Yossi Schwartz ISL (RCIT section in Israel/Occupied Palestine), 08.08.2024
According to Israeli rights group B’Tselem, Israel set up facilities dedicated to torturing Palestinians. More than a dozen Israeli prison facilities have been converted into a network of camps “dedicated to the abuse of inmates” since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza.
Testimonies from 55 ex-Palestinian detainees collected by B’Tselem reveal the abuse of those in custody. The testimonies, including 21 from the Gaza Strip who had been held in Israeli prisons, detailed the torture they were subjected to.
The violations include “frequent acts of severe, arbitrary violence; sexual assault; humiliation and degradation; deliberate starvation; forced unhygienic conditions; sleep deprivation; prohibition on, and punitive measures for, religious worship; confiscation of all communal and personal belongings; and denial of adequate medical treatment.”
The report said that detainee testimonies demonstrate “a systemic, institutional policy focused on the continual abuse and torture of all Palestinian prisoners. It said this policy is implemented under the direction of the war criminal Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir and with the full support of Arch war criminal Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Given the severity of the acts, the extent to which the provisions of international law are being violated, and the fact that these violations are directed at the entire population of Palestinian prisoners daily and over time – the only possible conclusion is that in carrying out these acts, Israel is committing torture that amounts to a war crime and even a crime against humanity,” the report said in its conclusion“.[i]
B’Tselem called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate “individuals suspected of planning, directing and committing these crimes,” saying the probe was not possible inside Israel “since all state systems, including the judiciary, have been mobilized in support of these torture camps.”[ii]
B’Tselem also said, “At least 60 Palestinians have died in Israeli custody since October 7, including about 48 people from Gaza.”
B’Tselem also said: “We appeal to all nations and to all international institutions and bodies to do everything in their power to put an immediate end to the cruelties meted out on Palestinians by Israel’s prison system and to recognize the Israeli regime operating this system as an apartheid regime that must come to an end,” the group concluded.”[iii]
Unfortunately, B’Tselem entertains illusions in the imperialist states and their institutions. In the real world, only the Arab and Iranian working class at the head of the Masses can put an end to the Zionist apartheid-murdering state.
The Zionist leaders could not commit the genocide in Gaza and the West Bank were they not supported by a large segment of the Israeli Jewish population in uniform or civilians, the two parties of American imperialism, by many European imperialist states, and even Zelensky, who represents the Tycoons of Ukraine.
There was no immediate reaction to the report from the Israeli authorities.
Down with the Zionist barbarians!
The only solution is the Zionist state destruction!
For Palestine, red and free from the river to the sea!
Endnotes:
[i] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/8/6/israel-set-up-facilities-dedicated-to-torturing-n
[ii] Ibid
[iii] Ibid