From: backon@vms.huji.ac.il
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
Subject: Re: Torture in Israel
Date: 19 Dec 92 19:19:46 GMT
Organization: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

In article <92352.1332022893684@QUCDN.QueensU.CA>, Andy <2893684@QUCDN.QueensU.CA> writes:
> 
> The Other Israel #47
>   Torture and the law
> 
>   ...Bypassers on Jerusalem's crowded Jaffa Street

Jaffa ROAD. But what's a little accuracy, Andy ?


> encountered a group of young men and women with their heads
> covered with sacks and their hands tied. It was an action
> organised by the "Public Committee Against Torture" in order to
> show the public what is going on behind the walls of the nearby
> "Russian Compound" - headquarters of the Jerusalem Police and
> seat of the regional Shabak (security service) bureau. On


Let's call the *head* of (you know what) "Mr. Mason" (hint, grin, wink). In
between his virtuoso performance on the saxophone, he swore on a stack of
Bibles that there is absolutely NO torture going on at *any* SHABAK
installation. 

 Why should there be ? Author number two (below) is an Israeli. In fact
we had a nice conversation this past July when he visited Israel.

Andy (Oysvorf): please read the article in your local library.

Farwell LA, Donchin E. The truth will out: Interrogative polygraphy ("lie
detection") with event-related brain potentials. Psychophysiology
1991;28:531-547

Let me just quote the following:

"The research reported here was supported in part by contract number 87F350800
with the Central Intelligence Agency. Preliminary findings were presented at
the 1986, 1988, and 1989 meetings of the Society for Psychophysiological
Research".


Torture ? How primitive.







> different days, demonstrations against prison torture also took
> place in Haifa (organised there by "Peace Now") and at the
> Defence Ministry in Tel-Aviv (by "Women for Political
> Prisoners"). This year's "Israel Prize" ceremony was disrupted by
> hecklers and demonstrators. One of the recipients of the annual
> prize was former Supreme Court Judge Moshe Landau - who in 1987
> headed the "Landau Commission", which was supposed to investigate
> prison torture. This commission's report declared the use of
> "moderate physical pressure" to be a legitimate means in the
> interrogation of suspected terrorists. In a secret appendix -
> accessible only to a select group of high officials - the report
> also details the ways in which such physical pressure may be
> applied. The "Committee Against Torture" intends to lodge an
> appeal to the Supreme Court to declassify this appendix.
> 
>   The "B'tzelem" human rights organisation's recent revelations
> about the practice of torture of Palestinian prisoners had
> brought the Landau report back into public attention. Landau
> responded by attacking "B'tzelem", as "an organisation blind to
> the needs of state security. The authorities couldn't just ignore
> the sudden public attention, inside and outside Israel. The three
> institutions involved in the use of torture - the army, the
> police and the security service - are now engaged in efforts to

The army ??? Baloney.
The police ?  Well, they're violent to EVERYBODY. THere's no discrimination
here.
SHABAK ? Categorically no !



> shift blame upon each other. The police commander of the Russian
> Compound welcomed a delegation of four Jerusalem municipal
> councillors (from Ratz and the religious parties Degel Hatora and
> Agudat Yisrael) to examine all parts of the facilities - all but
> the Shabak section, where interrogations take place. `There I
> can't enter myself, unless the Shabak invites me.' (Ha'aretz, May
> 24). The army announced the formation of a commission of inquiry,
> headed by General Rafael Vardi, to investigate all evidence with
> regard to soldiers mistreating Palestinian prisoners.
> 
>   The Shabak has disclosed that it has appointed an internal
> comptroller. Since his reports, and even his name - remain
> classified, it is difficult to evaluate the significance of this
> innovation.
> 
>    The Knesset State Comptrollership Committee, headed by David
> Libai (Labor), formed a special subcommittee on the Shabak, and
> demanded that the Shabak will come to testify before it.
> Meanwhile, more reports of torture continue to arrive. "B'tzelem"
> researcher Bassam Id: "I visited in the East Jerusalem Musakad
> Hospital a guy from Gaza, who was arrested in good medical
> condition and came out half paralysed. He has reportedly been
> tied to a pipe and beaten while his face was covered with a sack.
> They continued beating him even after the prison doctor warned
> them that he is developing signs of paralysis." (Hadashot, May
> 12).
> 


If he *was* beaten, this was by fellow prisoners and NOT by SHABAK personnel.

>   Contact: B'tzelem, 18 Keren Hayesod St., Jerusalem 92149;
> phone: 02-667271; The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel,
> POB 8588, Jerusalem 91083
> 
> 
>  TORTURE AT ANSAR-2
>  by Ari Shavit
> 
>  The following few lines are translated from an extensive account
> by "Ha'aretz" journalist Ari Shavit, describing his recent term
> of reserve service as a guard in the Gaza detention camp, Ansar-
> 2. It was published in Ha'aretz, on May 3.
>   Ansar-2 has twelve guard towers, mine was Number 6. You sit on
> top of this tower the whole night. There is a projector, but it
> is rarely used, because the whole prisoner enclosure is, in any
> case, lighted by a strong yellow light. (...) You come off, after
> a night without any incident. You take the towel and the soap
> from your tent, and go off to the showers. On the way there, you
> have to pass the galvanised iron fence, marking off the
> interrogations section. And then, from the other side, you hear a
> scream, a hair-raising scream. What is going on there, five
> meters from you? You cannot see, you can only imagine it. You do
> know that from now on you will have no rest, because fifty meters
> from the bed where you try to sleep, eighty meters from the mess


Well, in September 1990, our reserve medical unit was assigned to Ansar 3
(Ketziot). You're absolutely correct, there was a LOT of torture:

a) the prisoners had a giant-screen color TV; the Israeli officers had this
teeny-weeny farshtukeneh black and white TV in their  club room.

b) the prisoners' food was out-of-this-world: olive oil, pitta, large portions
of meat; OUR food was inedible: rancid margarine, stale bread, miniscule
portions of meat.

c) the prisoners (each block) had TWO Olympic size ping-pong tables; WE had
this broken down piece of junk that passed for a ping pong table

(As God is my witness, I'll never forget the sight of the prisoner in his
Adidas sneakers, racket in his right hand, sunglasses on, and holding a tall
drink  in his left). 

d) both the prisoners and the Israeli officers slept in IDENTICAL tents.

e) the prisoners had hot water for showers 24 hours a day. We had it for 3.

f) the prisoners fake *screams* in order to show their fellow prisoners that
they underwent *torture*

The only violence you saw was that committed by prisoners on their fellow
prisoners. The only REAL screams were those of younger males being sexually
abused at night by their fellow prisoners. (they'd show up the next morning at
the clinic with [how shall I say this politely] sore rectums).

> hall where you try to eat, human beings are screaming. They are
> screaming because other human beings - who wear the same uniform
> as you do - are making them scream. They are screaming because
> your country - your democratic country, your Jewish country - is
> making them scream, in a systematic and organised manner and in
> accordance with the law.
> 
>   Shortly after the end of the Gulf War, 18-year old Lior Ovshani
> was conscripted. Soon, he was ordered to pass a course of basic
> training at a camp located in the Occupied Territories - and
> refused to obey this order. At first, the commanding officer sent
> him to another camp - also located in the Occupied Territories,
> but near to the pre-'67 border. When he refused this compromise,
> too, Ovshani was sentenced to 21 days' imprisonment, followed -
> on his continued refusal - by a further 28 days. According to his
> father, Lior decided not to serve in the Occupied Territories at
> the age of 17, after he worked as a construction worker together
> with Palestinian workers. At first it seemed that the military
> authorities intended to break his resistance in a harsh manner.
> 
>   However, the affair got increasing public attention through an
> interview in "Hadashot" newspaper. Later, Israeli television
> picked up Lior Ovshani's parents at the Abie Nathan rally,
> holding a sign protesting the harassment of their son. The
> military authorities started to soften; Lior Ovshani's third term
> was for seven days only, and - so far - there was not a fourth.
> Letters of support to: Private Lior Ovshani, Military Personal
> Number 5045337, Israeli Defence Forces.
> 


Josh

Dr. Josh Backon
backon@VMS.HUJI.AC.IL