Agencies-Gaza post
NGO calls to hold Israel to account for ongoing torture of Palestinians
The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH) called on Sunday upon the international community to meet its duties under international law and universal jurisdiction to hold Israel accountable for its ongoing suffering of Palestinian inmates.
In a statement marking the International Day in Support of the Victims of Torture, MIFTAH reported, “Despite the absolute prohibition of torture and ill-treatment under international law, Israeli occupation forces and prison authorities employ various torture and ill-treatment techniques against almost all Palestinian political prisoners and detainees, including women and children, leaving grave physical and psychological damage.”
The statement named various forms of torture and ill-treatment used by the Israeli jail authorities against Palestinian political prisoners and prisoners, such as prolonged stress positions, beatings, solitary confinement, sleep deprivation, deliberate medical negligence, physical and verbal sexual abuse, force-feeding, humiliation, and threat on family partners.
“Israel also extensively uses administrative detention to detain hundreds of Palestinians for indefinite periods of time with no charge or trial based on “secret charges”, something Palestinian human rights organization Addameer has identified as a cruel form of psychological torture,” said the report.
Since the start of its illegal occupation in 1967, Israel has detained over 1 million Palestinians. This policy of mass arbitrary arrest, the group added, is one of the tools that seek at supporting Israel’s illegal occupation and apartheid regime.
As of today, there are at least 4,700 political prisoners in Israeli jails, including 640 administrative detainees, 32 women, and 170 kids.
“Israeli prison authorities, occupation forces, and interrogators feel emboldened to commit such acts of torture with full impunity knowing that neither the complicit Israeli legal system nor the international community will hold them accountable,” the report clarified.
MIFTAH calls on the international community to help the research by the International Criminal Court into the Situation in Palestine, including the crime of torture, and to hold Israel to account for the ongoing suffering of Palestinians.
