Accountability Now
by Stephen Lendman
Arafat Jaradat’s father being helped after identifying his son’s tortured body. When will all this ugliness end? Those who cover it up in the media, and enable it to go on, the politicians, are all accomplices.
State terrorism is official Israeli policy. Torture and cold-blooded murder define it. Arafat Jaradat is Israel’s latest victim. He died wracked in pain Saturday. Israel attributed it to cardiac arrest. Shin Bet claimed no detectable health problems during interrogation. Accusations of torture were dismissed. Coverup and denial don’t wash.
Israel was caught red-handed. Shin Bet interrogators tortured him to death. Autopsy evidence confirmed it. Severe upper body bruising, blisters, and blot clots were visible. Jaradat had multiple broken bones in his neck, spine, arms and legs.
PA Detainee Affairs Minister Issa Qaraqe said:
“The information we have received so far is shocking and painful.”
“The evidence corroborates our suspicion that Mr. Jaradat died as a result of torture, especially since the autopsy clearly proved that the victim’s heart was healthy, which disproves the initial alleged account presented by occupation authorities that he died of a heart attack.”
Arafat Jaradat: one more victim of a sinister empire with tentacles and accomplices in every region of the globe.
Qaraqe’s deputy, Ziyad Au Ain, urged anyone doubting Jaradat’s torture death to view his body. It was in Hebron’s Al-Ahli Hospital. Monday burial followed. Thousands attended. A fallen martyr was honored. He’s one of many.
“Jaradat died due to torture and not a stroke or heart attack,” said Au Ain. Responsible interrogators must be held accountable.
Jaradat’s last hearing was on February 22. Attorney Kamil Sabbagh represented him.
“When I entered the court room,” he said, “I saw (him) sitting on a wooden chair in front of the judge. His back was hunched, and he looked sick and fragile.”
“When I sat next to him, he told me that he had serious pains in his back and other parts of his body because he was beaten up and hanged for many long hours while being (interrogated).”
“When (he) heard that the judge postponed his hearing, he seemed extremely afraid and asked me if he was going to spend the time left in the cell.”
“I replied to him that he was still in the investigation period and this is possible, and that as a lawyer I couldn’t do anything about his whereabouts at this time.”
Jaradat’s condition was dire. He’d been tortured, injured and in pain. Sabbagh explained in court. The judge was dismissive. He ordered a complicit prison doctor to examine him.
“This didn’t happen,” Sabbagh said. Torture continued. Jaradat died in severe pain. Dozens of other Palestinians perished the same way. Some did in prison. Others succumbed after release.
Shin Bet killers remain unaccountable. They’re embolden to continue cruel and inhuman treatment. Holding them responsible is long overdue.
Addameer‘s February 24 press release mourned a fallen martyr. Jaradat’s family said severe beatings began on arrest.
Since 2003, around 700 torture complaints went unaddressed. Whitewash [with American media complicity] is official Israeli policy.
“Addameer holds the Occupation forces, including the judges in the military courts, the Israeli Prison Service the Shin Bet security services and the medical staff, completely responsible for the death of Arafat Jaradat.”
It expressed concern for all Palestinian prisoners. They’re brutalized and subjected to medical neglect. Injuries and diseases go untreated.
Addameer demands accountability. It called on Ban Ki-moon to act. It wants an independent international investigation. It wants Israeli torture practices exposed. It wants responsible parties held accountable. Expect whitewash instead.
Jaradat’s death is a crime against humanity and/or war crime. Multiple Fourth Geneva articles were violated. So was its 1977 Additional Protocol.
Addameer called on Palestinian human rights organization to act. It urges a unified Palestinian legal strategy. It wants prisoner lives and welfare protected. It demands accountability. Responsible Israelis can’t go unpunished.
Do it “all legal ways possible, including boycott, divestment and sanctions,” said Addameer.
On February 25, it joined Minister of Prisoner Affairs and Palestine’s Prison Club. They boycotted Israel’s kangaroo courts. They have no legitimacy whatever. Hanging military judges preside. Guilt by accusation is policy. No justice, no peace follow.
Thousands protested Jaradat’s murder. They did so across Gaza and the West Bank. Dozens of Palestinians sustained injuries. Israeli security forces used rubber bullets and live fire. A 13-year old boy was shot in the chest. A 19-year had multiple rubber bullet wounds.
Israel demands PA officials curb protests. It wants them stopped before Obama’s March visit. A senior Abbas aide gave no indication either way. He blamed Israel for current unrest.
On Sunday, senior Fatah official Azzam al-Ahmad called “resistance a natural (Palestinian) right, and we agree unanimously on escalating popular resistance.
A Security Council complaint may follow. Doing so is futile. Washington has veto power. It supports Israel’s worst crimes. It partners in many of them.
Palestine’s popular resistance committee urged more protests and solidarity. Israel murdered Jaradat. “This crime will receive its punishment,” a statement said.
Mustafa Barghouti is a prominent Palestinian activist. He’s Palestine’s National Initiative Secretary-General. In 2005, he contested Abbas for Palestine’s presidency. Israel wanted its longtime collaborator to win. It rigged the election to assure it.
On February 25, Barghouti called protests “a natural development of popular nonviolent resistance into a popular nonviolent Intifada, and there is nothing left for Palestinians but to (resist for) freedom.”
Israelis exclude other options. “They killed every possibility for peace during the last 20 years.”
“They use settlements and army violence to provoke Palestinians, and suppress them. We counted tens of cases of people hit with live ammunition in the last week.”
World leaders ignore Palestinian rights. Their struggle demands self-reliance. Today’s atmosphere resembles the first Intifada. It’s popular, nonviolent and widespread. What follows remains to be seen.
On February 25, Haaretz contributor Amira Hass headlined “After Palestinian dies in Shin Bet hands, time to question the interrogators,” saying:
“Every week dozens if not hundreds of Palestinians start down the same road” as Jaradat.
“Dozens of Israelis (function) on a parallel track.” They include security forces making pre-dawn raids, complicit prison doctors, Shin Bet interrogators, Prison Service guards, prison clinic workers, and hanging judges.
Torture is official Israeli policy. Horrific Palestinian suffering follows. Israel bears full responsibility.
Jaradat was no ticking bomb. He was arrested on suspicion of stone throwing. He was brutally tortured. Israel extracts confessions that way. Implicating others is demanded.
Victims say anything to stop pain. Torturers know it. They take full advantage. They commit high crimes. They do so with impunity.
Jaradat’s death proves Israel “routinely uses torture.” It’s “not only to convict someone, (it’s) mainly to deter and subjugate an entire people.”
On February 25, a Haaretz editorial headlined “Last call before next intifada,” saying:
Justice is long overdue. “The writing was on the wall for quite some time.” Protests shouldn’t surprise anyone. Occupation harshness creates “despair and suffering without any political horizon.” Recent developments exacerbated conditions.
They include Netanyahu’s E1 development plan, failure to address settler vandalism, harassment and other crimes, rearresting released Palestinian prisoners, hunger strikers for justice, attacking nonviolent protesters, injuring and killing participants, and torturing Jaradat to death.
They’re “liable to be the match that lights the fire.” Another Intifada could happen any time. Calls are heard to do so. Resistance alone can bring change. Quiescence assures continued occupation harshness.
Haaretz called on Israel to put Palestine atop its agenda. Make it top order of business.
In January, fascism won big. Voters elected Israel’s most extremist government in history. Militarism, belligerence, state-sponsored terrorism, occupation ruthlessness, settlement expansions, and neoliberal harshness reflect official policy.
Peace is a non-starter. Palestinians are isolated on their own. If they don’t struggle for long denied rights, no one will do it for them. Sustained resistance more than ever is needed. If not now, when?
••••
ADDENDUM:
PREVIOUS REPORT ON THE SAME CASE
Israeli Murder by Torture
by Stephen Lendman
Torture is official Israeli policy. It’s longstanding. All Palestinians are fair game. Wanting to live free leaves them vulnerable. More on what demands condemnation below. Thirty-year old Arafat Jaradat is Israel’s latest victim. PA chief pathologist Saber Aloul attended his autopsy. Marks on his body provided clear evidence. He died from torture.
He was married with two young children. In June, his wife Dalal expects another. She’s on her own to survive.
In early February, Israel lawlessly arrested her husband. Family members confirmed he was in good health at the time. He was taken to Jalameh Detention Center. He was transferred to Megiddo Prison.
Israel tortured him to death. Since 1967, dozens of Palestinians died the same way. They did so in prison. Some succumbed after release. A combination of torture and harsh prison conditions bears full responsibility. It’s standard Israeli practice.
Israel’s Prison Service said Jaradat died from “cardiac arrest.” Its spokeswoman lied. PA minister in charge of prisoner affairs, Issa Qaraqaa, said he was killed during interrogation.
“We demand the creation of an international commission of inquiry to probe the circumstances of his death,” he added.
“Our information was that Jaradat was being interrogated and then he died. Therefore we call for an international investigation into his death, that may have resulted from torture.”
Dalal said an Israeli intelligence officer brought Jaradat back home. He did so after his arrest. He told him to bid farewell to his children.
“For that reason I was worried,” she said. “My husband was detained several times before, but this time the officer talked in a bizarre way.”
Attorney Kamil Sabbagh represented Jaradat. He complained of severe pain. He blamed it on harsh interrogation practices. It’s brutal enough to kill. Israel doesn’t care if Palestinians live or die.
B’tselem‘s February 23 press release headlined “Investigation of Palestinian detainee’s death in custody must include full circumstances.”
Examining Jaradat’s interrogation treatment, procedures used, responsible officials, and physicians complicit in torture is essential.
Expect whitewash instead. It happens every time. Killers get of scot-free. So do torturers. They’re emboldened to repeat cruel and inhuman treatment.
In October 2011, the Public Committee against Torture in Israel and Physicians for Human Rights (PACTI) issued a damning report.
It’s titled “Doctoring the Evidence, Abandoning the Victim: The Involvement of Medical Professionals in Torture and Ill Treatment in Israel.”
It showed Israeli doctors are complicit in torture and other abusive practices. Doing so violates their Hippocratic Oath.
They witness interrogation harshness. They’re actively involved. They permit what demands condemnation.
They “conceal information, thereby allowing total impunity for the torturers.” They’re beholden to power. They permit lawlessness. They ignore prisoner rights.
They spurn fundamental ethical standards. They cross the line irresponsibly. They’re unapologetic. They’re guilty of high crimes. They deserve punishment. They’re unfit to practice medicine.
Torture is official Israeli policy. It’s longstanding. It violates international law. It’s clear and unequivocal. It’s prohibited at all times, under all circumstances, with no allowed exceptions.
The UN Convention against Torture calls it:
“any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain and 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….”
Fourth Geneva’s Article 27 states:
Protected persons “shall at all times be humanely treated, and shall be protected especially against all acts of violence or threats thereof….”
Articles 31 and 32 state:
“No physical or moral coercion shall be exercised against protected persons.”
“This prohibition applies to….torture (and) to any other measures of brutality whether applied by civilian or military agents.”
Article 147 calls “willful killing, torture or inhuman treatment….grave breaches.” They’re considered crimes of war and against humanity.
Geneva’s Common Article Three requires “humane treatment for all persons in enemy hands, specifically prohibit(ing) murder, mutilation, torture, cruel, humiliating and degrading treatment (and) unfair trial(s).
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Article 7 states:
“No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
Its Article 10 states:
” All persons deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity….”
Other international laws affirm similar obligations. Israel spurns them with impunity.
In 1987, its Landau Commission prohibited torture conditionally. It supported Israel’s Penal Law “necessary defense” provision.
It approves “psychological and moderate physical pressure.” It’s used to force confessions to convict. Detainees say anything to stop pain. Torture-extracted evidence is impermissible. Israel uses it anyway. Innocent Palestinians languish in gulag hell.
Landau Commission members approved what they should have condemned. They called coercive interrogation practices necessary against “hostile (or) terrorist activity.” They affirmed it against expressions of Palestinian nationalism.
Israel’s High Court tried having it both ways. On the one hand, it prohibited torture. On the other, it permits it in “ticking bomb” cases.
Doing so violates international law. Israeli interrogators, Shin Bet, and Prison Service officials take full advantage.
PACTI says Israel tortures thousands of Palestinian prisoners. Nearly all detainees endure torture, humiliation and other forms of abuse. Children are treated like adults. Many end up traumatized.
Abuse begins at arrest. Commanders order it or look the other way. Beatings are commonplace. Coverup and denial follow. Things worsen in detention.
Palestinians endure prolonged isolation, kicking, violent shaking, beatings, painfully tight cuffing, sleep deprivation, withholding food and water, prolonged painful positions while blindfolded, extreme heat or cold, excruciating loud music, threats against family members, lack of basic hygiene, and much more.
Cursing, physical and sexual threats, strip searches, and other humiliating and degrading practices are commonplace.
Israel’s frog position is used. It’s painful and injury prone. It forces detainees on tiptoes with hands painfully cuffed behind their backs.
The banana position involves painfully arching backwards. It’s done while extending the body horizontally to the floor. Israel uses backless chairs. Arms and feet are bound beneath them.
The shabah position involves binding detainee hands and feet to standard-sized metal frames. Doing so is painful and prolonged. Fixed to the floor rigid plastic chairs without armrests are used.
PACTI says these and other abusive practices cause “psychological and physical harm.” At times it’s irreversible. It’s harsh enough to kill.
Decades of occupation harshness institutionalized these practices. Members of most Palestinian families experience it. World leaders turn a blind eye. So do media scoundrels. They suppress what demands exposure.
Detainees hunger strike for justice. Palestinians rally in support. Things eventually may boil over. Calls for a third Intifada are heard. People only take so much before exploding. It’s long past time they did it en masse.
Jaradat’s death may spark it. Israel murdered him. Violent clashes followed. Hundreds of Palestinian administrative detainees began hunger-striking. Support throughout the Arab world grows.
Israel’s by far the region’s most despised state. It continues abusive practices. It spurns fundamental civil and human rights.
It treats Palestinians like vermin. It’s done so for decades. It violates international law doing so. It does what it wants with impunity. It menaces humanity in the process.
Police state justice is policy. Criminals in high places run things. Israeli tyranny won’t last forever. Responsible officials deserve a lower level of hell Dante forgot. They deserve that and much more.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached atlendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book is titled “Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity.”
http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanII.html
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour