Rabin Government Again Authorizes Use of Torture Against Palestinians

By Stephen J. Sosebee

The beating death of Abdul Samad Hreizat, 28, on April 24 in the Russian Compound prison in Jerusalem offers renewed proof that the use of torture by the Israeli security services has not abated since the signing of the Oslo accords. On the contrary, two weeks before Hreizat's killing, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin issued an order permitting the Shabak, Israel's internal security service, to use "more than moderate physical pressure" when questioning alleged Islamic activists. The phrase "moderate physical pressure" was authorized under previous Shabak guidelines, and has become a euphemism for the investigators to coerce confessions and information from Palestinians by Israeli interrogators. (These measures are not used against Jews arrested either in Israel or in the occupied territories.)

Prior to Rabin's new order, the use of torture had been convincingly documented over a period of several years before the recent wave of suicide attacks by Hamas and Islamic Jihad activists. Palestinian detainees have been dying under Israeli interrogation since the occupation began in 1967. Nor do the Israelis use torture as a means to subdue resistance to military occupation only in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Several political prisoners also have died in Israeli-supervised prisons in south Lebanon in recent months. Though it is not documented how many Lebanese and Palestinians seized in Lebanon have died in detention since the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, it is clear that torture is still used widely both in Lebanon and in the West Bank.

Since the intifada erupted in late 1987, according to the Mandela Institute for Political Prisoners, 36 detainees have died in West Bank and Gaza prisons due to torture or the lack of proper medical care. On April 8, 28-year-old Mawzuz Dalal died in Ramle Hospital after being in a coma for over a month while serving a six-month administrative detention order. (Such orders authorize imprisonment without charges or a trial for six months at a time and are renewable for a second six-month period.) "The prison administration failed to give him the proper treatment at the proper time," said human rights lawyer Ahmed Sayyed.

In January, 16-year-old Nadhim Omran died in Fara'a Prison and in February, 46-year-old Mohammed Sbeih died in Ramallah Prison. "The use of torture is only one way in which political prisoners are punished and intimidated," explains Sayyed. "Terrible prison conditions and the denial of adequate medical care also are used to punish and coerce prisoners."

In south Lebanon, Israeli troops and their proxy, the South Lebanon Army (SLA), occupy a nine-mile strip Israel calls its "Security Zone." The SLA is an Israeli-funded mercenary militia which participated in the Sabra and Shatila massacre, along with Maronite Christian militiamen from East Beirut, when Israeli forces occupied West Beirut and the Palestinian refugee camps there in September 1982. Within the Security Zone Lebanese resistance fighters, as well as political prisoners from Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, suffer the same treatment as their imprisoned brethren in Palestine.

The SLA's Khiam Camp

On January 19, Haithem Dabaja, 28, died of torture following 10 years of imprisonment without trial in the notorious Khiam detention camp run by the SLA in the Security Zone. A month earlier, two men were taken to Beirut hospitals where they died shortly after being released from the Khiam camp.

"We can say that over 80 percent of all prisoners in Khiam suffer health problems due to conditions there," says Mustafa Ramadan, 85, who was released from Khiam last October after serving six years without trial. "The cells are extremely damp and we were only allowed outside once every three days." According to a support group for Lebanese in Israeli prisons, most detainees suffer heart, pulmonary or nervous disorders as a result of conditions in Khiam.

Conditions at the Khiam camp, set up in 1983 after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, are even worse than in the prisons of Palestine or Israel, including Ansar 3 in the Negev Desert. The International Red Cross, prisoners' relatives and human rights groups are denied access to the 250 Lebanese and 100 Palestinians detained in Khiam.

Though the Israelis often claim that only "moderate physical pressure" is permitted during interrogations, in fact the dozens of torture deaths during the last 10 years in Israel, Palestine and south Lebanon prove otherwise. Furthermore, Rabin's recent order permitting use of "more than moderate" force during interrogations is not just a desperate effort to undermine the threat of the Islamic groups opposed to the Oslo accords. It is proof that the Israelis consider torture an effective tool in extracting information and inducing confessions.

"He was not in Hamas or Jihad," says Hreizat's brother in Yatta village near Hebron. "He was against the settlers and occupation like all of us, but did not belong to any group. Because he was religious, they came and beat him in front of all of us. Abdul Samad was not the first to die this way and he won't be the last."

Torture is still widely used both in Lebanon and in the West Bank.

Abdul Samad Hreizat died in Hadassah Hospital just two days after being arrested by Israeli intelligence. An autopsy conducted by an Israeli pathologist confirmed that he died of unnatural causes. His family reported that he was in good physical condition when arrested and a medical report later found that a severe blow to the chest had prevented oxygen from reaching his brain.

The growing death toll indicates that torture will continue to be used widely by Israeli authorities against Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners in the absence of international pressure to desist. The international community, especially the U.S., has an obligation to pressure the Rabin government to put an end to this brutal and illegal behavior. Peace does not come by signing accords, but by dealing with adversaries in a manner that demonstrates a willingness and ability to live in peace as neighbors. Beating detainees to death does little to create an atmosphere of reconciliation in the West Bank, Gaza or Lebanon.

Stephen J. Sosebee, a free-lance journalist, divides his time between the U.S. and Israel/Palestine.