NCJ Number
154437
Date Published
1994
Length
334 pages
Annotation
This study documents human rights abuses that occurred in Israel between 1992 and 1994 in the course of military interrogations of Palestinians from the occupied territories.
Abstract
The findings are based on 36 interviews conducted by representatives of Human Rights Watch with male security suspects interrogated between June 1992 and March 1994. The findings from these interviews were corroborated by interviews with Israeli soldiers who served in Israel Defense Force detention camps, court testimony by security force agents, medical reports, and other information. Findings show that the dominant interrogation strategy is a coordinated, rigid, and increasingly painful regime of physical constraints and psychological pressure applied over several days, and often for weeks at a time, on detainees who are held without charge and usually without access to an attorney. The chief methods include prolonged sleep deprivation, the use of blindfolds or tight-fitting hoods, shackling or otherwise forcing detainees into body positions that grow increasingly painful, prolonged toilet and hygiene deprivation, and verbal threats and insults. Many, but not all, detainees are also beaten during rounds of questioning. The extraction of statements under these coercive conditions compromises the fairness of the military courts that try Palestinians in the occupied territories. Human Rights Watch calls on the government of Israel to end the practice of torture and ill-treatment of detainees under interrogation by adhering to and enforcing the provisions of the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Forms of Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which Israel acceded to in 1991. Appended interview information and documentation