Human Rights and Democracy Media Center- SHAMS, condemns the systematic torture and unethical practices committed by the Israeli occupation against Palestinian prisoners. These practices are committed against Palestinian male/female prisoners by Israeli soldiers, jailors, and investigators. The Center affirmed that Israel is the only state in the world that legalizes torture through a decision issued by the so-called Supreme Court, in the year 1996. The mentioned decision authorizes investigators to use physical pressure (moderate) while investigating the Palestinian prisoners. Moreover, the Occupation state ranks first on the world level regarding the support of its citizens to apply torture against those alleged to be terrorists. Likewise, the Occupation State is on the top of the countries that produce and export torturing equipment and tools. Israel produces, exports, and uses such tools and equipment in dealing with Palestinians. Among this equipment and tools, there are shackles, Immobilization Chairs, and chemical stuff that cause paralysation such as the nerves gaz. Additionally, the occupation state produces tear gas and exports it to several countries in the world to contribute to oppressing demonstrators and protestors alongside producing electricity shocking sticks. Thus, the Occupation State is the cruellest country in the world and the least humanitarian one, and the most country that violates international conventions and treaties. SHAMS Center reports all that in a statement released in recognition of the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, which was declared by the United Nations General Assembly in its meeting (52/149) conveyed on 12/12/1987. The General Assembly announced June 26, as an anniversary in support of victims of torture as a step on the way to eliminating torture on the world’s level.
SHAMS Center affirms that torture is one of the cruellest crimes that affect human beings and communities. Torture is applied by the political regimes in several countries. The calamities of torture lay not only in the impact on the victims themselves but also extended to other community groups. The Center affirms that the anniversary is an internationally recognized occasion to support the victims of torture and it symbolizes the role of the various states in contributing to combat the phenomenon. SHAMS Center asserts that the anniversary this year comes while Palestinians are subject to genocide war and subject to endless forms of torture practiced by the Israeli occupation against Palestinians.
SHAMS Center confirms that torture is a crime following international criminal law. In particular, according to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, identifies torture as: “For the purposes of this Convention, the term “torture” means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in, or incidental to lawful sanctions”.
SHAMS Center indicates that the Israeli occupation uses the policies of blockade, closure, and starvation as methods of torture against Palestinians, both in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. These methods are part of an organized policy followed by successive Israeli governments as a tool to subjugate Palestinian people, fight them for their livelihood, and exert pressure on them. This policy has intensified since October 7, 2024, through the closure and blockade imposed on the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
SHAMS Center emphasizes that the methods of torture employed by the Israeli occupation government against Palestinian prisoners during their arrest and detention include all forms of torture, the use of unjustified violence, and other forms of cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment and punishment. This brings to mind the systematic violations and breaches of human rights and fundamental freedoms throughout history that humiliated human dignity, restricted freedom, and deprived people of the most basic rights under the rule of the jungle in societies where law was absent. In those times, humans were victims of the tyranny of political or religious authority.
SHAMS Center asserts that torture is described as a crime in international humanitarian law and international human rights law, being classified as a crime against humanity and a war crime. This is confirmed by numerous international conventions and treaties, which explicitly prohibit and criminalize torture. These instruments obligate the signatory states to criminalize torture in their national laws and align their legislation with the provisions and evidence outlined in these treaties to prevent and punish the crime of torture by anyone who commits it.
The Center calls on the Palestine Liberation Organization- PLO and the Palestinian National Authority to adopt a national strategy at the international level to expose the practices of the occupation and the systematic policy of torture it employs against prisoners in its prisons and interrogation Centers. This should be done by approaching active international institutions, member states of the United Nations, the Noble Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions, the Human Rights Council, the Special Rapporteur on enforced disappearances, the International Committee on Enforced Disappearances under the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, the International Red Cross Committee, Amnesty International, international human rights organizations, and both governmental and non-governmental organizations. Furthermore, they should file complaints against the occupation government before the national courts of countries whose judicial systems allow it, such as some European countries, and before international judicial institutions like the International Criminal Court to prosecute the war criminals in the occupation government for the continuous and systematic crimes of torture committed against Palestinian prisoners.