Why are Palestinians tortured in Israeli prisons?

[Leftisrightisleft]

We have heard time and time again from detained Palestinians once they are freed, about the extensive torture and abuse they faced at the hands of Israeli prisons guards.

Is this legal in Israel? Is that why nothing is done about it?

Source:

https://news.sky.com/story/freed-palestinian-prisoner-alleges-torture-and-deaths-in-israeli-detention-13450233

Because Israel has been doing this for years and been allowed to get away with it, the below report is from 2021.

Since 1967 over one million Palestinian people and supports have been arrested in Israel by the IDF. In June 2021 alone, a total of 4650 political prisoners were detained. 200 which were children, 40 women, and 544 serving life sentences.

In Israeli prisons, Palestinian prisoners live in “appalling conditions that are subjected to harsh treatment.” The United Nations has noted that techniques used by the Israeli General Security Service during prison interrogations constitute torture.

Once arrested, prisoners and detainees begin to endure physical abuse and humiliation—all violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.

When interrogated, they become exposed to “physical torture and psychological intimidation.” They are beaten, put into solitary confinement, inspected, deprived of medical and sanitary resources, and many more things. The report confirmed these conditions and the treatment of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons through multiple letters sent to the UN and posted.

In addition to the illegal conditions of arrests and detention, Palestinian children have become increasingly targeted by Israeli detention. These children have been abducted and denied their fundamental human rights, sentenced, and convicted throughout the night.

About 95% of the Palestinian children released from Israeli jails suffer from torture and ill-treatment during their time spent and throughout the interrogation process.

Sick detainees have also been a massive problem within these prisons. More than 1,500 Palestinian prisoners—including those with disabilities—suffer from different physical and mental illnesses due to the poor conditions and no access to medical attention.

Prisoners with cancer are denied any type of access to medical attention unless it is an emergency. Meaning chemotherapy is not an option. Routine doctor’s visits, medicine, anything a typical cancer prisoner should be provided, is not allowed. The condition of these prisons continues to worsen and violate human rights.

They shouldn't be. No prisoner in any prison should be tortured. I agree and condemn it.

Will people also condemn the latest actions of Hamas as they kill their fellow Palestinians?

Both are wrong

I do understand though (correct me if wrong) that Sinwar the organiser behind October 7th was treated for serious illness in Israeli hospitals whilst he was a prisoner.

Some posters on here also are cool with torture so be prepared for depressing comments see below from

@ticklishmauvesquid
”To be fair I don’t give a shit what they do to Hamas members in jail. If putting a stick up their arse makes them give up information which could save lives, so be it.”

You should read the comments coming from the members of the Flotilla

Now that journalists are being allowed in there will be many more reports like this about Israeli atrocities, sadly.

Thanks @Everexpanding this normalisation explains why there are such hateful posts on another thread
Shocking acceptance of killing and torture
Let us never normalise this behaviour

They will all be denied

Because Palestinians are dehumanised and absolutely not considered equal to an Israeli individual. It’s gone on for years and years, international communities know but turn a blind eye, Israel have a free pass on how they treat Palestinians sadly.

Perhaps, but the rest of the world will at least get to see their reports.

You're a lying Anti-Semitic.
Israel is a good state.
A great state.
Greatest in the world.
You just hate Jews!

Saving the pro-Israel getting away with everything awful they do regulars from having to post.

Agree
and then people like Netanyahu and his followers will simply not recognise the ‘organisation’ ( like the UN) or journalist. They will call them Hamas or biased.

We are seeing it here on mumsnet now with the deniers.

Not that the world will give a toss, thankfully

Where is this quote taken from?

@Everexpanding
"Prisoners with cancer are denied any type of access to medical attention unless it is an emergency. Meaning chemotherapy is not an option. "
An absolute lie, shame on you.
Perhaps you've heard of Mr. Sinwar? Head of Hamas who masterminded the slaughter and mass rapes of 7/10/2023?
He was successfully treated for an aggressive brain cancer in 2011 in Israel, while he was a prisoner - oh, in case you're wondering it was for the abduction and murder of two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinian civilians.

Glad you brought up the subject of Palestinians and Israeli medical treatment though. Did you know that several of the Israeli kibbutzim murdered by Palestinians on 7/10 actually used to do a regular hospital run from Gaza to Israeli hospitals so the people could have (entirely free) advanced medical treatment in Israel? That was the thanks they got. And isn't it interesting that Gaza with its dozens of hospitals couldn't provide adequate cancer treatment for its own people?
If you're going to cite Walid Daqqa - please read up on the type of cancer he had and the outcomes. He actually did receive cancer treatment in prison.

I feel like Palestinians are seen as less than human by both Israel and Hamas. Inhumane treatment of them of them by Israel is excused (in some people's minds) because Hamas are bad. Hamas don't care about their own people and are happy to matyr them to their cause.

This is desperately sad and feeds cycle of hatred which begets huge amounts of suffering on enormous numbers of people, including children.

I can't see an end to it.

Yes I agree, one of the dangers of what has happened in Gaza is the normalisation of war crimes, we are being conditioned to accept the bombing of hospitals, schools, colleges etc and the dropping of 2000lb bombs on civilian areas as a normal part of war and it very much is not and should not be. The same with torture and human rights violations there is a reason there were laws put in place and no situation justifies breaching them.

Never in a million years would I have thought I would witness someone on mumsnet justifying the rape of prisoners but that’s what the post I quoted does

This from Amnesty

“Following a cancer diagnosis last year, the Israeli Prison Service denied Daqqah access to a potentially life-saving bone marrow transplant by refusing to transfer him to a civilian hospital.

Daqqah has served a 37-year prison sentence for his involvement with an armed group that abducted and killed an Israeli soldier in 1984. He completed the sentence in March this year. However, in 2018 he was sentenced to a further two years on charges of attempting to smuggle phones to other Palestinian prisoners, and he is now due for release in March 2025 - a date he may not live to see.

Earlier this year, on 26 June, a special parole board rejected Daqqah’s request for early release on the grounds of his illness, and on 7 August the Lod District Court also rejected Daqqah’s petition against the parole board’s decision.

Daqqah’s wife Sanaa Salameh told Amnesty that her husband had been subjected to “systematic” and longstanding medical negligence in prison. Daqqah’s family is planning to file an appeal on his case with the Israeli Supreme Court, but, as they told Amnesty, “time is a luxury we don’t have.”

Amnesty has launched an urgent appealon Daqqah’s case today, requesting that Israeli president Isaac Herzog intervene and commute Daqqah’s remaining jail time and facilitate his release.

Heba Morayef, Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa Director, said:
“Walid Daqqah faces the prospect of a painful death behind bars.
“Walid’s case illustrates the Israeli justice system’s cruelty towards Palestinians, including those who are seriously ill or dying.
“Denying prisoners access to adequate medical care violates international standards on the treatment of detainees, and may constitute torture.
“We urge the Israeli authorities to release Walid Daqqah, end the systematic denial of adequate medical care to sick Palestinian prisoners, and ensure they respect all international standards on the treatment of detainees.”

Part of it is dehumanisation, yes. But there is also a deep orientalist kind of racism at play here: if you actually speak to Israelis you'll often hear this notion that they are basically a "villa in the jungle" (phrase used by former PM Barak) and that "the Arabs only understand force and the right of the stronger". I was told that literally multiple times over when, while working on a project with an Israeli partner firm, I was utterly shocked after seeing the West Bank and asked people on the project team about it.

This attitude somehow seems to defy all empiricism since it's very clearly not working at all.

More reports on Israeli negligence and withholding treatment to Palestinians held in Israeli jails .

RAMALLAH,
November 25, 2024 (WAFA) - The Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS)

reported
that Israeli authorities have prohibited former Palestinian detainee Ismail Taqatqa, 40, from entering Jordan to continue treatment for leukemia.

In a joint statement, the organizations condemned the decision as a continuation of the occupation’s systematic crime aimed at endangering Taqatqa's life.
Previously, he was denied entry into areas within the 1948-occupied territories for treatment under the pretext of security concerns.

The statement emphasized that Israeli authorities committed a medical crime against Taqatqa by holding him under harsh and difficult conditions, despite his worsening health during his imprisonment.

Taqatqa was detained in March and spent five months in detention under harsh conditions. Despite his deteriorating health, he was held in the Ofer prison, where his condition worsened dramatically. He was eventually transferred to Hadassah Hospital in critical condition and later released under restrictive conditions.
A week after his release, Taqatqa was diagnosed with leukemia, and he was admitted to An-Najah National University Hospital in Nablus.

Taqatqa, a resident of Bethlehem's town of Beit Fajjar, had no prior health issues before his detention. His sudden health decline during detention, along with his subsequent diagnosis underscores the severe medical neglect many Palestinian detainees face in Israeli prisons, said the statement.

Such neglect has led to the death of numerous Palestinian detainees and left many others suffering from chronic illnesses since the start of the Israeli aggression on October 7, 2023, added the statement.

The Commission and PPS noted that a significant number of recently released detainees required immediate hospitalization due to health conditions developed during their imprisonment.

Medical examinations after their release have often revealed chronic illnesses or lingering health issues, further emphasizing the harsh realities faced by detainees under Israeli custody.

@RosaMundi27 to quote
“And isn't it interesting that Gaza with its dozens of hospitals couldn't provide adequate cancer treatment for its own people?”

Yes, and the Israeli blockade from before October 7th was largely responsible

4 February 2019 – After being diagnosed with cancer, patients in Gaza may often have to wait for months before being able to receive treatment. Getting a permit to access the health care needed outside can be a stressful and unpredictable process, and many apply multiple times before being able to exit. Even then, some patients are never able to secure the permits they need to access care.

The ability of Gaza’s hospitals to provide adequate diagnosis and treatment to cancer patients is severely limited due to chronic shortages of medicines and lack of medical equipment. Nuclear medicine scanning needed for staging cancers, radiotherapy equipment and some specialized surgeries are unavailable. More than half of essential chemotherapy drugs were at less than a month’s supply throughout 2018.

Further evidence of deliberate cruelty to Palestinians by the Israeli government

I have been wondering whether the 'deniers' on Mumsnet are not all or even mostly ordinary contributors who hold particular views, but are part of a publicity campaign on behalf of the Israeli state. The tone of many posts is so similar, expressing a kind of naive puzzlement about why Lush is bothering to protest by closing stores, or why pensioners are risking getting arrested, or why so many people are unable to understand that Palastine Action is an evil terrorist organisation. I'm not sure that ordinary people who are so ill-informed would bother posting...

@RosaMundi27 Re the Kinbutzim who helped Palestinians I agree it is deeply tragic and very wrong that they were killed. Their ability to care and empathise with Palestinians is in marked contrast to some posters on here and illustrates that many Israelis do not feel or act in the same way as their government an important thing to highlight so thank you for doing so

Hamas: can get their hands on any amount of weapons, but can't get hold of chemotherapy drugs. That just about sums up the Palestinians leadership.
People wait months all over even the developed world for cancer treatment.
Meanwhile, for Gazans, Israeli people were willing to drive to the checkpoints, pick up patients, drive them to hospital and drive them back.

Did somebody actually say this? I would be very shocked if mumsnet allows users to say such things.

I have been reading about how Palestinians have been routinely tortured in Israeli prisons and I can't get my head around how this is allowed? It's not even a secret, it's very well known.

As a supposed democracy why are western allies not holding Israel to account?