international sports, arts and other activities. This torture alone should surely make it a pariah State.
There’s an “end of times” feel to the brazen viciousness of so many of Israel’s institutions (IDF, prison services, police and government). Are they lashing out so horribly because it’s their last chance to do so – or because they still believe they’ll get away with it?
Recent “Jerusalem Post” articles hinted strongly Israel will lose the ICJ and ICC cases already in process; also new cases will start. They also explained the impact of those cases in the business world. There was a record number of Israelis emigrating last year.
I don’t think that the Israeli government thinks it’s “their last chance to do so” I think that they know that they are supported in what they do by governments such as the US and UK. The Israeli lobby has bought the complicity of the West.
Israel gets away with mass displacement, colonialsim, genocide and torture whilst condemning is misrepresented by Israel’s supporters as ‘antisemitism’.
Through their lack of action to sanction Israel (words of condemnation are cheap), many – if not most – western countries are condoning Israel’s savage psychopathy (comparisons with the stringent reprisals against Russia are all too frequent & achieve nothing). Yes, Israel may overtly be displaying its barbaric, racist inhumanity but the US, UK, Germany & others are no less to blame for allowing it to take place and, in my view, equally responsible for the atrocities mentioned in the article.
Thanks to Leah for putting together this catalogue of horrors. It must have been hard to research and write. As she says, the level of dehumanisation going back decades is hard to comprehend, but the fact that Israel is allowed to get away with it and does not face the sports, cultural, economic and diplomatic sanctions it deserves, is simply unconsionable.
While leaders promote violence and depraved behaviour, people will follow. The US, UK and Israel promote violence, oppression and subjugation.
While we have leaders who see violence as a way to resolve their inadequacy and immaturity, this behaviour will continue.
Shocking news. I cannot be represented by a government that fails to sanction Israel for its inhuman behaviour. That the UK continues to supply Israel with arms should ensure their summons to the ICCs genocide trials, the sooner the better.
Sarah Wilkinsons interview about
her experience on the flotilla and at the the hands of the Israelis was harrowing enough but to come back to Britain to be treated as she has by the police is not only shocking but frightening. What has happened to us??