Israeli methods of torture unveiled
Israel, Judicial, 5/19/1998

An Israeli human rights organizations Wednesday will ask the Israeli High Court of Justice to rule whether Israel's security services are allowed to continue their methods of torture against Palestinians suspected of security offenses.

The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, B'tselem, has filed six petitions to the High Court to discuss the techniques of torture used by the GSS, General Security Services. The petition also demands from the High Court to rule if the GSS, better known in its Hebrew name as Shin Bet, is authorized to practice those methods of torture against Palestinian security prisoners. "We believe the High Court ruling will be a landmark in this case, no matter where it leads to. We hope it adopts the humane line," B'tselem spokesman Yuval Ginbar told a press conference Tuesday. The press conference dealt with techniques of torture. Actors demonstrated methods of torture used by the GSS and others read out testimonies of those interrogated. The press conference was call the day before what B'tselem described as an "unprecedented hearing of a nine-judge panel of the High court regarding the legal basis for GSS interrogation methods."

Ginbar said that most of those subjected to torture by the GSS were later found innocent and released from prison. "Therefore," he said, "there is no justification for using those methods of torture under the pretext of security or to stop ticking bombs, using the term GSS officers prefer to use." He said that even in Britain where torture was used against IRA members, the British authorities finally accepted demands by the European Human Rights organization, which requested that a close-circuit video camera be used to monitor all sessions on interrogation.

The testimonies B'tselem presented in the press conference came from a number of Palestinian prisoners who had been tortured and questioned by the GSS. Of those were Fuad Mahmoud Salim Shamasneh, Ziyad Mustafa Ahmad Zaghal, Abdul Rahman Khader Ahmar, Abdul Aziz Mohammed Ladadweh, Samer Mohammed Ladadweh, Falah Othman Abu Rumeileh, Omar Abdul Rahman Ghuneimat, Nawwaf Ismail Hussein Qaisi, Issam Sadeq Al Halman and Ma'moun Wazwaz.

Follows are excerpts from the report: Conditions of imprisonment and detention: Whether intentionally or not, the prison and detention conditions in the GSS wings greatly influence the detainee's mental condition. Prolonged isolation from the outside world: Palestinian detainees may be held without any external contact for up to eleven days. The authorities must then bring them before a military judge for a hearing to extend the detention. The authorities may preclude detainees from meeting with their attorney for up to ninety days.

The Shabeh combination: Shabeh is the combination of methods, used for prolonged periods, entailing sensory isolation, sleep deprivation, and infliction of pain. Regular shabeh entails shackling the detainee's hands and legs to a small chair, angled to slant forward so that the detainee cannot sit in a stable position. The detainee's head is covered with an often-filthy sack and loud music is played non-stop through loudspeakers. Detainees in shabeh are not allowed to sleep. Sleep deprivation is achieved by using the shabeh combination and by having the guard on-duty wake up any detainee who dozes off. In many cases, GSS interrogators expose the detainee to an air-conditioner shooting cold air directly at him. In other cases, GSS interrogators force the detainee to stand with his arms tied behind him and to a pipe affixed to the wall. In a third shabeh position, the detainee's arms are drawn backward and upward so that the upper body is forced forward and down. The GSS generally uses regular shabeh for several days at a time, with extremely short breaks. At times, the interrogators totally deprive the detainee of sleep for several consecutive days. Sometimes the detainee is denied sleep in cycles of forty-eight hours and is allowed to sleep for a few hours, not more than five hours, in a the cell or the interrogation room.

Shabeh is not only used during interrogation. It can also take place in times the GSS and the state attorney office call 'waiting for interrogation' periods while the detainee is neither being interrogated nor in his cell but rather is in a corridor or a yard. During the interrogation itself, only the sack is removed while the shabeh methods remain in effect. But in most cases, the interrogation takes place while the detainee is in a seated position on a small chair shackled to one degree or another, and not allowed to sleep.

Threats and curses: Israeli interrogators use the method of threats and curses mainly during the interrogation sessions themselves. They threaten to murder the detainee and mention names of those who had died during interrogation or detention. They also threaten to harm relatives of the detainee. In some cases, those threats have a sexual nature as well. In a testimony he gave to B'tselem, Nawwaf Qaisi wrote: "They threatened me a lot. They said things like I was going to leave the prison dead and that I was going to be held in administrative detention for four years. On one occasion, Major Shawki (code name for one of the interrogators who usually use Arab names to hide their real identity) said he had killed Ibrahim Al Rai; and Abdul Samad Hureizat and threatened to bring my brother and kill him. They cursed at me regularly and cursed my mother and sister using dirty words."

Qas'at Al Tawilah: This method has been used with increasing frequency during the past two years. The method combines a painful position with the application of direct violence by the interrogator, and is used during the interrogation itself. The interrogator compels the detainee to kneel or sit down on the floor or on the shabeh chair in front of a table, with the detainee's back to the table. The interrogator places the detainee's arms, bound and stretched behind him, on the table. The result is intense pain. Sometimes, the interrogator sits on the table, his feet on the detainee's shoulders, and pushes the detainee's body forward, stretching his arms even more, or pulls his legs, creating same painful effects. GSS interrogators are liable to force the detainee to remain in this position for hours, with the interrogators adding the direct pressure at will.

Qambaz (the frog position): GSS interrogators use this method during the interrogation itself. The interrogator compels the detainee to kneel on his toes, his arms tied behind him. If the detainee falls, the interrogator forcefully compels him to return to the position, at times by beating and kicking him. Interrogators again are liable to force the detainee to remain in this position for hours, sometimes with breaks interspersed.

Violent Shaking: In this method, direct, potentially lethal, force is applied. It is used during the interrogation itself. The interrogator grabs the detainee, who is sitting or standing, by the lapels of his shirt, and shakes him violently, so that the interrogator's fists beat the chest of the detainee and his head is thrown backward and forward. The violent shaking lasts for several seconds, up to five seconds according to testimonies. In April 1995, Abdul Samad Hureizat, a Hamas member, died as a result of being violently shaken by GSS interrogators. Even though Israel acknowledged this fact, and though it could not guarantee unequivocally that violent shaking would not cause deaths in the future, or even less severe injuries, it has continued to use this method. In his testimony, Nawwaf Al Qaisi said: "They shook me three times overt the course of one week. One of them occurred when I was sitting. Cohen, who is a large man, grabbed my clothes below the collar and shook me forcefully. It lasted only a few seconds. The second time, Adnan, another interrogator, shook me. I was standing. When he finished, I passed out and fell to the floor. They took me to the doctor. He gave me some oxygen, checked my pulse and gave me a pill. Immediately after that, they continued the interrogation. The third time, there were several agents, Nadav, Cohen, Gilly and Dory. I was standing. Dory shook me, more gently than before, but it affected me severely, and I lost all sensation in my head.

Other methods of interrogation include slapping, beating, kicking and causing direct pain to the detainees by the use of shackles and iron chains. These violent methods are used during the interrogation. In addition to slapping, punching and kicking, the interrogators tighten the shackles to cause pain greater than that normally suffered when remaining shackled for a prolonged period. One of these violent methods is where the GSS interrogator tightens the shackles and, grasping the shackles, drags the detainee along the floor.

The GSS is launching a battle on its part to obtain an open permission from the High Court to continue to use the violent shaking method against Palestinian security prisoners, and mainly those whom the GSS describe as ticking time bombs, a euphemism to potential Hamas suicide bombers. In a release issued Monday by the GSS to the High Court prior to the Wednesday hearing the Shin Bet refers to a number of attacks which it claimed were thwarted due to the use of special interrogation methods, such as 'shaking.' According to the GSS, those attacks that were thwarted included a number of suicide bombings in West Jerusalem, Haifa, Tel Aviv and Tiberias and kidnapping soldiers and members of the political leadership in Israel, along with jurists and even journalists.

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