Israel is systemically torturing Palestinians who are held in Israeli prisons and detention centers. These practices have drawn condemnation from U.N. experts, and a new report by Israeli human
rights group B’Tselem, 'Welcome to Hell,' documents the horrific conditions faced by Palestinians who are detained by Israel, and says that Israel has turned its jails into torture camps. In their
report, B’Tselem collected testimonies from 55 Palestinians, including 21 from Gaza, detailing severe abuse. The violations reported include “frequent acts of severe, arbitrary violence; sexual
assault; humiliation; deliberate starvation; forced unhygienic conditions; sleep deprivation; prohibition on and punitive measures for religious worship; confiscation of all communal and personal belongings; and denial of adequate medical treatment.”. The report also reveals that at least 60 Palestinians have died in Israeli custody since October 7, including 48 from Gaza.
Since the start of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, more than a dozen Israeli prison facilities have been repurposed into a network of camps designed for relentless abuse of inmates. One of these torture camps, is Sde Teiman, a military base which is also used as a detention center. Israeli whistleblowers, along with former Palestinian detainees at Sde Teiman recounted the torture and abuse used by the Israeli military there against Palestinians.
One Palestinian who was tortured in Sde Teiman, Ibrahim Salem, has recently spoken out to share his experiences. Ibrahim was abducted by Israeli forces from the Intensive Care Unit at Kamal Adwan Hospital, where he was looking after his children who were severely injured, during an Israeli raid of the facility in December, 2023. At Sde Teiman, Ibrahim says Israeli soldiers routinely raped, beat and electrocuted Palestinian prisoners. Video footage of Israeli soldiers gang-raping Palestinian captives in Sde Teiman has also been leaked.
Other survivors, including Moazaz Obaiat who was released last month after being held without charges for 9 months, have shared their experiences of torture under Israeli detention. Moazaz was unrecognizable by his family upon his release, and said prisoners are living in Guantanamo-like conditions which no one can imagine.
B’Tselem’s report has said that this systematic torture is part of a broader, institutional policy “focused on the continual abuse and torture of all Palestinian prisoners,” which is directed by Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir and fully supported by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.This institutional policy, and the torture camps that Israel has created, were enabled and accelerated through amendments made in December, 2023 to Israel’s Unlawful Combatants Law. The amendments expanded the Israeli military’s ability to detain suspected militants.
Amnesty International has called this “an abusive law used to arbitrarily detain Palestinians from Gaza indefinitely without charge or trial” and said that it “legalizes incommunicado detention, enables enforced disappearance and must be repealed.”. They have also called it a flagrant violation of international law.
More broadly, many Palestinians who are detained by Israel have been arrested under a quasi-judicial process called administrative detention, through which Palestinians are initially jailed for six months, but their detentions can be and are then extended repeatedly for an indefinite period of time without any charge or trial. Additionally, trials for Palestinians, including children, are held in military courts, and are given lengthy sentences in what critics refer to as sham military trials because in many cases, Palestinians are prevented from having defense lawyers and due process. In contrast, trials of Israeli citizens are held in civil courts.
This dichotomy between the treatment of Palestinians and Israelis by the Israeli justice system is one clear piece of evidence of Israel’s apartheid system.
According to Amnesty International, “It’s impossible to talk about Israel’s judiciary without highlighting its ongoing role in enforcing and maintaining apartheid against Palestinians.”
This is also why human rights activists have referred to Palestinians detained by Israel as hostages, because many of them, especially after October 7th, have been arbitrarily detained.
We join international human rights groups and activists around the world to call for an independent investigation into Israel’s crimes against and torture of Palestinians, and for all arbitrarily detained Palestinians who are facing ongoing torture to be released. Palestinians deserve to be treated with dignity and humanity. The international community must act to end these atrocities and recognize the Israeli regime’s practices as a crime against humanity.
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