Despite Video of the Beating Up of 50 Palestinian Prisoners in Ketziot Prison Israeli Police Were Unable To Find Out Who Was Responsible!
When
Human Rights Watch’s Report ‘A
Threshold Crossed - Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution was published the Board of Deputies, who style
themselves ‘the Voice of the UK Jewish Community’ leapt
into action.
Marie van der Zyle described
the Report as ‘a sham which puts rhetoric above fact.’ Van der Zyl emphasised
that Israeli Palestinians were ‘fully-enfranchised’
and that
‘Israel’s Arab
citizens have been appointed as ambassadors, professors, Supreme Court judges,
hospital directors, and other key roles throughout Israel’s socio-economic
landscape.’
This is the usual
excuse for Israeli Apartheid, as if the appointment of a token Israeli Palestinian
as ambassador to a nondescript country justifies the entrenched discrimination against
Israel’s Palestinian citizens and the violence that it metes out to them.
Israeli police chase protesters
The report
by Adalah, the Israeli Palestinian Legal Centre, What happened in the ‘torture
room’ at Israel’s police station in Nazareth?’ makes disturbing
reading.
Israel is the only country in the world where
torture is legally
sanctioned.
As Amnesty International noted, Israeli judges are complicit
in the use of torture. Only in very rare cases where the same methods are used
against Jews are Israel’s judges prepared to rule that such confessions are
inadmissible.
The pretext for torture is the ‘ticking time bomb’
scenario, a pretext that Israel’s colonial judges dreamt up in order to allow
Shin Bet, the Internal Security Service and the Police to continue to torture Palestinians.
That the so-called representatives of the Jewish community in Britain are
prepared to justify all actions of the Israeli state, calling their
critics ‘anti-Semitic’, is shameful but not surprising.
The Board of Deputies Constitution
enjoins it to ‘Take such appropriate action as lies
within its power to advance Israel's security, welfare and standing’ regardless of what it does. By claiming to speak on behalf of all British
Jews the Board actively does its best to increase anti-Semitism.
The IHRA
misdefinition of anti-Semitism says that it is anti-Semitic to ‘Holdi(negligence) Jews
collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel’. I agree and its
equally anti-Semitic to support Israel on behalf of all Jews.
The Torture Room in Nazareth Police Station
Adalah’s attorneys described
the violence handed out to Palestinians in Nazareth during the attack on Gaza
and the attacks on them. Palestinians were grabbed off the street and held in
the station:
Israeli “police officers led the detainees to a
room located on the left side of the entrance corridor to the station, forcing
them to sit on the floor handcuffed, to lower their heads towards the floor,
and began to beat them on all parts of their bodies, using kicks and clubs,
slamming their heads against walls or doors, and more. Officers wounded the
detainees, terrorized them, and whomever dared to lift his head upwards risked
more beatings by officers. According to affidavits, the floor of the room was
covered in blood from the beatings.”
The report says that
Most of the violent arrests of and attacks on
Palestinian citizens of Israel in the city were carried out by Israeli special
police forces, including undercover mista’aravim officers posing as
Palestinians. Israeli officers would continue beating, shoving, and choking
detainees while walking them from the scene of their arrest to the city’s
police station.
Israeli police in Nazareth even attacked Palestinian lawyers attempting to provide legal help as well as children. This is the answer to apologists for Apartheid like Marie van der Zyl Given the Israeli police record of exonerating their colleagues, we can be sure that no action will be taken or prosecutions brought.
Israeli Prison Violence
Torture in Ketziot, an Israeli Prison
This comes in the wake of an
article
describing what happened in Ketziot Prison in 2019 ‘Israeli Officers Were Filmed Beating Palestinian Inmates. No One
Arrested, Case Closed:
‘At least 10
officers were filmed beating prisoners and dozens more were present, in one of
the most violent events to ever take place in an Israeli jail. Only four
officers were questioned, none were arrested.’
The
evidence is on camera, as you can see, but the Police Investigation Unit was
only concerned to protect the prison officers. In the videos the faces of at
least 2 prison officers can clearly be seen.
If it was impossible to
identify those involved then the obvious action would have been to dismiss
every single prison officer. The continued employment of these thugs as prison
guards could not be tolerated. But the authorities were not interested in
punishing those responsible.
Guards at Haifa Court seal off the entrance whilst an Administrative Detention hearing was taking place
Administrative Detention
Under
Israel’s ‘emergency laws’ which date from the British Mandate, prisoners can be
gaoled without trial for up to 6 months renewable at a time. This is a law that
only police states possess.
Until recently this had
been used mainly against Palestinians in the Occupied Territories but now it
has begun to be used again Israeli Palestinians (not Jews of course).
Demonstration against Administrative Detention
It
was reported
that on June 4, as part of a mass detention campaign in Umm al-Fahm, the police
arrested Zafer Jabareen, a former security prisoner. Benny Gantz, the Defence
Minister, then signed a four month prison sentence. This is the face of Israel’s
new government. But when your judge is your oppressor, to whom do you complain?
Israel is engaged in a policy
of mass arrests against its Arab citizens (& a few left wing Jews). Three
Jewish racists who took part in a brutal
mob attack on a Palestinian man in Bat Yam this month were charged
with attempted murder and aggravated assault. More than 20 attackers were
seen on video beating the victim but only four have been arrested and just
three charged.
Since
May 9 Israeli police and Shabak (security services) have detained
more than 2,000 Palestinians inside Israel. The detention of Sheikh Kamal
al-Khatib in Kafr Kanna (north of Nazareth) on May 14 was the most dramatic. As
the police surrounded the Sheikh’s home, local residents spontaneously
organized a mass demonstration against his detention, and soon there were
clashes with the police. The police used live ammunition to disperse the crowd,
and Mako reported
that eleven of the demonstrators were evacuated for medical treatment, at least
four of them in severe conditions.
The
Israeli Police never use live fire
against Jewish citizens. Even in the case of Shira Banki, the 16 year old girl who
was murdered
at Jerusalem’s gay pride demonstration in 2015 by Yishai Schlissel, a religious Zionist fanatic,
the Police physically tackled him despite him wielding a knife, rather than
shoot him. When Palestinians wield knives they are always shot at.
Sheikh
al-Khatib, the Deputy Head of the Northern Islamic Movement, which Israel made
illegal as part of its Islamaphobic policy, was arrested
for ‘incitement’ remarks . No Jews are ever arrested, for racial incitement and
Lehava, which physically
attacks Israeli Palestinians suspected of sexual relations with Jews, is a
legal organisation. Israelis whose Facebook name includes
‘Death to the Arabs’ are legally untouchable. This is Israeli Democracy in
action.
'Maavet La'aravim' (Death to the Arabs) is Israelis favourite Facebook Moniker
Following
the attack on Gaza and the General
Strike of Palestinians, inside Israel and the West Bank, the Zionist pretence
that Israeli Arabs are equal citizens has been abandoned. Apartheid is becoming
more and more obvious as Israeli security forces engage in overt repression .
This demonstrates, not their strength but their weakness.
The
solidarity movement needs to recognise what is happening to argue that the Israeli
state as a Jewish state is an illegitimate state.
Tony
Greenstein
What
happened in the ‘torture room’ at Israel’s police station in Nazareth?
Lawyers from Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel
have collected multiple sworn affidavits testifying to rampant, systemic
Israeli police attacks and brutal beatings of Palestinian protesters, innocent
bystanders, children, and even attorneys inside Nazareth’s police station
during the period of protests in the city in May.
The graphic testimonies from victims, attorneys, and
paramedics on the scene tell a story of systemic Israeli police brutality and
physical, verbal, and psychological abuse of Palestinian citizens of Israel in
the northern city, and indicate that Israeli officers ran a “torture room”
inside the Nazareth police station – an informal term whose initial use may be
traced to the recent detainees and lawyers on the scene.
Adalah submitted a formal complaint to senior Israeli
officials today, Monday, 7 June 2021, regarding serious failures on the part of
Israeli police and investigators in Nazareth that amount to grave criminal
offenses, starting on 9 May 2021 and continuing for a number of days.
In their letter, Adalah attorneys Nareman Shehadeh-Zoabi
and Wesam Sharaf highlighted brutal, overt Israeli police violence in Nazareth
in breach of the rights of Palestinian citizens grabbed off the street and held
in the station, including the rights to liberty, dignity and bodily integrity,
as well as the right to counsel and due process.
Israeli “police officers led the detainees to a room
located on the left side of the entrance corridor to the station, forcing them
to sit on the floor handcuffed, to lower their heads towards the floor, and
began to beat them on all parts of their bodies, using kicks and clubs,
slamming their heads against walls or doors, and more. Officers wounded the
detainees, terrorized them, and whomever dared to lift his head upwards risked
more beatings by officers. According to affidavits, the floor of the room was
covered in blood from the beatings.”
Most of the violent arrests of and attacks on
Palestinian citizens of Israel in the city were carried out by Israeli special
police forces, including undercover mista’aravim officers posing as
Palestinians. Israeli officers would continue beating, shoving, and choking
detainees while walking them from the scene of their arrest to the city’s
police station.
Additional testimonies indicate Israeli police
prevented Palestinian detainees in the Nazareth station from receiving urgent
medical care for wounds resulting from beatings and attacks by officers, also
another extremely serious criminal offense.
Almost every night during the Nazareth protests,
ambulances were summoned to the police station and wounded Palestinian
detainees were evacuated to the city’s hospitals. Other detainees appeared in
court following their arrests displaying clearly visible signs of abuse and
violence, including stitches on their head, facial swelling, scratches, and
extensive bruising.
Sworn testimonies collected from attorneys on the
scene indicate Israeli police in Nazareth also attacked them and their
colleagues, who were seeking to provide legal aid to Palestinian detainees,
used force to distance them from the station, seized telephones and even
detained a lawyer.
Adalah demands immediate criminal probe of Israeli
police torture
“What happened inside the police station in Nazareth
amounts to torture and ill-treatment, and requires the immediate opening of a
criminal investigation to examine the circumstances and conditions of the
protesters’ detention at the station – including the investigation and
prosecution of police officers involved in the violence,” Adalah attorneys
wrote in the letter.
Faiz
Zbedeiat, 21, university student, Nazareth resident
The protesters stood in a circle … and I stood about
6-7 meters away from them. After a while, a police officer approached the scene
and announced over the loudspeaker that the gathering was forbidden and
demanded that the participants disperse. When I heard this, I stepped back so
that it was clear that I was not part of the rally. I was on the phone with a
friend, and a second after I hung up, the cops threw a stun grenade into the
street. Suddenly, I noticed a Border Police officer running towards me, and
when he got to me he punched me in the nose. I immediately said: “I’m standing
far away [from the protest], what have I done? I didn’t do anything.” He
suddenly started yelling at me, cursing me, hitting me again, and he said,
“Don’t talk to me, talk to the interrogator.” I immediately said that I was not
resisting… Two more policemen arrived, grabbed me and pushed me towards another
Border Police officer who grabbed me, hit me, and tried to slam my head against
the wall. I asked why they were hitting me when I’m not resisting. I even I put
my hands behind my back even though they didn’t handcuff me. Nevertheless, the
same Border Police officer hit me in the nose with the walkie-talkie that he
was holding. I raised my hands above my head to protect myself, and this
angered him and he started cursing and threatening me.
The cops dragged me, grabbing me by the head and
forcing me to look down. I was taken to the police station a few minutes’ walk
away. On the way to station, the same cops continued beating me even though I
wasn’t resisting at all. On the way, we met a policeman who appeared to be an
officer, and he started laughing and said to them: “Did you only arrest him?
That’s not enough. We need more.”
[In the Nazareth police station], police brought more
detainees into the room, some of them minors who were nevertheless held
together with us rather than being separated. At this point, the cops started
beating us and kicking us with their feet and batons. [My friend] who was next
to me, received a blow that caused a head wound which began to bleed. The blood
could be seen on the floor. I told him he should ask for immediate medical
attention, but he was afraid that if he asked for help they would beat him
again. The cops kept saying “Close the door.” No one was allowed to raise their
head; whomever raised his head or spoke was beaten more. I saw one guy who had
a broken nose, his face covered in blood, and yet they kept hitting him inside
the room. One of the police officers had an M-16 rifle and I saw that he used
it to hit detainees. There was a moment when I could take a glance back and see
that a police officer who was beating the detainees was masked.
The cops hit us in the back, slapped us in the face. I
personally was hit in the back. They tried to hit me in the head but I dodged
the blow, so they hit me in the stomach and slapped me in the face. I remained
calm and composed the whole the time, but those who resisted or reacted were
beaten more. The cops kept trying to provoke us, they cursed and threatened us.
For example, during the adhan (Muslim prayer), they started laughing and saying
“Pray that God will get you out of here.” After awhile, a police officer
approached me and whispered in my ear, threatening me. He cursed my mother, my
sister, and my wife. He then asked, “Did you understand?” I didn’t answer, and
he immediately slapped me in the face. He asked me again: “Do you understand?”
I still didn’t answer and he slapped me again in the face. Finally, he said “Go
explain to your friends”. He pushed me back down to the floor and hit me again.
I saw deliberate humiliation of the detainees. I saw
one of the cops kicking a detainee in the leg. Another officer came over and
said to him “That’s not how you beat someone,” and kicked the detainee harder.
The two cops started laughing.
Omaiyer Lawabne, Nazareth resident
On the eve of Eid el-Fitr and the last day of Ramadan,
my brother and I and two other friends decided to go out and celebrate with two
friends. We left the house around 21:00, and went to the “Checkers” store near
the parking lot on Hagalil Street in Nazareth. I parked the car there, and we
went to withdraw money from an ATM. I immediately noticed many police forces in
the area, some of whom were well-equipped and looked like special units, as
well as a demonstration that was taking place nearby. When I saw this, I
started to walk away slowly in order to distance myself a bit. At one point, I
looked to my right and saw a police officer in full gear running towards me
with his fist raised in the air. The officer hadn’t appealed to us, hadn’t
called out to us, hadn’t demand that we identify ourselves or stop. As soon as
he saw us, he came running towards me with his fist raised in the air. But the
thing is, we were just standing there, away from the demonstration, in a place
where no one was gathering.
When I saw the police officer running towards me, I
was scared, and I knew he was going to hit me. Out of fear, I started running.
I wanted to stop and explain to him that I hadn’t done anything, but when I
looked back I heard someone call out “Throw it, throw it,” and I realized that
they were referring to stun grenades. The cops started throwing grenades at me,
and I kept running because I knew that if I stood still I could be badly
wounded by the grenades… While I was still running, one of the policemen raised
his hand and hit me in the left eye, and I fell to the ground.
I covered my face while begging the cops who
surrounded me to release me because I hadn’t done anything. Suddenly, one of
the cops started kicking me in the face and head, stepping with his boot on my
head and then on my shoulder. Several cops gathered around me as I lay on the
ground. They began to hit me, both kicking and punching. I felt intense pain
all over my body, from my head to my legs. One of them started kicking me in
the artery behind the ear. At that moment, I thought I was going to die.
After a few minutes, two of the cops dragged me to the
city police station. I tried to explain to them that I hadn’t done anything,
but when I tried to speak they started punching me in the stomach… I saw that
every detainee they brought into the station, they would slam his head against
the door. I tried to keep my head away from the door as I didn’t want a scar
that would stay with me for life but they still tried to slam my head against
the door.
When we entered the station, we continued straight and
turned left through a doorway. One of the officers immediately started cursing
me and my family, and another slapped my face. There were a lot of detainees in
the room, and I was shocked to see that they looked like prisoners of war: They
were forced to sit on the floor, with their legs folded under their bodies and
their heads held down. One masked officer was walking around the room with an
object in his hand – I couldn’t tell if it was a club or something else – but
everyone who raised his head was hit on the head with this object. They pushed
me down into a corner and I lowered my head and curled up. Nevertheless, the
same police officer hit me hard on the head with that object.
Seconds later I felt a great pain in my head, I saw
that there was a large amount of blood coming down from a head wound, and I
felt very dizzy… When they saw this, the police dragged me out, and ordered me
to put my head under a tap of water. I told them I wouldn’t put my head under
the tap because it would aggravate the pain and aggravate the bleeding, that
they are also not doctors, and I didn’t need diagnosis by cops but rather
professional medical treatment. One of the cops told me to shut up and hit me
on the stomach. I felt threatened so I followed his orders and put just part of
my head under the tap, so that it wouldn’t harm the wound. The officer then
told me to “put my whole head under the faucet”, held me by the neck, and
forced me to put the wound under the faucet.
A few minutes later two paramedics came to me. As soon
as they saw me, they immediately decided to take me to the hospital… When the
ambulance arrived, the officer who hit me in the head demanded to explain to
the paramedics what had happened. I replied that the officer had beaten me with
some object, but the officer – in an attempt to cover up my accusation –
rejected my explanation and said, “Wrong. You were hit by a rock” [thrown
during the demonstration]. I replied that I was not at the demonstration at
all, and that police had in fact photographed me at the entrance to the station
without any wounds and without bleeding, so it could be seen that I was
therefore wounded only after being brought into the station.
That night I was released from hospital directly home
rather than back to the police station. I couldn’t sleep for two nights because
of the pain and dizziness. I couldn’t eat because of pain from the blows to my
stomach. If I tried to eat, I would start vomiting. My chin hurt and I couldn’t
speak well. It was the first time I had been arrested, an arrest that I believe
was illegal, pointless, and very violent. Since then, I have not been summoned
to the police station for any questioning or to provide testimony.
