Amnesty International discloses Israeli atrocities against detainees

Amnesty International called yesterday to pressure Israel to ease the suffering of the Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons and release them.

The organization has condemned the atrocities and torture practiced by Israel against Arab detainees. It also referred to the torture of detainee Eissa El-Battat by preventing him from sleeping for three days while investigating him, obliging him to stand on one foot for long hours with his hands tied behind his back and blindfolded.

Meanwhile, a statement released on July 16 by Amnesty International said the organization is "appalled by a 10 minute meeting of High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions." The meeting, which was convened on July 15 to address Israeli human rights violations in the Palestinian territories under the Geneva Convention, said only that the convention applies in these cases and that it would reconvene if the situation worsened.

Amnesty International referred to the brief meeting as "a scandalously missed opportunity to reaffirm international humanitarian law" and said the convention's High Contracting Parties "violated their obligation" to enforce the convention.