Israel high court responds to prison abuse revelations
Israel's Supreme Court issued an order June 23 demanding the Benjamin Netanyahu government provide an update on conditions in the Sde Teiman detention facility, where the government has been holding Palestinian detainees from the war in Gaza. The court gave the government until June 30 to provide its update. The order came in response to a challenge from a constellation of human rights organizations, including the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI), and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, seeking to shut down the prison over allegations of harsh abuses there.
Sde Teiman, in the Negev desert, was the focus of a CNN investigation into the treatment of Palestinians detained during Israel's war with Hamas. Whistleblowers from the detention center spoke to CNN, describing scenes of torture and severe human rights abuses.
The whistleblowers said the facility has two sections: one where general Palestinian detainees from Gaza were put under physical restraint, and one where wounded detainees were strapped to their beds, put in diapers, and fed through straws. They detailed physical punishment and acts of dehumanization, with one whistleblower who worked as a medic saying "They stripped them down of anything that resembles human beings."
CNN's report on Sde Teiman caused outrage, with the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Alice Jill Edwards urging Israel to take the account seriously:
The Israeli authorities must investigate all complaints and reports of torture or ill-treatment promptly, impartially, effectively and transparently. Those responsible at all levels, including commanders, must be held accountable, while victims have a right to reparation and compensation.
Israeli authorities announced that they would investigate the reports of abuse. They later told the Supreme Court that they were transferring detainees out of Sde Teiman and phasing out the use of the prison.
International law protects the basic rights of detainees under the United Nations Convention Against Torture & Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT). Under Article 16 of the convention, states must prevent in their territory any act of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment. Israel is a party to this convention.
This is not the first case that Physicians for Human Rights Israel has brought to the Supreme Court over the Israeli government's actions. Earlier this year, they challenged a government plan to send a group of Palestinian medical patients to Gaza. The Supreme Court sided with the human rights group, ordering the government to halt its plan. At the time, PHRI director Guy Shalev said, "Unless the Israeli public opens its eyes to what is being done in its name and insists on upholding clear boundaries, this moral stain will not fade away."
From Jurist, June 24. Used with permission.
Note: Thousands of Palestinians held by Israel have been detained for years without charge.
Palestinian arrests in the West Bank skyrocket
There has been a dramatic increase in the number of Palestinians detained on the West Bank since Oct. 7—more than 9,000, a 100% jump over the same period a year earlier. More than a third of these are in "administrative detention," which can last for weeks or months. And watchdog groups are sounding the alarm on what they claim are "brutal" conditions inside Israel's prisons. At least 27 Palestinians have died while in Israeli prisons in the last eight months. (PRI)
Right-wing protesters overrun Israeli miitary base
Military Police investigators raided the Sde Teiman detention facility in southern Israel to arrest soldiers suspected of "serious abuse of a detainee," leading to an angry confrontation at the site July 29. As news of the raid broke, a mob of angry protesters converged on the faciity in support of the soldiers, led by far-right Knesset members. Scores of protesters, including lawmakers Zvi Sukkot and Nissim Vaturi, breached the perimeter of the facility. The abused detainee is said to be a member of the Nukhba, an elite unit of Hamas' al-Qassam Brigades. (ToI, CNN, JP)
UN report documents abuses in Israeli detention
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) released a report July 31, documenting the detention of Palestinians by Israeli forces.
The report titled "Detention in the context of the escalation of hostilities in Gaza (October 2023-June 2024)" includes accounts of severe rights violations carried out by Israeli security forces in detention facilities between October 2023 and June 2024. The findings are based on extensive monitoring and data collection by the OHCHR office in cooperation with civil society, NGOs and governmental entities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. It includes findings from interviews with former detainees, victims and witnesses.
In the report, the OHCHR estimates that thousands of Palestinians have been detained since Oct. 7, 2023, including at least 40 United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) staff members. Most detainees are men and adolescent boys, though women and young girls have also been detained in large numbers. Data from a Palestinian prisoner's organization indicates a record high of 8,910 detainees between Oct/ 7, 2023, and May 28, 2024. This figure includes 295 women, 630 children. The OHCHR has found a majority of arrests arbitrary in nature, lacking legal grounds and restrictions on access to legal counsel and due process. The report identifies instances of torture and ill-treatment of detainees, including sexual and gender-based violence under inhumane detention conditions. (Jurist)
B'Tselem: 'systematic' abuse, torture of Palestinians in Israel
A report released Aug. 5 by Israeli rights group B'Tselem documents "systematic" abuse and torture of Palestinian prisoners by Israeli authorities. The report, titled "Welcome to Hell: The Israeli Prison System as a Network of Torture Camps," is based on interviews with 55 Palestinian detainees from the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and Israel. It reveals a pattern of human rights violations including arbitrary violence and sexual abuse, since the onset of the Gaza war following the Oct. 7 attacks. (Jurist)