Israeli abuse of jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti ‘amounts to torture’

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Written by Super User

Category: MENA

Published: 18 May 2024

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LONDON - Marwan Barghouti spends his days huddled in a cramped, dark, solitary cell, with no way to tend to his wounds, and a shoulder injury from being dragged with his hands cuffed behind his back, write RUTH MICHAELSON, SUFIAN TAHA AND QUIQUE KIERSZENBAUM IN JERUSALEM AND RAMALLAH in the London-based Guardian.

Barghouti holds almost mythic status within Palestinian politics, seen as a figure whose potential to unify different factions has only grown during his 24 years in prison.

The books, newspapers and tele­vision that he used to be able to access have been gone since last October, along with any former cellmates. The lights that flicker in his cell each evening are intended to make sleep near impossible.

“Mentally he’s a very strong person, but physically his condition is deteriorating, you can see it. He’s struggling to see out of his right eye, as a result of one of the assaults,” said his lawyer Igal Dotan, who visited Barghouti in Israel’s Megiddo prison two months ago. “He has lost weight – he doesn’t look good. You wouldn’t recognise him if you compare his current appearance with the famous photos of him,” he said.

Israel jailed Barghouti on five counts of murder while accusing him of directing attacks against civilians, which he denies. His lawyers and supporters fear that as one of the highest profile Palestinian detainees, he was abused to send a message to others that no one is safe.

Former prisoners and numerous rights groups say that conditions inside Israeli jails for Palestinians changed overnight last October, after Hamas attacked towns and kibbutzim in southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking another 250 hostage.

In the months since, the Palestinian prison population has almost doubled after Israeli forces began conducting regular raids across the West Bank, detaining more than 8,755 people according to the Palestinian prisoners and ex-detainees commission. Most were held under administrative detention, meaning without charge.

As the numbers inside Israeli prisons have swelled, with Palestinians packed into overcrowded cells, so too have abuses. Former detainees recounted regular beatings and physical violence, along with a lack of basic care including limited food, no access to clean clothes, reading materials, warm blankets, hygiene products or medical care.

“During this war, the Israeli authorities are trying to deal with all prisoners in a way that allows them to get revenge on the Palestinians. They understand what they represent in our collective mind, they are symbols of struggle,” said Qadura Fares, head of the Palestinian prisoners and former detainees commission and an ally of Barghouti. “After hearing all these descriptions of Marwan as a potential future leader, my analysis is that they decided to target him specifically.”

Barghouti told his lawyers during their visit to Meggido in March that earlier that month he was dragged to an area of the prison without security cameras and assaulted. He recalled bleeding from the nose as he was dragged across the floor by his handcuffs, before he was beaten unconscious.

Dotan counted bruises in at least three places on Barghouti’s body when he visited weeks later, adding that he probably has a dislocated shoulder from the assault and is in constant pain, but prison officials have refused a full medical examination of his injuries.

He has been moved to three different detention facilities since October, each time held in solitary confinement. Last December in Ayalon prison, “he was beaten on several occasions,” said Dotan, including an incident where guards swore at him while Barghouti was “dragged on the floor naked in front of other prisoners”.

“What Barghouti has endured amounts to torture, but that has become standard across all detention facilities since 7 October,” said Tal Steiner, of the rights group the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel. The Israeli prison service did not respond when contacted for comment. Both PCATI and the International Committee of the Red Cross have been denied formerly routine visits to Israeli prisons since last October.

Steiner added that PCATI collected 19 testimonies from prisoners describing physical assault, sexual or other types of humiliation as well as sleep, food and medical deprivation.

“If this is how they allow themselves to treat high-profile prisoners like Barghouti, imagine what they do to detainees who don’t have the same profile,” she said, describing the overall level of abuse as “unprecedented”.

The Israeli chapter of Physicians for Human Rights detailed at least 10 deaths in detention since October, including five where their doctors attended the autopsies. Two autopsies recorded “severe signs of violence and assault”, while in another their physician “found that the specific cause of death was medical neglect”.

At least four cases involved potentially lethal denial of medical treatment, including the death of 25-year-old Arafat Hamdan, who required insulin to treat his diabetes and died in detention two days after his arrest last October.

Every former detainee began their descriptions of detention with the lack of food, and their drastic weight loss in prison. Menus produced by the Israeli prison service show that Palestinian prisoners, referred to as “security prisoners” in the documentation, are given a different diet to other prisoners, one without meat or an ability to buy extra food from the canteen.

In his living room in Ramallah, 74-year-old activist Omar Assaf, who was released in late April, held up a small plastic cup of water, using his thumb to mark the halfway point to show how little rice he was given each day. “What I witnessed the past six months was unprecedented. There is no comparison to what it was like before,” he said. Assaf was arrested in a raid last October and held in Ofer prison in the West Bank without charge, although he laughed recalling Israeli officials accusing him of allegiance to Hamas due to his beard, despite his leftwing politics.

“The first night I got to Ofer prison, I met people with obvious signs of beatings – you could see the bruises, other people had black eyes,” he said. “Sometimes the guards would throw tear gas inside the cells, or fire rubber bullets at close range. I saw people being dragged along the floor by their handcuffs and beaten.”

Prisoners wounded with rubber bullets, he added, received no treatment for their lacerations. But none of this compared to how detainees from Gaza in an adjacent section were treated, he added. “We could hear them being attacked with dogs. We heard them screaming,” he said.

Those detained by Israeli forces in Gaza and brought to military barracks near the enclave described systematic abuses in a report by the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees. These include being forced to kneel for up to 16 hours a day while blindfolded, beatings with metal bars, tortured with loud music and injuries from spending hours in tight handcuffs.

“They have no connection to the outside world,” said Steiner. “There are multiple reports of extreme torture and ill treatment. This is the Israeli Guantánamo, with all of the issues connected to forced disappearances.”

Lawyers and prisoners’ rights groups draw a direct line between the abuse of Palestinians detained within the Israeli prison system and far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who oversees it and handpicked its new acting head Kobi Yaakobi for his tough stance. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported last month that the Shin Bet intelligence service complained to the attorney general about Yaakobi’s choice to improve conditions for Jewish Israelis imprisoned for terror offences, in contrast to the deteriorating conditions for jailed Palestinians.

“This is policy directed by Itamar Ben Gvir,” said Dotan, in reference to the changes for Palestinian prisoners. “There has definitely been a shift, but so far we haven’t seen any official document where this new policy is explained.”

Fares felt that Israel’s treatment of Palestinian detainees showed “they want revenge”. Hiring an Israeli legal team to fight Barghouti’s case, he said, had marginally improved his treatment. “He continues to be isolated, but they stopped beating him,” he said.

Israel troops continue posting abuse footage despite pledge to act

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Written by Super User

Category: MENA

Published: 17 May 2024

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By Merlyn Thomas & Jamie Ryan & Paul Brown, BBC

LONDON - Israel's soldiers are sharing footage of Palestinian detentions in the occupied West Bank, despite the army's pledge to act on previous misconduct revealed by the BBC.

Legal experts say the filming, and its posting online, could be a war crime.

The BBC has analysed 45 photos and videos, which include those of detainees draped in Israeli flags.

The Israel Defense Forces said soldiers have been disciplined or suspended in the event of "unacceptable behaviour".

It did not comment on the individual incidents or soldiers we identified.

International law says detainees must not be exposed to unnecessary humiliation or public curiosity, yet human rights experts say the posting of detention footage does just that.

In February, BBC Verify reported on IDF soldiers' misconduct on social media during the war in Gaza which began after a 7 October Hamas attack on Israel, which killed about 1,200 people. More than 252 others were taken hostage. More than 34,000 people have since been killed by Israel's offensive in Gaza, the territory's Hamas-run health ministry says.

During our earlier investigation, we noticed - and began looking into - a similar pattern of behaviour in the West Bank, which has experienced a spike in violence over the same period.

Despite the BBC's previous reporting on Israeli soldiers' social media misconduct, and the military's subsequent promise to act on our findings, a former Israeli soldier, Ori Givati, says he is far from shocked to hear that this activity is continuing.

A spokesperson for Breaking The Silence - an organisation for former and serving Israeli soldiers which works to expose alleged wrongdoing in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) - Mr Givati added that in fact he believed current far-right political rhetoric in the country is encouraging it further.

"There are no repercussions. They [Israeli soldiers] get encouraged and supported by the highest ministers of the government," he said.

And he says this plays into a mindset that the military already subscribes to.

"The culture in the military, when it comes to Palestinians, is that they are only targets. They are not human beings. This is how the military teaches you to behave."

Israel has built about 160 settlements housing some 700,000 Jews since it occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem - land the Palestinians want as part of a future state - in the 1967 Middle East war. The majority of the international community considers the settlements illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.

Our analysis found that the 45 social media videos and photos that we examined were posted by 11 soldiers of the Kfir Brigade, which is the largest infantry brigade in the IDF and mainly operates in the West Bank. All 11 are, or were, serving soldiers, and did not hide their identity on social media.

Four are from a Kfir Brigade reservist battalion - the 9213 - whose area of operation appears to be in the northern part of the West Bank, according to our analysis of their social media videos.

We asked the IDF about the actions of the individual soldiers we have named and whether they have been disciplined, but they did not respond.

We also attempted to contact these soldiers on their public social media accounts to put our findings to them. One appears to have blocked us and the others did not reply at the time of writing.

The most prolific of these soldiers posts under the name Yohai Vazana.

Many of his videos show his battalion entering homes at night and detaining Palestinians - often binding their hands and blindfolding them. Women are seen panicking as they are filmed without their headscarves.

Mr Vazana - a self-proclaimed "digital creator" whose forearms bear tattoos saying "Never forget never forgive, 7/10" - often refers to his operations as "hunts". His military insignia, visible in the videos, suggests he carries the rank of sergeant major.

He has posted 22 videos and photos on Facebook and TikTok, from what appear to be bodycam footage of patrols, showing the detention of Palestinians.

TikTok confirmed that two videos we highlighted, which had not been taken down on its platform, have now been removed for violating its guidelines which "make clear that we do not tolerate content that seeks to degrade victims of violent tragedies".

Meta, the company that owns Facebook, explained that it is reviewing the content and will remove any videos that violate its policies.

This photo, a screenshot from one of Yohai Vazana's videos, shows members of his battalion forcefully entering a home and posing in front of a Palestinian woman with a child.

Fellow soldier Ofer Bobrov features in a number of shots with Mr Vazana. Captions on his videos often include the hashtag "9213", suggesting he is from Mr Vazana's battalion.

Mr Bobrov's videos of his military operations are posted alongside clips of soldiers dancing and partying, getting ready for patrols, and other snippets from their everyday life.

One video posted on 12 February on TikTok includes several photos of a detainee blindfolded and bound on the floor as a soldier poses with the Israeli flag behind him.

Another soldier from the same battalion, who goes by Sammy Ben online, has posted eight videos and one photo of Palestinian detainees on Instagram.

The detained Palestinians are frequently shown blindfolded and restrained, having been forced to either lie on the floor, or squat, with their hands bound behind their backs, in what are often referred to by military and law enforcement as "stress positions".

Mr Ben says in the posts that he and his fellow soldiers have detained "terrorists" and claim to have found Hamas flags on them. Israel - like the UK, US and other countries - proscribes Hamas as a terrorist organisation.

In one video, Mr Ben, who has also served with IDF forces in Gaza, mocks two detained Palestinians, ordering them to say: "Am Yisrael Chai", meaning "The people of Israel live".

Ori Dahbash is another member of the same battalion who has posted footage of military operations in the West Bank, including a photo of a detainee that has also been shared by Mr Vazana.

Experts said the footage posted by the soldiers could violate international law.

Dr Mark Ellis, executive director of the International Bar Association, called for an investigation into the incidents in the footage, and for the IDF to discipline the soldiers involved.

International human rights lawyer Sir Geoffrey Nice, who worked with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) between 1998 and 2006, agreed with Dr Ellis, but was sceptical anyone would be held to account for their actions.

In response to our investigation, the IDF replied: "The IDF holds its soldiers to a professional standard… and investigates when behavior is not in line with the IDF's values. In the event of unacceptable behavior, soldiers were disciplined and even suspended from reserve duty.

"Additionally, soldiers are instructed to avoid uploading footage of operational activities to social media networks."

The IDF's response did not acknowledge that it had pledged to act on our earlier findings on similar social media misconduct, in Gaza.

Mr Givati, former Israeli commander in the West Bank, said he felt ashamed and disgusted by Israeli soldiers' treatment of detainees.

"We should treat them with the same dignity that we would like to be treated with," he told the BBC.

He said the behaviour reflected how he felt Israeli society views Palestinians, and called into question its claims to abide by international law.

"We have no future as a society if we continue behaving this way," he said.

UN says it has no more food or tents for nearly 2m people in Gaza

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Written by Super User

Category: MENA

Published: 15 May 2024

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BY JASON BURKE AND LORENZO TONDO

JERUSALEM - The UN has run out of tents and food to distribute to almost 2 million people in Gaza, the majority displaced from their homes and dependent on aid to stave off looming famine.

UN officials told the Guardian on Wednesday afternoon that their warehouses were now completely empty south of the river dividing the northern third of the Gaza from the south, with no likelihood of resupply as long as the main entry points into the territory remain closed after Israeli offensives launched in recent days.

“There are no tents in humanitarian warehouses. There are also no stocks of food left with World Food Programme or Unrwa [the UN agency for Palestinian refugees] south of the [river]. What people have had distributed to them, or what remains on the market, is all that’s left, and we expect that that will be finished soon,” said Georgios Petropoulos, head of the Gaza sub-office of UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs. “Time is running out to get a sustainable crossing open for predictable humanitarian supplies into southern Gaza.”

Throughout the seven-month conflict, the WFP and Unrwa have supplied much of Gaza’s population with basic essentials to survive. However, their distribution has depended on a flow of trucks principally through Gaza’s crossing with Egypt at Rafah and the nearby entry point from Israel, at Kerem Shalom.

The Rafah crossing remains shut after being seized by Israeli troops last week. Continued fighting and other acute logistical problems linked to the Israeli offensive on Rafah has made it impossible to bring in large numbers of convoys through Kerem Shalom, UN officials said.

Hundreds of thousands in Gaza have been forced to flee homes or temporary shelters by recent fighting.

More than 600,000 people have fled Rafah, according to the latest UN estimates, complying with instructions issued by Israeli military, which launched a long-threatened invasion of the city last week.

Another 100,000 people in the north have followed similar Israeli instructions to evacuate their homes or shelters before a new round of intense clashes between Israeli troops and Hamas.

All were told to move to a designated “expanded humanitarian zone” along Gaza’s southern coast where almost no provision has been made for shelter or food distribution. Medicals and aid officials describe “horrific and dehumanising conditions” in the zone, with acute shortages of shelter, water, food and sanitation.

Aid officials said 54 trucks had entered Gaza via the northern Erez crossing on Tuesday, and their cargos would allow some distribution in northern Gaza. But it is estimated that about 500 truckloads are needed to supply the essential needs of Gaza’s 2.3m population.

Though the few remaining hospitals and clinics in the territory have about a month’s stocks of medicines and basic supplies, an acute shortage of fuel has reduced services.

Israel has said it is ready to allow unlimited humanitarian supplies into Gaza and blames UN relief agencies and other international bodies for failing to distribute the aid properly.

The war began when Hamas attacked southern Israel on 7 October, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking another 250 hostage. They still hold about 100 captives and the remains of more than 30, and internationally mediated talks over a ceasefire and hostage release appear to be at a standstill.

The Israeli offensive has brought massive destruction, the displacement of about 2 million people and the deaths of about 35,000, mostly women and children, according to local Palestinian health officials.

In some of his strongest statements to date, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said on Wednesday that Israel needed a clear and concrete plan for the future of Gaza where it faces the potential for a power vacuum that could become filled by chaos.

“We do not support and will not support an Israeli occupation. We also, of course, do not support Hamas governance in Gaza … We’ve seen where that’s led all too many times for the people of Gaza and for Israel. And we also can’t have anarchy and a vacuum that’s likely to be filled by chaos,” Blinken said during a press conference in Kyiv.

Israel was plunged into a new and bitter dispute with the UN after the Israeli army released drone footage showing unidentified armed men standing next to UN-marked vehicles at an Unrwa compound in Rafah.

Unrwa has been the target of fierce criticism by Israel, which accuses the agency of cooperating with Hamas in Gaza and has called for it to be disbanded. The agency strongly denies the accusations. A spokesperson said the agency was examining the footage.

There have been weekly protests by Israeli settlers and rightwing activists outside the headquarters of Unrwa in East Jerusalem, calling for its closure, with two apparent attempts to set the complex alight, the most recent on Monday.

Unrwa’s commissioner general, Philippe Lazzarini, said in a social media post on Tuesday that the attacks “have got to stop”.