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International Song Prayer, Fear and Hope
Kurt Brown--Saint Ram Bone
We are surrounded by friends at all times, we are surrounded by enemies at all times. Sometimes we are enemies to ourselves due to what we have learned from our enemies, either directly or indirectly.
I wrote this song below while I was in fear on America's highways. The year, I am not certain, 2002 or 2003. It is a song I wrote while I thought I was going to be under attack again. It was the night around Easter morning, written after attending a block party known as Gravefest in New Orleans Louisiana.
In 2001 and 2003 I was attacked by criminal associates of government officials in the USA. Those same officials I would gladly execute, but I would rather just remove their bosses and then work down the pyrmaid until common ground could be found.
The song is titled, I Am Looking Over A 4 Leaf Clover, God Allah Buddha Ethereal Consciousness, and it is in windows media format, .wma, and is very short. The lyrics are
I am looking over a 4 leaf clover I have overlooked before
God Allah Buddha Ethereal Consciousness
Won't you help us get out of this mess
I am looking over a 4 leaf clover I have overlooked before
God Allah Buddha Ethereal Consciousness
Won't you help us get out of this mess
( The regime has the nerve to call me crazy and criminal and they have labeled me a criminal, my holocaust number in California is X 017 911 84. If you look for their mechanistic underpinnings you will soon they are biologically insane. Best of luck to those children in the pics on this article. The white knight is not the regime storming down your streets. Our white knight leads us from this horrid place and into the cosmos above not to our horror and our graves. We are going to have to deal with our mutual problem here in the USA. We will regain our nation, the USA, from the murderous oil baron tyrants or we will all die trying. )
 http://www.angelfire.com/zine2/democracyordeath/4_Lead_Clover_God_Allah_Buddha_Ethereal_Consciousness.wma
URL: http://www.angelfire.com/zine2/democracyordeath
Solidarity Worldwide&Movimento l'Humanitas&De
Lapin_kulta@Communist.net
A Story on the Jewish Barbarity
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- Dear listeners, readers, tv-viewers! Welcome! A new saga is shining here... Brave people makes these forums available to encourage intelligent and open democratic debate platforms. Users are requested to participate in the spirit of good fellowship and tolerance. The views and opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent those of saga tellers.... "Living tales broadcasting" does not mean "fantastical fairy tales", but aims to offer a solution for "living questions of humanity" and one of them begins here, today's well-documented tales! Notice it respectfully, please; this is a SAGA; man don't need to be stressed... Avoid to show incredible angry attitudes or overwhelmed happy on such tales... Test your self-control! Well, we are aware, there are a kind of interesting types, which fanatically programmed to see the similarly robotics and they can not accept the creative brains... Compare yourself with them! Take it easy; don't to be imprisoned of "mass-medial brainwashing campaigns"... In normally case, there are different open-views, artistically creations, poetry, approximate to the social cases in community; listen to them... If you want to criticize these stories, feel free; do that! No doubt! This is a form of literature to create essays; of course built a bridge to say out your opinion; do that, please! Other-ways, you will just a living witness here; yes, here seems many aggressive robotics making shit after my tales; let them stay on this page as my best evidence� People needs such testimony; who tells saga, who has shit in his mouth; discover on Internet around my saga texts... They are not only my enemies, because I have nothing as private conflict with them... In fact they are the fanatical enemies of human being; this is the question... My Grandfather had pigs at farm; all the animals had name there and selected examples prized by true ID cards... I see that Grandfather's true pigs were more respectable than human faced piggies&doggies... Let's these doggies shitting here on Internet, mostly using false sexual announcements; let's people witness what a kind kinky planet the two-legged pigs dreaming� Keep the evidences should be apparently pasted there on internet page, although it's not friendly; all after checking this attack it'll easier to struggle against thus kinky character, who beyond this dirtiness! Go on to tell what the newest! In fact, we have much more exciting broadcasting tournaments... You see; the fanatics of system are so eager to bite your heel.. No doubt, its typical attitudes of bulldogs and lapdogs of judaized imperialism... But criticism welcomes.... Of course there are different opinions� Discussion is better than warplanes... Let's create new saga examples and try to build a wonderful socialistic saga-world for whole human being; yes, for human, dear! Solidarity regards from saga-teller, additional works of studio-guests, followers on friendly tv channels...
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Chapter -I-
"Torture treatments..."TORTURE IN THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES
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- Torture is defined as: [A]ny act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as to obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed to is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination or 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 or incidental to, lawful sanctions.
Israel, as other states, is forbidden by a number of binding local and international laws to mistreat and torture Palestinian detainees. These laws are local laws, international humanitarian laws applicable to Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, human rights conventions signed and ratified by Israel, which specifically pertain to any territory under the jurisdiction of a party to the treaty, and general principles of international law binding on all states.
- What is about the Local Laws?
- Local laws governing the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) are the laws that were in place the eve of the occupation together with legal amendments enacted by the occupant. In the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, local laws are comprised of Jordanian laws and Palestinian Laws. The Jordanian Penal Code of 1960 prohibits, "any type of violence or hardship" upon a detainee "in order to obtain a confession to a crime or information about it". In the Gaza Strip, Article 109 of the Laws of Palestine also prohibits torture. Neither of these laws has been amended by the Israelis.
- International Humanitarian Law.. Is it out of work when the Fascist Jews massacre human being worldwide?
- International Humanitarian Laws set the minimum standards for the treatment of civilians in occupied territories. These laws include the 1945 Charter of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg , Regulations annexed to the 1907 Hague Convention (IV) respecting the laws and customs of war on land, as well a treaties to which Israel is a party, such as the Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 1949. International Humanitarian Law absolutely forbids the use of torture against civilians in the custody of an occupying power. Persons found guilty of ill-treatment or torture are guilty of war crimes and are punishable by law. Palestinians living in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are protected persons as defined by these humanitarian laws.
While USrael accepts the binding characteristics of the 1945 Charter of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, it disputes the nature of its obligation under the Fourth Geneva Convention. Although it is a High Contracting Party to the Fourth Geneva Convention, Israel argues that the Fourth Geneva Convention does not apply de jure (by law) to its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It is important to note that the Israeli government initially agreed to apply the Fourth Geneva Convention to the OPTs in 1967 when it issued Military Proclamation Number 3 which stated that Israeli military courts and their officers should:
apply the provisions of the Geneva Convention of 13 August 1949 regarding the protection of civilians during war as to all which pertains to legal proceedings. If there should be any contradiction between the provisions of the order and the Geneva Convention, the provisions of the convention should apply.
Four months later this article was repealed and superseded by Military Proclamation 378, which does not mention the Geneva Conventions at all. Israel is the only High Contracting Party to the Fourth Geneva Convention that does not recognized its de jure responsibility in the OPTs. The UN has, on numerous occasions, urged Israel to conform to the Convention and called upon the other High Contracting Parties to ensure respect by Israel.
- Human Rights Law and Instruments... Where is it?
- The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 set forth a prohibition against torture, which is now considered customary international law. As customary law, the prohibition is binding on all states, and provides an independent basis for legal redress. The Declaration has been incorporated into a number of human rights treaties, including those of which Israel is a signatory, such as The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and The Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT). Both of these laws forbid the justification of torture on any grounds.
- General Principles of International Law?
- Other international instruments that ban torture and ill treatment are: The Standard Minimum Rulesfor the Treatment of Prisoners; The United Nations Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials;The Principles of Medical Ethics Relevant to the Role of Health Personnel in the Protection of Prisoners and Detainees Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Punishment; and numerous others. There are also regional human rights treaties such as: The European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of 1950 and The American Convention on Human Rights of 1969. Because the prohibition of torture is so widely recognized, it is argued that it constitutes a "preemptory norm of general international law". A preemptory norm is the strongest kind of customary international law, as a nation may not claim its own domestic law as an excuse for failing to comply with a preemptory norm.
In 1995 al-Haq conducted a study of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of Palestinians in Israeli custody during the first four years of the Intifada (1987-1994). The study included interviews with 700 former detainees. Through these interviews al-Haq was able to document the frequency of torture as well as the methods that were used. According to the survey, 85% of Palestinians taken into Israeli custody and 94% of those who were interrogated were tortured or ill-treated. Today, there are still cases of torture being reported by Palestinian detainees at the hands of the Israeli security forces. Despite international condemnation and the blatant illegality of their actions, Israel continues to torture Palestinians in the name of security and 'public interest'.
- Do you explain the Jewish Gang's Methods of Torture?
- One. Al-Shabeh - a technique which involves shackling the detainee to a small chair or to a wall. (Often the chair is unsteady so as to prevent the detainee from finding a comfortable position) The detainee is then deprived of food and sleep, his head is covered by a sack that reeks of vomit, urine and\or feces, and he is sometimes to exposed to extreme temperatures. Two. Food Deprivation - During the first few days of interrogation, detainees are generally deprived of food, either partially or totally. When a detainee is under going al-Shabeh he is usually only provided with a few minutes to eat and the meals are often of poor quality. Sometimes the detainee's hands remain handcuffed while he is eating. Three. Sleep Deprivation and Restriction of Toilet Facilities - Detainees subjected to al-Shabeh usually tend not to sleep very much, but when they do attempt to sleep they are prevented from doing so. The detainees are often denied adequate sleep throughout their detention. In addition, detainees may be prevented from having access to toilet facilities forcing many of them to soil themselves. Four. Beatings - Beatings in detention are carried out with clubs, fists, and boots and they tend to concentrate on sensitive organs such as the genitals, stomach, larynx, and head. Five. "The Cupboard" - Detainees are put in a small space, one meter by one meter, which is completely dark and almost completely closed. Air comes in only through a think opening under the door. The detainee is tied up, his head is covered with a sack and is locked into "the cupboard" for a number of days. During this time he is subjected to disturbing voices and the sounds of screams. Six. Suffocation - Interrogators apply pressure to the windpipe so that the detainee can no longer breath often causing them to lose consciousness. Another method of suffocation is placing a sack over the detainee's head and covering his nose and mouth to prevent him from breathing. Seven. Falaqa - The detainee is hand cuffed and hooded and laid on the ground in such a position that the bottom of his feet are facing up. The soles of his feet are whipped dozens of times with a stick or a plastic hose until he loses consciousness. Eight. Pulling Hair Off the Body - The detainee is often forced to pull hairs out of his face, body and head. Nine. Electric Shocks - Electric shocks are administered while the detainee is hooded or blindfolded thereby making it very difficult to determine the type of instrument used or the way the shocks are administered. Ten. Burning - Detainees are burned with lit cigarettes on sensitive areas of the body such as ears and hands.
- Jewish Response to International Pressure?
- On May 1987, Israel decided to establish a commission of inquiry to investigate allegations of torture against the General Security Service. The Landau Commission released its report on 30th October, 1987, with the exception of a secret appendix. The report outlined the findings regarding the Israeli General Security Service (GSS) and concluded that they had indeed used force that would not be seen as acceptable by the international community. The GSS had also lied under oath about their activities. Despite the serious implications of its findings, the Landau Commission argued that the internal guidelines used by the GSS were not clearly illegal because the interrogators were following the orders of their superiors. The Commission also recommended that various physical and psychological pressures, be approved and standardized for "security" suspects. The report contains a general description of these forms:
Pressure should principally take the form of non-violent psychological pressure via a vigorous and length interrogation, with the use of stratagems including acts of deception. However, when these do not attain their purpose the exertion of a moderate measure of physical pressure is not to be avoided.
The secret appendix to the report outlines in detail the various types of psychological and physical force that is thought to be permissible by the Commission. It is clear from the public portions of the report that the Landau Commission's definition of "legally permissible" interrogation methods contravenes fundamental international principles. The Israeli insistence that they are justifiable under reasons of necessity ad security is rejected by international law. There is never an excuse for the torture of another human being no matter what the circumstance or concern. Furthermore, its practice lowers us all as humans.
**- Reuters reported on May 19, 1998, "Israel tortures 850 Palestinians a year"... Israel tortures at least 850 Palestinian detainees a year, a leading Israeli human rights group said Tuesday ahead of a court hearing on petitions to ban violent interrogations. The B'Tselem group, the Israeli information center for human rights in the occupied territories, presented estimates at a news conference that Israel's General Security Service interrogates between 1,000 and 1,500 Palestinians a year.
"Some 85 percent of them -- at least 850 persons a year -- are subjected to methods which constitute torture," it said in a report on GSS interrogation. Its estimates were based on official sources, human rights organizations and attorneys.
Urging Israel to come out of the "dark ages," the B'Tselem group demonstrated the physical pressure which Israeli authorities admit is used against suspected guerrillas.
The interrogation methods, detailed in court documents and in testimony by Palestinian detainees, include placing hoods and shackles on prisoners, putting them in painful positions, depriving them of sleep and sometimes shaking them violently.
In 1987, an official commission chaired by retired Supreme Court Justice Moshe Landau allowed the GSS, also known as the Shin Bet, to apply "moderate physical pressure" to suspects under certain circumstances.
International human rights groups have long condemned the decision, saying it gave the go-ahead for state-sanctioned torture.
Nine Israeli Supreme Court justices are to hear Wednesday six petitions, filed by Israeli human rights groups and Palestinians undergoing Shin Bet questioning, to ban violent interrogation.
In an affidavit made public Monday, Shin Bet chief Ami Ayalon said the shaking of suspects and other physical pressure were "absolutely essential in the struggle to eradicate terrorism" and "thwart terrorist attacks."
"It will be up to the court to decide whether Israel will join other democratic nations and fight terrorism without resorting to inhumane methods of interrogation," said Yuval Ginbar, author of the B'Tselem report.
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- "Not only Palestinians; AMERICANS DETAINED AND TORTURED IN ISRAEL", radio commented every week in 1998...
- Received? Lat's listen!...
- ADC calls; "Please contact the State Department and let them know that you are outraged that they are not acting to free the Arab Americans. Demand that they take immediate and serious steps to win the release of these Americans!"
Background:
In recent weeks an alarming new trend of the detention and mistreatment of Arab Americans by Israel has come to ADC's attention.
HASHEM MUFLEH
ADC has been recently publicizing the case of Hashem Mufleh, an Arab American teenager who was visiting Palestine and was arrested as he was returning back home to the United States. Mufleh is being imprisoned and tortured by Israeli forces in the notorious Ashkelon Prison. On several occasions, Mufleh has been prevented from being visited by his family and US officials. He is awaiting trial in a military court which uses secret evidence, and is charged with, among other things, receiving religious lessons and passing out leaflets. Since reporting that case, ADC received several reports of similar incidents of other Arab Americans being detained and tortured in Israel.
ANWAR MOHAMMAD
ADC received calls from family members of Anwar Mohammad, a 26 year old male from Florida who was visiting Palestine. On Oct. 28, 1998 Israeli forces imprisoned and began torturing him.
Anwar is now being represented by attorney Bassem Al Arouri. ADC is working with Anwar's attorney and the State Department to try to secure his release.
SALAH SARSOUR
ADC received a call from the American Muslim Council (AMC), which informed us that they were contacted by the family of Salah Sarsour of Milwaukee, Wisconsin who was imprisoned when he visited Israel and is being tortured. AMC requested ADC's help in freeing Salah.
Salah is being represented by attorney Jawad Boulous. As with other detainees, ADC is working with Salah's attorney and the State Department to try to secure his release.
BISHARA SAIDI
Last year ADC worked on a similar case, that of Bishara Saidi, an American of Lebanese origin. He was visiting his in-laws in Palestine for the Christmas holidays.
On December 24, 1997 while having Christmas dinner at his in-laws, Israeli security officers stormed the house and imprisoned Bishara. Mr. Saidi was not allowed to see his wife or a representative from the US consulate for several days after his arrest. Mr. Saidi was denied his request to read his Bible and was refused his medications.
Like the other detainees mentioned above, Israel accused Bishara of unsubstantiated charges, for which they provided no evidence. Mr. Saidi was offered a deal by Israeli authorities of pleading guilty to the unsubstantiated charges and receiving two years in jail, or going to trial and risking imprisonment for 15 years. Bishara took the two year sentence because the unfair treatment of Arab Americans in Israeli military courts meant that there was a real danger he could receive the full 15 year sentence.
ADC is deeply concerned that these more recent cases will deteriorate to the same tragic point that Bishara Saidi suffered. We believe that the United States government is not doing all that it can and should to defend these Arab Americans being unjustly held and tortured in Israel. Were these Americans of a different ethnic background, would the US authorities be more active in pursuing their release? Other such cases have produced major diplomatic incidents. Is it because this time the arresting authorities are Israelis or is it that victims are of Arab origin?
Public pressure must be put on US government officials to intervene with the Israeli authorities on behalf of these Americans. ADC Legal Director Kamal Nawash recently appeared on a TV call-in show hosted by Armstrong Williams on the America's Voice Network to highlight the unjust and inhumane treatment of Arab Americans in Israel.
These Americans are being subjected not only to abusive and inhumane treatment by a government that is dependent on US aid and diplomatic support, but they are being singled out for abuse because of their ethnicity. They are being subjected to the same laws of military occupation which the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza who live under Israeli rule must suffer, while Israelis settlers and Americans of other ethnic backgrounds in the Occupied Territories remain protected by the provisions of Israeli civil law and civil court system. A large proportion of US aid to Israel is military aid, effectively underwriting the military courts that will sit in judgement of these Americans who have been referred to such substandard courts on the basis of their ethnic origin.
These cases stand in stark contrast to that of Samuel Sheinbein, the Maryland man who has been accused of brutally killing another Maryland teenager whose body was then dismembered and burned. Sheinbein fled to Israel to avoid a murder trial in the United States. The Israeli authorities have thus far refused to extradite Sheinbien, who has all but admitted to the murder. He and his attorneys are allowed full access to the Israeli civil court and appellate system to argue that he should continue to remain harbored by Israel because of his Jewish ethnicity in spite of the murder charges against him in the United States. The presumptive next Speaker of the House of Representatives, Bob Livingston has written that "It is an outrage that Israeli authorities are refusing to extradite Sheinbein . . . furthermore, the youth's father and older brother should also be returned, since it appears they may have a role in hindering the investigation by helping Sheinbein flee the country." As one US newspaper recently put it "the [Israeli] legal system is seemingly doing backflips to keep him there despite U.S. efforts to have him extradited." It observed "If you commit a crime, no matter how heinous, and can make it to Israel and claim citizenship, no matter how tenuous, you are home free."
Also "home free" are the suspected murderers of Alex Odeh, ADC's West Coast Regional Director, who was assassinated by a bomb trip-wired to his office door in 1985. News reports indicate that the FBI has identified three suspects in his murder -- all three of whom are believed to be affiliated with the extremist Jewish Defense League (JDL). They reportedly fled to Israel where they received safe haven and became colonists in a West Bank settlement.
Action:
Please contact the State Department and let them know that you are outraged that they are not acting to free the Arab Americans unjustly detained and tortured in Israel. Tell them that they have a special responsibility in these cases because of the huge amounts of aid our country provides to Israel. Let them know that these cases are particularly egregious since they reflect differential treatment of Americans in Israel based on their ethnicity and that Americans of Arab origin are being subjected to martial law. Demand that they take immediate and serious steps to win the release of these Americans. Call Under-Secretary of State Thomas Pickering at:
[202] 647. 2471
Fax him at
[202] 647.4780, write to him or Secretary of State Madeleine Albright at:
Department of State
2201 C St., NW
Washington DC, 20520
or call Sec. Albright at:
[202] 647. 5291 or email her at Also please contact your senators and congressman and ask them to take up this matter urgently with the State Department.
Your Representative
House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
AND:
Your Senator
U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20510
You can reach any member of Congress through the congressional switchboard at [202] 224. 3121.
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Do you watch this incredible Barbarity?
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Dnqc8VlNpP0&search=Palestine
Clik onthe Button of USraeli Military Mafia Barbarity and see the ridiculous silent side of Humanbeing!
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- FM Radio channel broadcast a news on August 18, 1999... It was about the Demanding that the US government provide protection to Arab-Americans... Terrible news... A letter which included humanist request...
- Tell more, please!
- The following letter to President Clinton demanding that the US government provide protection to Arab-Americans detained and tortured by Israel is being circulated as a petition and letter-writing campaign. If you can get a number of signatures for the letter, please circulate it as a petition and return it to ADC, and encourage your friends and family to sign on as well.
Please send individual letters to the White House at:
1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Washington, D.C. 20500
Phone: (202) 456-1414
Fax: (202) 456-2461
Email to
or send it online through ADC's website at
Please cc all communications to
LETTER TO PRESIDENT CLINTON DEMANDING PROTECTION FOR ARAB-AMERICANS DETAINED AND TORTURED BY ISRAEL:
Dear Mr. President
I write to ask you to ensure that all American citizens be afforded equal protection by the government while traveling abroad.
In most cases, the United States government is a model of vigorous protection for nationals abroad, but in the case of Arab-Americans detained by Israel, a different standard seems to apply. In particular, it would appear that Arab-Americans detained by Israeli authorities, who are being tried in military courts without the protections of a system of civil law and who are being tortured and severely mistreated, receive little or no support from the State Department. Affidavits delivered to the State Department by three Americans of Arab origin, Yousef Marei, Anwar Mohamad and Bishar Saidi, all of whom were tortured and otherwise mistreated when in Israeli custody, attest to the government's lack of interest in these cases. The State Department clearly failed to protect these men.
Moreover, reports suggest that there are many other cases of Americans of Arab origin who have been tortured and mistreated by Israel without an appropriate response from our government. The travel advisory issued by the State Department warning that "U.S. citizens arrested for security offenses [by Israel] may be subject to mistreatment during the interrogation period of their cases" indicates that the government is well aware of the problem, and still fails to do all it can to protect Americans of Arab origin who are being tortured by Israeli authorities.
We insist that all Americans be treated equally, and that while traveling abroad, no matter what their national origin or the country they are visiting, the United States government defends their fundamental human rights. Mistreatment and torture of Americans must not be tolerated, especially when carried out by a United State "ally." Americans of Arab origin are no less deserving of protection from torture than any other citizen, and the government must act accordingly.
** - Police say suspect in beating death flew to Israel, FM comments on December 15, 1999
AP reports -- Police issued a murder warrant Wednesday for a youth who flew to Israel a week after the beating death of a teen-age boy.
Daniel Weiz, 19, was charged with second-degree murder in the death of Dimitri Baranovski, 15, who was attacked by a group in a city park on Nov. 14, said police Sgt. Joe Gataveckas.
He said Canada is working with Jewish authorities to "make sure he can be brought to justice."
Weiz's mother lives in Israel and his father lives in Canada, and Weiz has traveled between the two countries since becoming a permanent Canadian resident in 1995, said police spokesman Devin Kealey.
Two 16-year-old boys have been arrested and charged with second-degree murder in Baranovski's death.
Police have described the case as a random assault by a group wearing masks.
In an earlier case, a young American man accused of a killing in Maryland fled to Israel, and successfully sought refuge from extradition under a law that prevents Israeli citizens being returned for trial in foreign countries.
In that case, an Israeli judge sentenced 19-year-old Samuel Sheinbein to 24 years in prison in Israel. Sheinbein claimed USraeli citizenship through his father, who was born in the country.
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- FM channel exposed a secret rapport on Jan. 21, 2000 ... Torture on children... Zionists tortures the Palestinian children with Pinoshit methods what they learned from their really own true Fascist fathers like Pinshit, Videla, Salazar, Franco.. The nongovernmental organization, Defense for Children International/Palestine Section (DCI/PS) has documented the arrest by Israeli occupation authorities of Palestinian children in Jalazon Refugee Camp and Beitunia village in recent weeks. According to DCI, "in the period from 22 December 1999 to 1 January 2000, Defense for Children International/Palestine Section has documented and followed-up the arrest and detention of 16 Palestinian minors, ranging from 12 to 16 years of age (see list below), all of whom are accused of throwing stones."
DCI documents the arrest of at least 16 children during this period, and their torture by the Israeli military. According to DCI/PS Attorney Khaled Quzmar, who visited all of the detained, "the children were taken for interrogation at Beit El Detention Center, near Ramallah, immediately following their arrest, without allowing the children to sleep. During interrogation, two of the children were beaten and the others were threatened with physical abuse, and confessions were extracted from the arrested children."
DCI/PS also reports that "since the time of the arrests, four of the minors (ages between 12 and 13) have been released, two of whom were forced to pay a 2000 shekel fine (US$ 450), and two of whom the Legal Adviser refused to accept their arrest. The remaining children were brought before the military court at Beit El, where the military judge extended the periods of detention until 22 February 2000. Given the lengthy period of the extension, DCI/PS's Attorney has filed an appeal protesting the decision. A court date has been set for 18 January to hear the appeal. In the meantime, the minors remain in Beit El Detention Center."
ADC is deeply concerned with this unconscionable abuse of the human rights of Palestinian children by the Israeli occupation authorities. We urge our members and supporters to register their strong objections and concerns to the United States government and urge it to intervene with the Israeli government to stop the abuse of Palestinian children.
Please write to:
Secretary of State Madeline Albright
Email:
Fax: (202) 736-44611
Below is a list of the children arrested complied by the Defense for Children International/Palestine Section (DCI/PS):
Name - D.O.B. - Place - Date of Arrest
1. Imad Abu Ayyash 29.8.85 Jalazon 27.12.99
2. Ibrahim Qattawi 1986 Jalazon 25.12.99
3. Mohammad al-Araishi 25.6.85 Jalazon 26.12.99
4. Rami Zahra 28.8.85 Jalazon 26.12.99
5. Khalil Safi 1986 Jalazon 25.12.99
6. Mohammad Dar Salhiya 13.8.85 Jalazon 27.12.99
7. Mohammad Malki 3.12.85 Jalazon 26.12.99
8. Mohammad Mubarak 16.6.84 Beitunia 1.1.00
9. Bishar Jamil Abu Aliya 4.8.85 Al Mughayeer 1.1.00
10. 'Abd al-Shafi Dahli 14.1.85 Beitunia 22.12.99
11. Zayd Ismail 1984 Beitunia 28.12.99
12. Issam Hamdan 1984 Beituna 28.12.99
13. Maher Mansour 14.10.85 Beituna 28.12.99
14. Qaiser Odeh 19.5.83 Beitunia 28.12.99
15. Ahmad Khalil 1987 Beitunia 1.1.00
16. Mohammad Sharif 1986 Beitunia 1.1.00
Defense for Children International/Palestine Section (DCI/PS) can be contacted directly at:
P.O. Box 55201
Jerusalem
Tel: +972 2 296 0751/2
Fax: +972 2 296 0750
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- FM referred a rapport of Amnesty Internatiol on 11 October 2000... "A culture of impunity around the Israeli police is resulting in police brutality, ill treatment, threats and beatings," according to a new report issued today by Amnesty International.
The report titled "Mass arrests and police brutality" is based on the findings of an Amnesty International delegation which visited Jerusalem and northern Israel from 21-29 October. In it, the human rights organization strongly criticises the procedures and treatment of those arrested over the past six weeks in Jerusalem and northern Israel.
"Palestinians, including children, were frequently arrested from their homes in the middle of the night in a highly intimidatory fashion," Amnesty International's researcher and member of the delegation, Joanna Oyediran said.
Iyad Qaymeri, aged 17, and three other Palestinians were among a group of young men and boys throwing stones in Shu'fat in East Jerusalem, when they were arrested at 9.30pm on 1 October 2000. He was reportedly set on by five soldiers who pushed him to the ground shouting insults, kicking and hitting him on his body and in his face. They were taken to what appeared to be a military camp where they were hooded and forced to lie on the ground for about two hours; from time to time someone would come and kick them or hit them. The four were then taken to the Moscobiyyeh detention centre in Jerusalem. The night before Iyad Qaymeri's release on 5 October, police officers allegedly entered the cell and randomly beat the 30 Palestinians under 18 held there, whilst yelling insults at them.
Yoav Bar, a computer programmer, described how immediately after his arrest during an initially peaceful protest in Haifa on 2 October he was dragged by the legs for more than 50 meters by two police officers with his back sliding along the street, while other police officers beat him with batons. He was beaten again in a police car. He told the police that he thought his hand was broken; the police refused to give him any medical treatment. Yoram Bar Chaim, who protested at the treatment of Yoav Bar, was also arrested and beaten. They were both released about midnight. Yoav Bar's left hand was broken in three places. Two of his ribs were broken, and two of his front teeth were broken. His back was also injured as a result of being dragged along the street.
Amnesty International's latest report strongly criticises the breaches in judicial procedures regarding the arrest and detention of children, especially as regards Palestinian children.
"As a matter of routine, children were not summoned to the police station but arrested, often during the night, in an intimidatory fashion. During their interrogation some children were reportedly subjected to psychological pressure by being shouted at, insulted or threatened during interrogation. In some cases children were reportedly beaten by the police," Amnesty International said.
In Kufar Kana, a Palestinian village in Galilee, Bakr Sa'id, aged 15, was arrested on 24 October by a group of armed police who surrounded his house around 2am. Four police, their machine guns ready, entered the house, frightening the children and taking away Bakr Sa'id. He was interrogated the same night with shouting and threats - which were also heard by another detainee in the same station; the detainee said that when he tried to speak later in court to Bakr Sa'id a police officer slapped the boy in the face. Bakr Sa'id was released on 3 November.
Amnesty International welcomed the Israeli Government's announcement yesterday that it would set up a full judicial commission of inquiry under the 1968 Commission of Inquiry Act to investigate clashes with the security forces in which Arab and Jewish Israeli citizens were killed and wounded.
"However, it is essential that its investigations should be thorough, effective and independent. It should investigate incidents of torture or ill-treatment by security forces and any report must be made fully public," Amnesty International said, "Those responsible must be brought to justice."
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- Usrael imported police Brutality technics from "Big Brother", comments FM channel on Oct.14, 2000 Police Brutality & Video methodes etc discussed on radio... Video captures masked men beating rock throwers... News transferred from CNN... As Israeli police threw a tight security cordon around the Old City in Jerusalem before Muslim prayers on Friday, three men identified to CNN's Christiane Amanpour as undercover police agents were caught on camera donning black masks while beating Palestinian rock-throwers. In the videotape, the incident begins as young men throw rocks at an Israeli checkpoint. A sudden explosion in their midst sends them running. Suddenly three of the rock throwers are grabbed, and the three men can be seen beating the youths, pausing only to put on full-face masks. One agent punches his captive four times in the head while holding him in a headlock, then pauses to pull his black balaclava from a pocket. After donning the mask he again punches his captive. Meanwhile another rock thrower is dragged into view by another police agent. The agent puts his foot on the seemingly-unconscious suspect's back while he pauses to pull his mask over his head. In the background a third agent subdues another rock thrower with a choke, as uniformed regular security forces arrive to take the youths away.
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- FM channel comments on November 6, 2000 "US report urges Arafat to use torture for peace"... An influential think-tank advises Palestinian Authority to ruthlessly repress militant elements without regard for basic human rights... Palestinian leaders have been shocked to read an American think-tank report which urges them to act "ruthlessly" against opponents of the Oslo agreement � even if this involves "excessive force", trials without due process of law and "interrogation methods that border on psychological and/or physical torture." A draft copy of the report by the influential Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), which has close links with the United States government, has been published on the internet and circulated among dozens of members of the Palestinian Authority in Gaza, including Yasser Arafat's most senior intelligence officers. The report says that even if peace follows the "Second Intifada", "both sides [Palestinian and Israeli] will be forced to conduct aggressive [sic] security operations for years to come" which "can have a high price tag in terms of human rights." By way of comparison, it adds that British security forces in Northern Ireland "balanced" what it calls "effective security" with human rights � even though "the British used excessive force, abused human rights, and used extreme interrogation methods and torture." Amnesty International and other human rights groups have frequently condemned the use of arbitrary false arrest, detention and torture by Arafat's "muhabarrat" security apparatus, pointing out that CIA operatives appear to have been complicit in these abuses. Far from denouncing these practices, however, the draft CSIS report appears to encourage their use, stating that "such measures also tend to work". The document is dated 18 October and bears the name of Anthony H Cordesman � a former national security assistant to failed Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain � who is now holder of the Arleigh A Burke Chair in Strategy at the CSIS, named after the former Chief of US Naval Operations. His document is heavily referenced to CIA, State Department and Israeli sources and, according to Palestinian officials here, has been circulated within the US and Israeli governments. Entitled "Peace and War: Israel versus the Palestinians", it recounts the turbulent history of Israeli-Palestinian relations since the 1993 Oslo agreement although its bias is obvious from the frequent use of "terrorist" to describe violent Arab groups and the almost ubiquitous use of "extremist" in reference to their violent Israeli opposite numbers. It excuses the use of Israeli live bullets against stone-throwers, adding that CS gas and rubber bullets are often "not effective in stopping large groups" and that "troops cannot let mobs armed with stones and Molotov cocktails close on their positions, or rely on the riot control gear used in civil disobedience." In a section headed "The Need for Palestinian Authority Ruthlessness and Efficiency", it states "there will be no future peace, or stable peace process, if the Palestinian security forces do not act ruthlessly and effectively. They must react very quickly and decisively in dealing with terrorism and violence if they are to preserve the momentum of Israeli withdrawal, the expansion of Palestinian control, and the peace process. They must halt civil violence even if this sometimes means using excessive force by the standards of Western police forces. They must be able to halt terrorist and paramilitary action by Hamas and Islamic Jihad even if this means interrogations, detentions and trials that are too rapid and lack due process. If they do not, the net cost to both peace and the human rights of most Palestinians will be devastating." The report says that permission must be obtained for any publication of the contents, but copies have now been circulated throughout the Palestinian Authority, including the offices of Mohamed Dahalan and Jibril Rajoub, respectively heads of Arafat's "Preventative Security" in Gaza and Ramallah. Both Dahalan and Rajoub were sent to Langley, Virginia, for what was called "human rights training" by US government intelligence services. Although it condemns "Israeli terrorism" � a phrase used only once and in reference to Jewish settlers' groups � the document concludes with chilling advice to both Palestinians and Israelis. "Every counter-terrorist force that has ever succeeded has had to act decisively and sometimes violently," it says. "Effective counter-terrorism relies on interrogation methods that border on psychological and/or physical torture, arrests and detentions that are 'arbitrary' by the standards of civil law, break-ins and intelligence operations that violate the normal rights of privacy, levels of violence in making arrests that are unacceptable in civil cases, and measures that involve the innocent (or at least not provably directly guilty) in arrests and penalties." The issue, the report adds, "is not whether extreme security measures will sometimes be used, or whether they are sometimes necessary. The issue is rather how many such acts occur, how well-focused they are on those who directly commit terrorism, and how justified they are in terms of their relative cost-benefits." Palestinian officials here noted with surprise how accurate was the report's list of escalating Israeli responses to the current low-intensity war, from Israeli mobilisation of armour to the sealing off of Palestinian towns and "the use of helicopter gunships and snipers to provide mobility and suppressive fire". Apparently based on a 1996 Israeli test plan codenamed "Operation Field of Thorns", the military responses end with the "forced evacuation" of Palestinians from "sensitive areas". Palestine Authority officers, however, were taken aback to read that the PA's "military strength" includes a Lockheed Jetstar aircraft. The plane, they point out, happens to be Arafat's personal executive jet.
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- Medical necessary banned by ZOG in 2000, too... Israeli doctors dishonour their profession by accepting as legal the torture of Palestinian captives
During the last week of March and throughout the court proceedings regarding six petitions presented by human rights associations against the use of torture during investigations by the general intelligence agency Al-Shabak, Israeli Attorney-General Shy Netsan announced that Al-Shabak is considering the use of easier-fitting hand-shackles and a less-offensive-smelling head sack to be used on Palestinians under investigation.
Torture continues
In other words, Israel intends to continue torturing young Palestinians, albeit in a less-harmful manner compared with the methods used by Al-Shabak, during investigation. If these torture methods are carried out according to the announcements in the secret chapters of the report prepared by the Lanwood committee, they would be considered legal and permitted; however, the significance of the term "torture" has become more complicated in terms of the medical repercussions in this past year than ever before. The Attorney-General replied to one of the petitions against torture presented to the Supreme Court of Justice in this respect on 28 May1998, which had been presented on the initiative of some human rights associations�namely the Citizen Rights group and Hum-kid�saying that doctors are present for 24 hours during the torture session in the intelligence cells, which practice has been going on for more than a year. This indicates that doctors are not only present during the actual torture but they also legalize the torture by their signatures on their medical reports that include the information on their examinations of the captives before, after and during the investigation as well. Aside from the discussion regarding the necessity of the use of torture in the cases known as "tactical bombs", whereby torture is used and even condoned in order to force the young to give out information in order to prevent any catastrophe as soon as possible, the presence of the doctors during investigation is considered a moral dilemma.
- Doctors disgrace their profession...
- Yes, it's... The moral objection to the doctors' presence during investigation is that they give medical data to the detectives in order that they may determine the degree of torture the captive can stand. Consequently, the doctors examine the captives before, after or during the investigation. In addition, the doctors do not prevent the detectives from carrying on even though they are sure that the torture will hurt the captive thereby dishonouring their profession. These doctors, according to opponents, contradict the Hippocratic Oath, as well as the two international treaties: Tokyo-1975 and the UN charter of medical ethics in 1982, both of which prohibit doctors from participating in torture or any disgraceful deed. These treaties oblige doctors to rescue the life of, as well as prevent the suffering of any human being, ensuring that doctors remain different from detectives because their duty is to serve the people�not to focus on the "tactical bomb".
In Gaza, during the intifadah, the Doctors for Human Rights Association, which is comprised of 300 doctors and specialists in the medical trades, has been trying for more than a year to make the Israeli Doctors Union adopt new regulations that would prevent Israeli doctors from taking part in investigations carried out by Al-Shabak. However, the Chairman of the Ethical Committee in the union, Eran Dolep, has been hesitating in carrying out this mission. This union was established by Israeli psychiatrist Rohaha Marton, who told doctor Elan Ghal, the Chairman of the Association, that she had established this Association when a doctor called on a dozen Israeli doctors to have a look at the medical conditions in Gaza. Doctor Ghal said that they were astonished when they saw the miserable conditions in Al-Shefa'a Hospital in Gaza, especially the halls crowded with both young and old people in wheelchairs, a kitchen without food even for the cats, and nothing was found in the cellar except some Akamwa fruit. The doctors saw how medicine could be used as a means of blackmail by politicians, and how depriving people of medical care had become a political weapon. This Association grants medical support to the Palestinians and foreign workers, and fights for justice and equity in medical care. During the last six months, the Association has concentrated on persuading the Israeli Doctors Union to prevent doctors from involving themselves in investigations. The Union asked the Association to send a list of the names of those doctors, but the Association replied that these lists are not available except for two or three doctors who had signed some medical test forms used by Al-Shabak. Hadfa Rodovents, the Director of the Association, said that they do not aim to hurt those doctors, especially those who work in prisons, but they are sometimes sent to help in investigations as a part-time job or called from outside, and they will stop this practice as soon as the Union prohibits this. Hadas Zeiv, the Director of Projects in the Union, said that if doctors stopped doing so, torture would also be stopped similar to what happened in Ireland where doctors played a significant role in this respect.
- Comprehensive violation...
- Definitely!... According to Bet'saleem organization reports and official data, between 1,000 and 1,500 Palestinians are investigated annually by Al-Shabak; 850 of these are dealt with according to what the so-called Lendaw Committee outlined as using moderate physical pressure. Professor Ravi Veldan, a member of the Rava'el administration and Peres's brother-in-law, said that the presence of doctors gives torture a chance to continue.
Q: What is the tactical bomb about?
A: VELDAN: The tactical bomb does not concern the doctor because his mission is to rescue people and reduce their suffering, which is completely different from what happens in Al-Shabak cells. It has been understood that most of the doctors are newcomers from Eastern European countries who have difficulty finding a job or even earning their living decently, but they will stop doing so if they realize that this action will make them lose their license.
Ottoman's Shirt: The tactical bomb is similar to Ottoman's Shirt, which is used as a pretext by Al-Shabak members because when they go home, they leave the captives in this trap. Veldan believes that doctors who work for Al-Shabak do not have jobs because they do not have other choices, and they feel embarrassed and isolated because they cannot communicate with the Arab captives. Consequently, those doctors will not be arrested and punished because they have been ordered to do so by Al-Shabak. The Association has been trying to hold a meeting with the Doctors' Union for five months but in vain because the date has been delayed several times. When Veldan was asked about the reason, he replied that the reasons behind this could not be political because some officials of the Union are cautious not to stir up any trouble which may harm their professional future.
- Why do they keep silent? - Doctor Raves, a psychiatrist and a member of the Union, said that he had asked to publish an essay in the official magazine of the Union, Medicine, after he had been asked to examine 14 Palestinian captives who presented a petition against torture; however, the essay was not published because it dealt with political and security matters. He added that he had examined the captives and found out that they had been arrested and tortured by depriving them of food and sleep because they had committed minor offenses such as stone-throwing or writing certain mottoes on the walls. The problem is rather complicated because the Ethical Committee could not do anything, and the basic crisis is that some parts tend to consider the humane aspects of torture. The Chairperson of the Ethical Committee believes that the right policy is to be very cautious in order not to be entangled. - What does it mean? - Jewish barbarity in modern age!... 20th Century was so much bloody, you described here and Imperialism spread enormous propaganda, lies... - We are living now in 21th Century and see that Jewish barbarity continues in the occupied Middle East!... Next generations will discuss on that, although Imperialism continue with fabrications... - Humanbeing shall overcome!...
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- Torture is abhorrent. Torture is illegal. Yet Torture is inflicted on men, women and children in well over half the countries of the world.
Despite the universal condemnation of torture, it is still used to extract confessions, to interrogate, to punish or to intimidate. In Police stations and prison cells, on city streets and in remote villages, torturers continue to inflict physical agony and mental anguish. Their cruelty kills, or leaves scars on the body and mind that last a lifetime.
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The victims of torture are not just the people in the hands of the torturers. Friends, families and the wider community all suffer. Torture even damages and distorts the hopes of future generations.
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In preparation for the campaign, AI conducted a survey of its research files on 195 countries and territories covering the period 1997 to mid-2000. It revealed that AI has received reports of torture and ill-treatment inflicted by state agents in over 150 countries since 1997. In more than 70 torture or ill-treatment by state officials was widespread and in over 80 countries people reportedly died as a result.
The world has changed immeasurably since AI first began denouncing torture at the height of the Cold War in the 1960s, but torture continues and is not confined to military dictatorships or authoritarian regimes; torture is inflicted in democratic states too. It is also clear that victims of torture are criminal suspects as well as political prisoners, the disadvantaged as well as the dissident, people targeted because of their identity as well as their beliefs. They are women as well as men, children as well as adults.
AI's survey strongly suggests that common criminals and criminal suspects are the most frequent victims of torture by state agents today. They have reportedly been subjected to torture or ill-treatment in over 130 countries since 1997. Torture and ill-treatment were reportedly used against political prisoners in over 70 countries during the same period, and against non-violent demonstrators in over 60 countries.
AI's campaign looks at torture by police, in the context of criminal investigations or the maintenance of public order; torture and ill-treatment in prisons; judicial punishments amounting to torture; and torture in armed conflict. The campaign also looks at other forms of violence in the home or the community which may constitute torture under international standards, even though they are not committed by state officials.
Methods of Torture...
The survey showed that beating is by far the most common method of torture and ill-treatment by state agents today, reported in over 150 countries. People are beaten with fists, sticks, gun-butts, makeshift whips, iron pipes, baseball bats, electric flex. Victims suffer bruises, internal bleeding, broken bones, lost teeth, ruptured organs and some die.
Rape and sexual abuse of prisoners is also widespread. Other common methods of torture and ill-treatment include electric shocks (reported in more than 40 countries), suspension of the body (more than 40 countries), beating on the soles of the feet (more than 30 countries), suffocation (more than 30 countries), mock execution or death threat (more than 50 countries) and prolonged solitary confinement (more than 50 countries).
Other methods include submersion in water, stubbing of cigarettes on the body, being tied to the back of a car and being dragged behind it, sleep deprivation and sensory deprivation.
Cruel, inhuman or degrading instruments of restraint cited in AI's report include leg irons and electro-shock stun belts.
Is torture illegal?
The prohibition of torture in international law is absolute. "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment", says Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; similar phrases appear in many other international human rights texts.
No government may use a state of war, a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency to justify torture. Under the Geneva Conventions, torture is illegal in both internal and international armed conflicts. Torture and ill-treatment are also illegal under the laws of virtually all countries, although many laws are inadequate.
One form of torture and ill-treatment which is permitted under national law in some countries is judicial corporal punishment. According to AI's survey, judicial corporal punishments are provided by national law in at least 31 countries today.
The most common forms of judicial corporal punishment include amputation and flogging. Some forms such as amputation and branding are deliberately designed to permanently mutilate the human body. However, all of these punishments can cause a range of long-term or permanent injuries.
Since 1997 judicial amputations have been carried out in at least seven countries (Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Sudan) and judicial floggings in 14 countries. ***
Jan. 11, 1998 BBC reports; Israeli court rules on torture in custody.. The Supreme Court in Israel has dismissed a complaint by two Palestinian detainees against controversial interrogation methods used by the security service, Shin Bet.
Judges voted narrowly , by five to four, to allow Shin Bet to continue using a restraining technique, known as al-shabah, which leaves handcuffed prisoners stretched on a tilted stool, with sacks over their heads and loud music blasting into their ears.
The BBC correspondent in Jerusalem says it is the latest in a series of rulings upholding Shin Bet's right to apply such methods.
Interrogation methods have long been the subject of protest
Despite the ruling, our correspondent says Israel may yet be forced to admit that the methods used to interrogate Palestinian prisoners amount to torture and should be stopped.
Israel denies that it uses torture, but argues that what has been called moderate or increased physical pressure can be employed, notably in so-called 'ticking bomb' cases, where prisoners are thought to have information about imminent terrorist attacks.
However, local and international human rights organisations have long charged that the Shin Bet's methods do, in fact, constitute torture, and thus contravene Israeli and international law.
Yuval Ginbar, of the Israeli human rights organisation, B'tselem, said the ticking bomb concept was little more than an excuse. Hundreds of Palestinians were tortured for this reason, he said, only to be released later without charge.
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BBC reports; "Israeli court to rule on 'torture' law on May 20, 1998
Two Palestinians have asked to Israel's Supreme Court to outlaw violent interrogation methods used by the Shin Bet security service.
The two men, who claim to have been tortured by Shin Bet, asked the court on Wednesday to repeal a ruling which allows the use of "moderate physical pressure" during the interrogation of prisoners deemed a risk to security.
A ruling is expected on Wednesday or Thursday.
Human rights groups say Shin Bet routinely tortures hundreds of Palestinians every year.
The men who are bringing the case to court, Abdel Rahman Ghenimat and Fuad Quran, claim that they were tied to tilted stools and had their hands cuffed behind their backs while in custody. They say sacks were placed over their heads and loud music was blasted into their ears for prolonged periods.
The two men, who are accused of being members of the militant Hamas group, have asked the court to repeal a decision which allows the Shin Bet security agency to use "moderate physical pressure" during interrogation of security prisoners.
Gidon Ezra, the head of Shin Bet, said the law was necessary in fighting terrorism.
"We are fighting terror which doesn't care about children, women or old people," Mr Ezra said. "We have to defend people."
The Israeli government said earlier this week that the methods are only used "in very specific and justifiable circumstances," that they have saved lives and brought minimal pain to the prisoners.
Israeli anti-torture campaigners argue that if countries such as Britain and the US can combat terrorism without resorting to officially-sanctioned torture, so too should Israel.
The United Nations has condemned Israel's methods of interrogating suspected Palestinian militants, saying they amount to torture.
The UN Committee Against Torture in Geneva said the methods violated international accords and should cease immediately.
It listed methods such as sleep deprivation, deafening music, beatings, threats and covering prisoners' heads with hoods.
The UN acknowledged Israel's claim that it needed tough tactics to counter the threat of terrorism but said this did not justify torture.
Israel's ambassador to Geneva, Yosef Lamdan, expressed his "surprise and disappointment" at the committee's conclusions.
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- BBC reports; "Israel 'torture' hearing opens on May 26, 1999
... A landmark hearing has opened in Israel to decide the legality of interrogation methods used on Palestinian detainees which human rights groups say amount to torture.
Lawyers say prisoners are subjected to:
violent shaking which can lead to unconsciousness
hanging by their wrists
sleep deprivation
exposure to extreme temperatures
deafening music
Human rights groups have submitted a petition calling for an end to such practices. They say if the High Court rejects their petition, Israel will be the first democratic country to legalise torture.
They estimate around 85% of all Palestinians detained in Israel in a given year are tortured by the government's Shin Bet security agents.
Lawyers who defend Palestinian detainees say prisoners are also routinely threatened with death and have threats made against their families.
But the Israeli Government says Shin Bet only employs "moderate physical pressure" to extract information from suspects believed to have direct knowledge of imminent bomb attacks.
The state's attorney has argued that "the national interest must prevail over human rights" in the fight against terrorism.
But the United Nations Committee Against Torture decided in 1998 that the interrogation practices amounted to torture.
International ramifications
According to one human rights group, Betselem, at least 850 Palestinians are tortured each year by Shin Bet agents. A second group, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, puts the number at more than 1,000.
The petition is being considered by a nine-judge panel headed by Chief Justice Aharon Barak.
The High Court has heard numerous petitions aimed at stopping the alleged torture of individual detainees, but this hearing is the first on the overall legality of the Shin Bet interrogation practices.
Eitan Felner, head of Betselem, said if the court rejects their petition, it could set a dangerous precedent worldwide. ''It will mean that Israel is the first democratic country to legalise torture and this could create a precedent that could even undermine the international consensus on the absolute prohibition of the use of torture,'' he added.
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- Have you heard about the Torture center; Khiam Jail - No!... Tell me it, please! - Khiam jail, where torture is routine and by remote control 20 May 2000
Khiam is an awful place. Electrical wires attached to the penis and feet, constant whipping, cold nights attached to a pole while pails of freezing water are thrown over near-naked bodies. Are the Israelis likely to leave this dreadful institution behind when they withdraw from Lebanon? Will they leave the last 160 prisoners - hostages of Israel for the return of missing Israeli soldiers - as witnesses to this shameful episode in history? Or take them away?
Officially run by Israel's collapsing "South Lebanon Army" militia, the interrogators have been obsessive as well as cruel men. The questions come from Israel tapped on e-mail from Metulla to a computer screen in the little torture room in Khiam. And, not so long ago, this question came over the computer screen: "When he came to your village, did Fisk talk about forged $100 bills? Did he mention Lubrani's name?"
The man who received these two questions was stunned - so was I when I heard about them. I had written an article in The Independent on the circulation of fake $100 bills in southern Lebanon, many of them among the salaries paid to SLA by their Israeli masters. Lebanese banks think these bills are forged in Israel. But I had never connected this with Uri Lubrani, Israel's so-called adviser to Lebanon. So why did the Israeli interrogators ask this? And why did they also ask - their computerised questions translated into Arabic by the torturers of Khiam - if I had been to the village of Jibchit in southern Lebanon and what were my contacts with Hizbollah?
Stupidity, of course, plays a part in all intelligence wars. My own book on Lebanon's war is in the Khiam jail library - sent there by the International Red Cross - and the Israelis had only to glance through its pages to read that I spent three months in Jibchit during Israel's 1985 occupation, that as Middle East correspondent of The Independent I had met the Hizbollah leadership.
Indeed, I knew Abbas Moussawim, the Hizbollah chairman who was assassinated by an Israeli helicopter pilot who fired an air-to-ground missile into his car, killing him and his family as they drove back from southern Lebanon after visiting the village of Jibchit. Hizbollah leadership? Jibchit? What did those computerised questions really mean?
I still don't know. Nor did the prisoner who was asked them. He was questioned about other things - if there were spies in his village from the Lebanese Army, if the Hizbollah used mobile phones to explode bombs. Then he was taken to a courtyard, stripped, tied to a stake and had freezing water thrown over him. All night. Then he was locked in one of three rooms - the "black rooms', the inmates call them - with just enough space to squat with his knees to his face for day after day. It is routine in Khiam.
I met one inmate just 10 days after his release, a man who had spent more than a year in Khiam. "When they interrogated me, they hit me on the head, then on the back with a Kalashnikov rifle. I fell down. The man put his boot in my face and broke part of my jaw. I have lost the hearing in part of my right ear. The ear-drum is broken. He said, 'You are working with Hizbollah.' I said no. I run a caf� that sells beer. How could I be Hizbollah? Now I have bad breathing problems and the doctor says there is no medicine for it. That this problem will stay with me all my life."
It is all true. The Red Cross, Amnesty and Human Rights Watch have all concluded that these stories are true. The case of Suleiman Ramadan, his arm amputated after beatings, still imprisoned after 16 years, is among the best known. What will these men, and a few women, receive by way of compensation? Nothing. Two hundred dollars a month from the Lebanese government but nothing from Israel. The American former hostage Terry Anderson has won millions of dollars in damages from Iran in the US courts for his false imprisonment for seven years. The prisoners of Khiam will, of course, get nothing.
Some of them are former Hizbollah guerrillas but many are held because their families refuse to join the SLA or work for Israeli intelligence or because brothers and sisters are believed to work for the guerrillas.
Another ex-inmate told me: "They said to me I would be tortured in Khiam and held there for years if I did not renounce my brother." He refused to make the denunciation. He was beaten insensible and kept in Khiam for more than a year.
Needless to say, the world does not call these men hostages - which they are in reality and also according to the Israeli courts. The world's press and television, anxious, no doubt, not to offend the Israelis, call them "bargaining chips", as if the tortured and the untried of Khiam are players in a large and amusing chess game. We never called the Western hostages in Lebanon "bargaining chips". Hostages is what they were. And hostages is what the last Khiam prisoners remain.
Will they come home when Israel ends its almost a quarter-century of occupation? Or will they be taken off across the border into Israel for further incarceration? When will Mr Ramadan, who has spent more than twice Anderson's time in captivity, at last be freed? Khiam is an old French Mandate fort with its walls still scarred by the tank fire of the Australian Division in the Second World War. It may have more shrapnel marks in the days to come.
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- Israel admits torture, reports BBC on 9 February 2000
An official Israeli report has acknowledged for the first time that the Jewish occupatinaol Mafia's security service tortured detainees during the Palestinian uprising, the Intifada, between 1988 and 1992.
The report, written five years ago but kept secret until now, said the leadership of the security service Shin Bet knew about the torture but did nothing to stop it.
The report did not detail the torture methods used, but human rights organisations say some detainees died or were left paralysed.
Security agents were also accused of lying to the courts about their actions.
The release of the report in Israel was authorised by a parliamentary committee after the Supreme Court recommended it no longer be kept secret.
The Israeli Government has, in the past, denied that it used any interrogation methods that amounted to torture.
Israel 'broke own rules'
But the report says the Shin Bet routinely went beyond the "moderate physical pressure" authorised by a 1987 commission headed by then-Supreme Court Justice Moshe Landau.
Human rights groups in Israel maintain that the practices authorised by the Landau commission - keeping prisoners in excruciatingly uncomfortable postures, covering their heads with filthy and malodorous sacks and depriving them of sleep - amount to torture.
The report, however, written by former State Comptroller Miriam Ben-Porat, says the agents systematically overstepped even these limits, especially at the interrogation facility in the Gaza Strip.
"Most of the violations were not caused by lack of knowledge of the line between what was permitted and what was forbidden, but were committed knowingly," the report said.
"At the Gaza facility, veteran and even senior investigators committed very grave and systematic violations."
The report accuses the entire leadership of the Shin Bet of knowing what was going on but doing nothing to stop it. It says that the agents lied about their activities in court, to other investigating agencies and in their reports to superiors.
"The assurances of senior Shin Bet officials to the Landau Commission that truth-telling inside the organisation is enforced ... were found to have no basis in reality," it noted.
'Holy work'
The report acknowledged that the security issues faced by the agents at the time were unprecedented, and that they succeeded in preventing a number of guerilla attacks.
The report describes this activity as "holy work" but criticises the methods used and recommends measures to ensure that they be stopped.
Two years after the report was written, the Supreme Court banned the use of physical force in interrogations, even within the limits set by the Landau Commission.
The Ben-Porat report was submitted to an intelligence subcommittee of the Parliamentary State Audit Committee in 1997, but the subcommittee decided to keep it under wraps. It was made public on Wednesday in response to a recommendation by the Supreme Court. ** - Israel tortures 850 Palestinians a year, reported by FM on May 19, 1998 JERUSALEM (Reut- - Explain!
- Israel tortures at least 850 Palestinian detainees a year, a leading Israeli human rights group said Tuesday ahead of a court hearing on petitions to ban violent interrogations.
The B'Tselem group, the Israeli information center for human rights in the occupied territories, presented estimates at a news conference that Israel's General Security Service interrogates between 1,000 and 1,500 Palestinians a year.
"Some 85 percent of them -- at least 850 persons a year -- are subjected to methods which constitute torture," it said in a report on GSS interrogation. Its estimates were based on official sources, human rights organizations and attorneys.
Urging Israel to come out of the "dark ages," the B'Tselem group demonstrated the physical pressure which Israeli authorities admit is used against suspected guerrillas.
The interrogation methods, detailed in court documents and in testimony by Palestinian detainees, include placing hoods and shackles on prisoners, putting them in painful positions, depriving them of sleep and sometimes shaking them violently.
In 1987, an official commission chaired by retired Supreme Court Justice Moshe Landau allowed the GSS, also known as the Shin Bet, to apply "moderate physical pressure" to suspects under certain circumstances.
International human rights groups have long condemned the decision, saying it gave the go-ahead for state-sanctioned torture.
Nine Israeli Supreme Court justices are to hear Wednesday six petitions, filed by Israeli human rights groups and Palestinians undergoing Shin Bet questioning, to ban violent interrogation.
In an affidavit made public Monday, Shin Bet chief Ami Ayalon said the shaking of suspects and other physical pressure were "absolutely essential in the struggle to eradicate terrorism" and "thwart terrorist attacks."
"It will be up to the court to decide whether Israel will join other democratic nations and fight terrorism without resorting to inhumane methods of interrogation," said Yuval Ginbar, author of the B'Tselem report.
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- Jewish interrogators torture Palestinian detainees at Asqalan prison, reported by FM on January 23, 2001... Israeli Shabak (the Israeli General Security Apparatus) interrogators used torture against two Palestinian detainees at Asqalan prison. The detainees were subjected to shabih (bound and blindfolded), sleep deprivation, being drenched in cold water, death threats and abusive language.
Ayman Al Ajluni a 28 year-old father of three from Hebron currently detained at the Russian Compound, told LAW Society's lawyer Labib Habib that he had been arrested from his home in the area of Hebron still under Israeli control on 20 December 2000. He was taken to Hebron's Al Majnuna detention center before being transferred to Asqalan for 17 days. Then he was taken to Al Jalami prison, where he spent seven days before being taken to the Russian Compound detention center.
El Ajluni stated that the Asqalan prison interrogators used torturous methods for the first five days. During interrogation, he was forced to sit blindfolded on a tiny chair with his hands bound behind his back. He was prevented from sleeping, threatened with death and subjected to abusive language.
Yunis Al Atrash, a 41 year-old father of 12 also from Hebron, told LAW's lawyer that special Israeli forces broke into his house in Israeli-controlled Hebron on 8 January 2001, carried out a thorough search and took him to Asqalan prison.
Al Atrash stated that Shabak interrogators at Asqalan prison used torturous methods during the first five days of his detention. Al Atrash was forced to sit blindfolded on a tiny chair with his hands bound behind his back. He was drenched in icy water and subjected to abusive language.
On15 January 2001, LAW learnt from the office of the Israeli Attorney General that an investigation into allegations of torture brought forward by Rami Iz'oul, an 18-year-old Palestinian detainee, would not be carried out, under the pretext that it was not a matter of "public interest". The Israeli Attorney's letter came in response to a complaint filed by LAW, through attorney Labib Habib, with the Department for Investigation of Police Misconduct on 3 December 2000. LAW had demanded an investigation into Iz'oul's interrogation.
Rami Iz'oul was arrested by Israeli soldiers from his home in the West Bank village of Husan near Bethlehem on 30 October 2000 and has been in detention since. Iz'oul claims that he was beaten and had ice cold water poured over his head during interrogation. Due to the torture, Iz'oul was hospitalized for one night in Jerusalem's Hadassa hospital. The 18-year-old reported that after being discharged from the hospital he was beaten again and threatened into signing a false confession.
On 6 September 1999, the Israeli High Court issued a judgment outlawing specific interrogation methods amounting to torture. The High Court further stated that a reasonable interrogation was necessarily one free of torture, cruel and inhuman treatment. The Court highlighted that "brutal and inhuman means" were prohibited during interrogation and that human dignity includes the dignity of the suspect being interrogated.
LAW believes that the practices used during the interrogation of Rami Iz'oul amount to "brutal and inhuman means" and are therefore in contradiction of the High Court ruling of 6 September 1999.
For this reason, LAW maintains that an investigation into the allegations of torture brought forward by Rami Iz'oul is of the utmost importance and will further pursue the issue with the Israeli State Prosecutor's Office. LAW is concerned that if a proper investigation into the case is not carried out, Israeli interrogators will see it as a signal that acts of torture and ill treatment will go unpunished.
Under international law, interrogation methods that constitute torture or ill treatment are absolutely prohibited and subject to universal jurisdiction.
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- Reflections of a Native Son: A Jerusalem Memoir Professor Fouad Moughrabi, Department of Political Science, University of Tennessee.
I was born on a hill overlooking Ein Kerem. From the top of that hill, one could easily see the skyline of Jerusalem during the day and its shining lights during the night. My father managed a resort run by the Anglican Church atop Jebel El-Rab (the hill of God). On Sundays, dignified people (including many Jews and foreigners) would come there for tea and dessert. Down in the valley where the beautiful village, known for its greenery, gardens, and scenic landscape, was nestled, the fields would be dotted with groups of picnickers from Jerusalem, out for a relaxing day in the country. Ein Kerem is the birthplace of John the Baptist and Mary is said to have visited it before giving birth to Jesus.
It was a[n] (..) Arab village until 1948, with some Christians and some Muslims. It is now part of Jewish West Jerusalem, and no Arabs live there, the village having been emptied of its original inhabitants in 1948. Ehud Olmert, the right wing mayor of Jerusalem, wants to build more houses in the area in order to bolster the overall number of Jews in Jerusalem as a whole. The Jewish inhabitants, mostly highly educated professionals, prefer to keep it as is. Says Karl Perkal, one of the leaders of the residents' committee which is fighting development: "Ein Kerem is a magnet for Christians from abroad because they are pleased to come to a place that basically looks like it did when Jesus walked the land...This is also important to nature lovers because it is the last green space in Jerusalem. We've been fighting for a generation to keep developers out." (Christian Science Monitor, 9 February, 1998) I recall going with my grandmother to the pine forest atop the mountain and down near the Russian convent to pick mushrooms. She would take time out to show me the various flowers, which she called Hannoun. She had a specific name for each one and could tell me exactly what each was good for. Some were useful for an upset stomach and some for helping you go to sleep. For each ailment there seemed to be a remedy right there in those fields. And then there was the ubiquitous thyme (Za'tar) which smelled strong and which we picked in abundance. She would dry some and later grind it. Sometimes, she would add some to the bread that she baked in an oven (Taboun) made of clay.
I also remember accompanying my grandmother during her daily trek to work in the fields or to take produce or fruits, which she carried in a wide basket on top of her head and walked the few kilometers to Jerusalem to sell it in Katamon.
She was, it seemed, one with the soil and its fruits. It is only now as I write this down and as the memories flood my soul that I fully realize the impact she had on me. I love going to a market to marvel at the beauty of such things and I [handle] them with the same tenderness that she once showed me. My grandmother, on my mother's side, was a tall woman with an imposing presence. She single-handedly raised four boys and a girl while working the fields and selling the fruits of her labor in order to (make) out a modest living for her family. Her face was already wrinkled well before the age when such marks were supposed to appear. It almost matched the topography of the land that she so carefully and diligently cultivated in much the same way that her forebears had done for thousands of years. The color of her face almost matched that of the olives that she picked, pressed and ate.
On cold winter evenings, I remember falling asleep in her lap, next to a (.) kerosene stove, listening to the stories that I incessantly wanted to hear over and over again. She was happy to pass on the folklore that she had inherited. Years later, I discovered that many of these stories were in fact part of the Old Testament and the Koran. She was an illiterate woman but she knew her stories, passed on from one generation to the next, forming a common heritage and perhaps becoming part of the religious lore.
She was the matriarch of the family. Her husband played a peripheral role although he was granted the respect that a dignified elder was entitled to. But he was disabled and could not carry his share of the burden. Therefore, he often deferred to her in matters of consequence. But she never made him feel that she was the one who made these fateful decisions and she never let on to the outside world that she was the one who ran the show. She was feared and respected in the village because of her no-nonsense approach, her candor and her outspokenness about various issues. When my father came to ask for my mother's hand, fierce objections erupted among members of the extended family. Cousins lay first claim and argued against giving the young girl away to a foreigner who had no roots and no known relatives. My father was born in a neighboring village to a father who had migrated to Palestine from Algeria and to a Palestinian mother. Both of his parents died soon after he was born and he grew up in the Islamic orphanage in the Old City of Jerusalem. He learned a variety of skills including carpet weaving and cooking. Later he got a job at the resort atop Jebel El-Rab where he spotted my mother.
My grandmother made the controversial decision to give her only daughter away to this man and managed to convince her immediate family to go along. I have a picture of my father and mother taken at a Jerusalem studio owned by an Armenian photographer shortly after they got married. He is sitting in a chair looking solemn, as befits the occasion, and she is standing next to him, with her right hand on his shoulder and a shy smile on her face. He is wearing a nicely cut western style suit, tailored in Jerusalem. Only his shoes are somewhat rough, and not polished, showing perhaps a person who walks long distances in the fields. She is wearing her wedding dress, a beautiful traditional Palestinian Thob that was the product of many hours of labor by the women in the family and in the village. He does not look like a peasant or even the son of a peasant. His hair is well groomed and his hands are soft. She, on the other hand, definitely looks like the daughter of peasants. He was twenty-four years old and she was only eighteen.
My father built a small house on a hill overlooking Ein Kerem. On the other side of the hill was the tiny village of Jorah where my mother's relatives lived. This small stone house was typical of village constructions, designed to be expanded as time goes on with one room added here and another added there. Outside, there was a small kitchen and an outhouse. On the eastern part of the house, a bunch of bougainvillea grew in a haphazard manner. I remember crawling underneath them to look for eggs hatched by our chickens. On the Western side, there were a couple of olive trees and a fig tree. And right next to the kitchen, there was a water well. I had a cat, a dog, and at one point, a sheep. One day, a sheepherder went by with his flock and I chased him and his sheep screaming that I wanted to have one. He gave me a sheep on condition that I would take care of him.
There were, however, moments of anxiety generated by talk about a vague and distant threat coming from the Jews. The only ones I had seen in those days were the distinguished looking ones who frequented my father's place of work and the pediatrician that my parents had taken me to in Jerusalem.
They were kind and cultured people and my father used to say that some day I will become educated and important like them. I do remember that one day my uncles joined a crowd of other men from the village and walked in a hurry to a nearby village called Kastal where a big battle was going on between the Arabs and the Jews. Abdul Kader Husseini was leading the Arabs in this battle. We laughed at Uncle Mohammed, the black sheep of the family, a simple man with no education at all, who was usually left in charge of the goats. He took an old hunting musket, which had not been fired in many years and joined [in] (.). A few hours later he came back while the others joined the crowd of fighters to Jerusalem to participate in the funeral of the fallen commander Abdul Kader. Meanwhile, the Jewish forces, which had been driven out of Kastal, simply walked back in and took it over, thereby controlling once and for all the main road to Jerusalem.
I was sent to a Kuttab in the village. This one room schoolhouse was run by a religious man who was supposed to teach us how to read, write and memorize the Koran. I memorized a small part of the Koran and learned to read and write. The few Suras came in handy on Fridays when my father would take me to the Mosque in Jerusalem.
Two things stand out in my memory: one was the awe-inspiring beauty of the Dome of the Rock. My father would explain to me its history and point out its artistic beauty. To me, however, what was most enjoyable was to sit on the clean stone pavement in the coolness of the shade and to eat the kinds of things I usually did not get to eat at home, namely Ka'ak and Falafel with a bit of Za'tar and a hard-boiled egg. The second thing that always struck me was the incredible crowd that filled the narrow streets and alleys of the Old City as the faithful departed following their prayers. As a little boy, I felt claustrophobic as I was pushed and shoved by people and carts. I remember being envious of the children who roamed the streets and alleyways of the city, joking, teasing and running skillfully through the crowd. To me, they seemed free and clever.
I always imagined myself joining their frolics in total abandon, watching the tourists go by, knowing every nook and cranny of the city. The city always seemed mysterious to me, enveloped in layers, with doors that led into courtyards, to other doors, and stairs going to upper floors at different angles. What do these people do behind these doors, in these courtyards, and in those dark alleys?. The women who hid behind dark veils and walked in groups, always clad in black added to the mystery. I never saw any women like that. I would follow them, and as they invariably walked in the fabric shops, I would sneak a look at their faces as they lifted their veils to look more closely at the fabric they were thinking of buying. Some of them would glance quickly in my direction and then turn away, reassured that this invader is nothing but a short and insignificant tot. Nearly always, I felt a kind of disappointment at the ordinariness of their looks. Invariably, my father would buy some things for the house depending upon what was in season: possibly some oranges and bananas and always some sweets like Baklava. He would also buy me some trinket and we would then head to the packed bus that would take us back to Ein Kerem.
In April 1948, following the massacre at Deir Yassin, the feelings of fear and anxiety, which used to be vague and distant began to appear more imminent and more real. I could still hear my grandmother and my mother hurling curses mostly on the British and often on the Jews. My mother packed some clothes in a long sack that she had sewn and left it in the corner of the house. At night, some of the men would go to the edge of the village and do guard duty. One night, everyone was awakened to the sound of one of these men who went through the village screaming : "Go !, the Jews are coming." I can still recall the voice and the ensuing chaos. Within a short period of time, the entire village was marching out, carrying bare essentials, some bedding on a mule, some clothing, and some food. We spent the night in the fields a few kilometers out.
Overhead we could see streaming lights and we could hear whizzing bullets and explosions. From a distance, we could see other villages pack up and leave in the same chaotic and hurried manner. The next day, we resumed our trek in the direction of a village called Ras Abu 'Ammar. On the way, we could see some dead bodies and some scattered limbs where explosions had occurred and tore up human bodies that were left lying there. We spent a month in this village and then, when the Jews came again we resumed our walk in the direction of Bethlehem.(..)
Our exile from our homes was supposed to be for a short duration. People thought that they would be going back to their homes and land in a matter of weeks. Surely the Arab armies would enter Palestine and stop the Jews. The frame of reference, for most people, were the Arab conquests in the early Islamic period when armies swept through many lands and defeated enemies with superior force, or the battles waged by Salah Eddin against the foreign invaders.(..)
Shortly afterwards, however, as our exile began to get longer and longer, new stories began to emerge. They all focused on great conspiracies being hatched against the Palestinians. The Jordanian Arab Legion, we were told, did not fight at all. King Abdullah and his British commander Glubb Pasha handed Palestine over to the Jews. The Egyptian Army fought with empty bullets. Only the Iraqis and some volunteers from various Arab countries did any worthwhile fighting. But the Arab armies were no match against the superior firepower of the Jews and their generous British supporters. The British had for years clamped an iron fist over the Palestinians, severely punishing anyone who was caught with a gun or a bullet . My grandmother used to relate the story of how the British came to look for guns one day. One of my uncles had an old pistol. As they appeared on the scene, she was sitting on the floor kneading bread in the large wooden bowl that she inherited from her mother. She hid the gun in the mound of dough. They searched the house and left empty-handed. Later, she proudly related another story about how she gave one of my uncles a gold piece and told him to go to Jerusalem and buy a decent gun. He was unable to find one.
The British, we were told, disarmed the Arabs and gave the Jews whatever weapons they wanted. Years later, upon reading the work of Israel's revisionist historians ( Tom Segev, Benny Morris, Simha Flapan and Avi Shlaim) one discovers that this Palestinian narrative, culled from here and there by simple villagers, with some minor adjustments was in fact quite close to the truth. I cannot easily describe the feelings of hurt, and bitterness among the people I knew who weathered the first harsh winter in the Dheisha refugee camp outside of Bethlehem. But they made it, somehow, with the minimum necessities of life provided by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees.
Tents and blankets were provided along with some basic foodstuffs. What sticks in my mind from those days is a bitter feeling of a cold chill that never went away and the mud that surrounded us after the rain. My father decided it was time to send me to school. He asked around and was told that the best school was one run by the Fr�res, French Christian brothers, where kids learnt English, Arabic and French . He took me there one day and we saw the director, a brother who wore a black robe with a white collar around his neck. He spoke broken Arabic and was obviously a foreigner. When my father heard what it would cost to send me to school he promptly said: " Come, boy, let us go." My father could ill afford the expensive tuition fees. He had just lost his house and his land and had no job.
Whatever little money he had saved was frozen in Barclays Bank in Jerusalem near Bab El-Khalil. It was years later before my father was able to retrieve his small savings. The director then asked him how he got his name and my father told him that his own father was an Algerian who had migrated to Palestine. The director then asked my father if he had kept his father's identity card. The next day, we went back to the school and showed my grandfather's ID card which was written in a foreign language. The director then said that my father was in luck because this meant that we were descendants of a French citizen (because Algeria was [at the time] part of France) and as such we were considered French citizens overseas.
This, according to the director, entitled us to a free education because the French Government would have to pay our fees. And this they did for all the years that I and my two younger brothers attended that school. In those days, going to Jerusalem was a major undertaking. One had to take a bus from Bethlehem, which would wind its way up and down steep inclines. Very often I would throw up and feel embarrassed until I saw that other people were going through the same thing. The city had become truncated. A fence and a wall separated the Jewish part from the Arab part.
Whenever I went there I would walk along the wall and see cars and buses on the other side. I often wondered what kind of people rode these buses and these cars. I hated them from a distance although I really never saw any of them face to face. All I knew is that they came and threw us out of our homes, took over our land and made our life miserable. Some day, I thought, we will drive them out of there and go back to our homes and fields.
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- "The Long March East" is today's headline and Mary Joury is reading this true story on FM Channel..
- Let's listen!..
- Ismail Shammout, now living in Amman, Jordan, is a pioneer of Palestinian contemporary art, a firmly established and widely recognized artist of power and distinction.
In 1997, Ismail Shammout returned to his home town in Palestine, Lydda, as a "tourist" after an absence of 50 years. The visit was an intensely emotional experience: part happiness at being once again in the town where he was born and spent his childhood and youth, and part wrenching pain at the loss and forced exile of his Palestinian people.
Shammout was filled with joy at finding the mosque and the church of St. George still standing side by side as he remembered them. As a child, he had attended many services in the church with his Christian friends, and celebrated with them the big, joyous "Feast of Lydda" in honor of St. George, who is believed to be buried in the town. The first thing Muslim Ismail and his wife Tamam did, was to enter the church and light two candles. Then they visited the Mosque to pray and give thanks.
Next, Ismail looked for the house where he, his father and grandfather had been born. A Jewish family was now in possession of his family home and Ismail was bitterly disappointed when he was refused entry.
Ismail was just 18 years old in 1948, and clearly recalls the tragic events of that time.
"Contrary to the myth perpetrated by Israel and the US and Western media, the people of Lydda did not leave their homes voluntarily," says Ismail. In fact, led by their elders they were determined to stay put come what may, and they had made a pact among themselves to that effect.
Lydda was an agricultural town of 25,000 Palestinians in the central "triangle" part of Palestine allocated to the Arabs in the UN partition plan of 1947.
On July 9, 1948, when the Israeli army entered Lydda in force, there was no Arab army there, the townspeople had no arms or weapons, and there was practically no resistance. Yet, in spite of this, the Israeli army acted with deliberate ruthless brutality. All males were rounded up and enclosed in a compound. A curfew was imposed for two days preventing the purchase of food necessities. On the morning of the third day, Ismail and his family watched from their windows as Israeli soldiers gunned down their neighbors' doors, and screaming, striking and shoving with their guns, drove the people out on the street. Then it was the Shammout family's turn. Soldiers beat down their door shouting "Out! Out!" As the terrified family hastened to comply, they were body searched and all valuables removed. At the last moment before being evicted Ismail had quickly picked up a small photo album which was lying around and his prized British Palestine passport. An Israeli soldier tried snatching them from him, but Ismail stubbornly refused to let go. These two items were all that the Shammout family-- father, mother, four sons, and three daughters-- came away with from their ancestral home.
The townspeople were first herded into compounds. "There were tens of thousands of us, Ismail recalls. (Actually there were 25.00 people forcibly evacuated from Lydda that day). "There were old men and women, children, babies, pregnant women, sick people." At noon the Israeli soldiers, gun-prodding, striking, and kicking, with indiscriminate brutality, drove the people out of the compounds and marched them to the east, shouting: "yallah 'ala Abdallah", "Go, go to Abdallah" referring to king Abdallah I of Trans-Jordan.
It was Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting, the July sun beat down relentlessly as the townspeople were marched over rough, dusty terrain towards the east, towards 'Abdallah. Surrounded by terrorizing Israeli soldiers they marched without food, without water; thirst became an agony. They marched in bewilderment and helplessness, parched with thirst, into exile, homelessness, to an unknown destination.
At one point, Ismail managed to slip into an orange grove, found an old rusty tin and filled it with water from an outdoor tap. As he was carrying the water to his family, an Israeli army jeep suddenly blocked his way and an Israeli soldier pointed a gun at his head and commanded "Drop it! Drop it!"
The Shammout family marched all that hot July day, until midnight when they reached the Arab village of Ni'lin, north of Ramallah, where the villagers welcomed them with a couple of loaves of Pita bread and water. "We were the lucky ones," says Ismail. "We were among the first to arrive. It took the others between two to three days to get to Ni'lin. Many collapsed on the way. Many did not make it."
For three days the exhausted Shamout family survived on the few loaves of bread the villagers could spare and slept outdoors on the rough ground. Finally, the Jordanian army trucked the homeless refugees to Ramallah, where the Shammout family was billeted to a girls' school. "Several families had to share one room," Ismail recalls. For two weeks, Ismail and his family subsisted on bread and water. But then, Ismail's father who had been a wholesale produce merchant in Lydda, realizing that the Israelis had no intention of allowing the refugees to return to their homes, moved his family to Khan Yunis in the Gaza area, where he had business colleagues, and there, with thousands of other refugees, he and his sons eked out a living.
In Khan Yunis, Ismail and his brothers worked at anything they could get. They sold bread. "We sold anything there was to sell. We learned to make halawah (a sweet confection} at home and sold it to children." When a school was opened for the refugee children, Ismail and a brother applied as volunteer teachers. They taught school in the morning on voluntary basis, and sold halawah to the children in the afternoon.
Throughout this period Ismail had held tight to his dream. His overriding love was drawing and painting and his dream was to attend art school and become a great painter. He had been drawing and painting since childhood. His talent was soon recognized by the school authorities in Khan Yunis, and he was appointed art instructor in three schools, this time with a tiny salary. It took Ismail a whole year to save 10 Egyptian pounds ($ 30). With this paltry sum in his pocket, and a big chunk of courage, Ismail left for Egypt in search for his dream. He applied and was admitted to the college of Fine Arts in Cairo. After school he worked as a messenger and assistant at a poster advertising agency. He painted in every free minute, and in July 1953, Shammout carried over 60 paintings (oil, watercolor, and drawings) to Gaza for the first ever Palestinian art exhibition.
In Gaza his paintings were received with great interest and pride. Here was a Palestinian artist with Palestinian themes, which aroused intense emotional response among the viewers. The success of the exhibition gave Shammout self-confidence and an appreciation of the power of painting to educate, influence and affect. One of the paintings exhibited was the now well known "whereto". A distraught father, on the forced march out of Lydda, carries a sleeping child on his left shoulder, while a little girl clutches his right hand and looks up at him in exhaustion and bewilderment, and a third child trails behind: a graphic record of the heart-rending loss and helplessness with which each of the viewers identified.
This exhibition was followed by a second exhibition in Cairo which was inaugurated by president Jamal 'Abd Al-Nasir of Egypt. Shammout displayed 55 paintings. Two other Palestinian artists were invited by Shammout to participate. Tamam al Akhal (Shammout's future wife) and Nihad Sibasi. This exhibition met with equal success. It was very well received in Palestinian and Arab art circles, and was given sizeable coverage in the Egyptian press. With the money from the sale of his paintings, Shammout, still following his dream, traveled to Italy to enroll at the Academia De Belle Arti in Rome. Three months after his arrival, he won first prize at an exhibition: the prize was two years study at the academy. Shamout's dream had been realized!
Palestinian themes and the tragic Palestinian experience continue to be a hallmark of Shammout's work. He and his wife, Tamam are in the process of recording Palestinian history in oil on canvass. To date, they have produced eight large wall- sized panels (each 2x1.6 meters) of Palestinian life in Lydda and Jaffa (Tamam's home town) before, during, and after the "Nakbah", the Palestinian holocaust of loss and expulsion. Shammout's painting of life in Lydda before 1948 depicts in colors of sun and fruit the tranquil, peaceful joys of a small agricultural community.
These epic pieces of art are witnesses to Palestinian history, to the Palestinian attachment to their land, the wrenching pain of loss and exile, and undying hope for future redemption. They are Ismail and Tamam Shammout's finest legacy.
Mrs. Joury was born in Nazareth, Palestine, and is now a Jordanian citizen. She began her education at the Beirut College for Women in Beirut, Lebanon, continued at the American University at Cairo, Egypt, and obtained her B.A. degree from Smith College in Northampton, Mass. Mrs. Joury received a M.A. degree from Haverford College at Haverfo |
