ISRAELI JUSTICE AND THE NEW ERA OF PEACE:

ISRAELI HIGH COURT SANCTIONS TORTURE OF PALESTINIAN; ISRAELI MILITARY COURT FINES UNDERCOVER UNITS ONE CENT FOR MURDER OF INNOCENT PALESTINIAN

19/11/96

In the last week, the Israeli High Court twice permitted the Israeli secret police ("GSS") to continue to use torture during their interrogations of Palestinian detainees. On Friday, 15/11/96, the High Court approved increasing the severity of torture used against Muhammed Hamdan a student from Bir Zeit University. The court deferred to the secret police's argument that Hamdan falls under the "ticking bomb" category - that the torture is necessary to avert the loss of lives - despite the fact that Hamdan has been in Israeli custody for more than four weeks. Incredibly, Justice Cheshin rebuked Hamdan's defense lawyer as immoral for petitioning the High Court to stop the torture.

In another High Court decision yesterday, Justices Michael Cheshin, Dalia Dorner and Eliezer Goldberg, permitted the secret police to continue to deprive Khader Mubarek of sleep and to cover his head continuously with a rancid sack. In this case, the court refused to issue a temporary order to stop the other methods of torture used, accepting the secret police's argument that the sack, the handcuffs and the "particular positions" utilized in Mubarek's interrogation were procedural to assure that Mubarek won't escape, and not part of the "moderate physical pressure" applied. Deprivation of sleep for five days continuously was not considered torture by the High Court. Mubarek has also been in Israeli custody for over month. During the entire interrogation period so far in which torture has been used against Mubarek and Hamdan, the secret police has not elicited any evidence from either of them regarding an imminent attack.

Under Israeli regulations, certain forms of torture are legal; others are legal only after the GSS head approves their application. Within Israeli legal discourse, the automatically- legal torture methods are termed "moderate physical pressure". This moderate pressure includes tying up interrogees in twisted positions for up to five days continuously, denying sleep for days, covering detainees' heads with thick rancid sacks for days, light body-shaking, placing the detainee in a small windowless cell for weeks, playing blaring music 24 hours a day. Almost every Palestinian interrogee is tortured in this manner. Judges permit this torture routinely by extending the interrogation and not issuing prohibitions. Other more intense torture methods including severe body-shaking, require the approval of the head of the secret police - GSS. A special ministerial committee of the Knesset, made up of representatives from the Meretz, Labor and Likud parties, has routinely approved since 1994, the license to the GSS head to order more intense forms of pressure.

On Sunday, the Israeli military court fined four Israeli undercover unit agents one cent for accidentally assassinating the wrong Palestinian in 1993. Iyad Mahmoud Awad Badran, 19 years old from Qabalan, Nablus was murdered on November 13, 1993 by Israeli undercover units while riding in taxi. The court's decision overturned a plea bargain reached between the state and the undercover agents' lawyer in which the units were to spend 24 hours in prison as their sentence.

LAWE- The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment deplores the High Court's decision sanctioning the use of torture. Under all international standards and the Torture Convention -to which Israel is a signatory- the prohibition against torture is absolute with no exceptions. The Court's reliance on the "ticking- bomb" theory is wholly inapplicable under international law and is a disgraceful legalism used by the Court to justify gross violations of Palestinian human rights.

LAWE expresses its strongest outrage at the Israeli military court's decision to fine murderers of an innocent civilian one cent. LAWE believes that this decision emanates from a deeply-rooted racism against Palestinians and the "cheapening" of the worth of Palestinian life. The Israeli courts' decisions -sanctioning murder and torture - demonstrate how perverted the Israeli legal system has become and that justice for Palestinians can never be assured in an Israeli court. For the "new era of peace" to begin, even the Israeli courts must undergo a serious change.

LAWE - The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment is a non-governmental organization, dedicated to preserving human rights through legal advocacy. LAWE is also an affiliate member of the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights.