November/December 1993, Page 68

Human Rights

By Lucille Barnes

Human Rights Activists Welcome Peace Agreement, But Criticize Israeli Torture of Prisoners

''For the last quarter of a century, authoritarianism has taken one of its legitimacy's from the [Arab-Israeli] conflict itself because military people thought they could deal better with Israel than civilians . . .if the peace process launched this month produces some form of acceptable Palestinian self-rule, an important foundation of authoritarianism is going to disappear. "

—Middle East specialist Ghassan Salame, Institute of Political Studies, Paris

Scholars throughout the Middle East predict a new era of peace and prosperity if the Israeli-Palestinian peace accord signed this month eventually leads to Israeli withdrawals from the Arab lands seized in 1967, in accordance with U.N. Security Council Resolution 242. In addition to profoundly affecting every aspect of life in the Middle East, from telephone communications to air travel and banking laws, it will change the politics and psychology of the region. Inevitably it will turn the spotlight of public opinion on questions of human rights. Military rulers in Iraq, Syria and Libya, who have adopted the forms but not the practices of democracy, may be forced to grant at least rudimentary freedoms, or explain to their people why not.

"When they agreed to this, both Arafat and Rabin most certainly unleashed forces which they will have great difficulty controlling," Kuwait University sociologist Khaldoun Naquib told a Washington Post correspondent. "In a historic sense, it's like what happened in the Soviet Union in 1985."

Whatever the initial effect, it seems likely that, in addition to encouraging demands for more freedom from repressive personal and economic legislation, the agreement ultimately will enhance press freedoms and improve the human rights picture throughout the Middle East.

Israeli Supreme Court Upholds Use of Torture in Interrogations Israel's Supreme Court has refused to halt the use of torture by Israeli Shin Bet internal security police during the interrogation of Palestinian political prisoners. In its Aug. 12 decision, the court refused to revoke authorization for the use of "moderate physical pressure" on grounds that Shin Bet methods of interrogation already are under the supervision of the attorney general, the state comptroller and the Knesset and that it had had no complaints from current prisoners that they had been tortured.

In fact, however, Amnesty International reported in July that Palestinians under interrogation are "systematically tortured or ill-treated.'' The International Committee of the Red Cross, whose representatives regularly visit Palestinian prisoners, has accused Israel of using interrogation methods that violate the Fourth Geneva Convention on treatment of civilians under military occupation.

Israeli television viewers were exposed to one result of such torture earlier this year when a 34-year-old Palestinian grocer, Hassan Zubeidi, was shown in his house in the West Bank town of Anabta staring uncomprehendingly at an interviewer. He had suffered a mental breakdown and become catatonic during a month in the hands of Shin Bet interrogators.

Of 500 former political prisoners from Gaza surveyed this year by the Gaza Community Health Program, 96 percent said they had been beaten by their interrogators, 91 percent said they had been kept standing for prolonged periods, 77 percent said they were subjected to extreme heat or cold, 76 percent said they had been deprived of food for 48 hours or more, 69 percent said they had been subjected to strangulation, 65 percent said interrogators had squeezed or crushed their testicles, and 15 percent said they were sprayed with tear gas.

"The court's ruling means that [it] will not prevent the use of unfit methods of interrogation even if they are illegal, immoral and not in keeping with the basic principles of human dignity and liberty as set forth in Israeli law," said Hanna Friedman of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel. It was her committee which, in 1991, petitioned the Supreme Court to declare the practice of torture illegal.

The committee's petition attributed at least 5 of 17 deaths of prisoners under interrogation in 1988 and 1989 to torture. Other Israeli, Palestinian and U.S. human rights groups in recent years have documented scores of cases of prisoner torture.

An Attempt to Outlaw Torture

Along with eight other Knesset members, Yael Dayan of the ruling Labor Party has introduced, unsuccessfully, legislation that would outlaw torture. Dayan, daughter of the late Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, said torture "has become the norm for Arab security prisoners." She estimated that more than half of the Palestinians tortured during interrogation, a period when they are denied access to the courts, are in fact never charged with a crime at all.

Israel has signed the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and Israeli officials deny that Shin Bet uses torture. However, the head of Shin Bet, whose identity is kept secret, has stated in an affidavit that "special interrogation procedures" are used against prisoners suspected of "serious offenses," which generally are defined as violent attacks on individuals, use of weapons or explosives, aid and transfer of funds to militant groups, and leadership of militant groups.

Present and former prisoners of the Shin Bet say such treatment is pervasive, and that army interrogators in the occupied territories use similar methods. Human rights monitors estimate that 500 Palestinians are subjected to such torture each month and that at least 30,000 have been interrogated since the beginning of the Palestinian intifada in December 1987.

Prisoners describe being kept on small chairs, hands shackled behind them, with foul-smelling dirty sacks covering their heads. Others report being forced to stand for long periods, being locked in tiny rooms, being deprived of sleep—sometimes for two or three days—while being bombarded by loud music and being shackled in painful positions between interrogation sessions, which typically continue over periods of two weeks to a month. Visits to-the toilet are restricted, and prisoners reported being forced to eat their meals while in the toilet. Other detainees report being violently punched, kicked or shaken and having their heads slammed into walls.

Kenneth Roth, New York-based acting executive director of Middle East Watch, reports that since human rights groups have begun complaining, Shin Bet interrogators have changed some practices. "The Shin Bet has refined its techniques so that they have become less discernible and they have deniability built into them," Roth said. "They are more sophisticated, but equally insidious."

Dr. Miriam Zangen, chairwoman of the 12,000-member Israel Medical Association, has served notice that her organization will instruct physicians to refuse to cooperate with abusive interrogations. Members also are banned from filling out medical forms used by the Shin Bet to certify that prisoners are fit for "coercion" during interrogation.

Lucille Barnes covers Washington and the Middle East for U.S. and overseas newspapers.