Report: IDF ignores abuse cases involving Palestinian detainees
Public Committee Against Torture published semi-annual report, slams IDF for failing to address reports of soldiers abusing prisoners; neglecting to formulate clear arrest-transport orders which would ensure prisoners' safety
The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) released its semi-annual report Sunday, detailing evidence of abuse inflicted on Palestinian detainees while being taken into custody by Israeli soldiers.
The report, dubbed "Unlawful in reality – soldiers' abuse of Palestinian detainees," unveils a series of cases in which Palestinians who were arrested and handcuffed were abused by IDF soldiers while being detained or transported to a holding facility, to the extent that some of them needed medical attention.
The PCATI report noted 90 testimonies of abuse between 2006 and 2007, but said the actual number of cases is higher. The IDF, said the report, is doing little to nothing to stop this abuse
"I was arrested by soldiers at the Dir al-Sharaf cemetery. They threw me to the ground on my stomach and started kicking me," Ahmed Yassin, from the West Bank city of Nablus, told the committee. "When the jeep (to transport him to the detention facility) was late, they took me to a deserted spot off the road and began competing who can throw the most rocks at my head," he added.
Palestinian arrested at Hawara checkpoint in West Bank (Photo: AP)
An IDF combatant of the Paratroopers Brigade told the committee that "We heard a noise, it sounded like someone was hit, so we stepped out of the car. We saw two guys and the prisoner outside the car, and the prisoner had a serious gash on his forehead. Everyone told us that he fell off the truck's step, but it seemed absolutely bogus… afterwards we learned that two of the guys wanted to have their picture taken with the prisoner, so they had him stand near the truck, and they stood on its step, which is about four feet off the ground. They basically kicked him in the head."
'A clear-cut omission'
The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel's report said the military chooses to ignore the majority of these cases. "The fact that soldiers abuse handcuffed detainees has become somewhat of a routine matter," said the report. "The military and its wardens are doing nothing to stop this phenomenon."
The report goes on to say that between 2000 and 2007, the Military Police launched 427 investigations into abuse allegations. According to an IDF Spokesperson's Unit report filed with the Yesh Din human rights group, only 35 of the investigations resulted in indictments.
According to the PCATI, even the cases that made it to trial resulted in convictions of soldiers on charges of abuse and misdemeanor assault – offenses that carry no more than a four-month prison term.
The IDF, stated the report, has no clear orders and procedures on how Palestinian prisoners should be treated from the moment they are detained to the moment they arrive at the detention facility. The report slams the fact that despite performing thousands of arrests over the years, the IDF has yet to perfect arrest procedures.
"The military's claim stating that the IDF Code of Ethics is sufficient to instruct the soldiers on arrest procedures is nothing more than an attempt to cover an almost unbelievable omission – the absence of clear post-arrest procedures which guarantee the prisoners' safety, which in fact allows the soldiers to abuse detainees."
"These wrong, illegal actions are backed by a weak enforcement system, which is light on investigations and indictment," continued the report," and by the blatant disregard of the authorities – the IDF, the Defense Ministry and the defense minister, the Knesset and the State Comptroller's Office. The IDF and its superiors refuse to recognize abuse as a phenomenon and prefer treating it as no more that isolated incidents."
The PCATI did, however, stress that the cases depicted in the report "do not come close to the abuse inflicted on the kidnapped IDF soldiers by their captors, who have them held in complete isolation; but we still have to do everything we can to stop this abuse from happening."
An IDF Spokesperson's Unit statement said in response that "The IDF reveres the work done by human rights groups, including that of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel. If the organization has brought the report to the IDF's attention prior to publishing it, it would have been given a detailed response to each and every claim mentioned – but it chose not to do so.
"The IDF looks upon any unnecessary harming of a prisoner harshly, and thoroughly examines any allegation of harming Palestinian detainees during or after their arrest. The findings of each investigation are brought before the Military Advocate General's Office. All IDF soldiers and commanders are bound by the IDF Code of Ethics."
