B’TSELEM – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories
[email protected] www.hamoked.org ABSOLUTE PROHIBITION
[email protected] www.btselem.org The Torture and Ill-treatment of Palestinian Detainees May 2007 B’TSELEM – The Israeli Information Center for HaMoked – Center for the Defence of the Human Rights in the Occupied Territories was founded Individual, founded by Dr. Lotte Salzberger, in 1989 by a group of lawyers, authors, academics, is a human rights organization established in journalists, and Knesset members. B’Tselem documents 1988 against the backdrop of the first intifada. human rights abuses in the Occupied Territories and brings HaMoked’s mandate is to safeguard the rights them to the attention of policymakers and the general of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation. public. Its data are based on independent fieldwork and HaMoked acts to enforce standards and research, official sources, the media, and information values rooted in International Humanitarian from Palestinian and Israeli human rights organizations. Law and International Human Rights Law. ABSOLUTE PROHIBITION The Torture and Ill-treatment of Palestinian Detainees May 2007 Researched and written by Yehezkel Lein Fieldwork by Musa Abu Hashhash, Attorney Hisham Abu Shehadeh, Iyad Hadad, ‘Abd al-Karim Sa’adi, Suha Zeid Data coordination by Nimrod Amzalek, Efrat Assaf, Orli Bermack, Roni Pelli Translated by Shaul Vardi, Zvi Shulman (Chapter 1) English editing by Maya Johnston Illustrations by Ishai Mishory Special thanks to Carmi Lecker for his assistance in the research for this report. ISSN 0793-520X Executive Summary In recent years, Israel has openly admitted that Israel Security Agency (formerly the General Security Service) interrogators employ “exceptional” interrogation methods and “physical pressure” against Palestinian detainees in situations labeled “ticking bombs.” B’Tselem and HaMoked – Center for the Defence of the Individual have examined these interrogation methods and other harmful practices and the frequency with which they are used.