sábado, 2 de marzo de 2013
martes, 26 de febrero de 2013
Arafat Jaradat´s murder and the routinary torture of Palestinian prisoners
A puppet hangs from the ceiling at Gaza´s Ministry of Detainees permanent exhibition in a simulation of one of the torture practices endured by Palestinian prisoners.
"The ordeal that Arafat suffered before he died at the hands of
Israel's Shin Bet is common to many Palestinians that pass through
Israel's prisons. According to the prisoners' rights organisation
Addameer, since 1967, a total of 72 Palestinians
have been killed as a result of torture and 53 due to medical neglect.
Less than a month before Jaradat was killed, Ashraf Abu Dhra died while
in Israeli custody in a case that Addameer argues was a direct result of
medical neglect.
The legal impunity of the Shin Bet, commonly referred to as the GSS,
and its torture techniques has been well established. Between 2001 and
2011, 700 Palestinians lodged complaints with the State Attorney's Office but not a single one has been criminally investigated.
Writing in Adalah's 2012 publication, On Torture [PDF],
Bana Shoughry-Badarne, an attorney and the Legal Director of the Public
Committee Against Torture in Israel, wrote, "The GSS's impunity is
absolute."
Israel's High Court has been extravagantly helpful in securing the
Shin Bet with its imperviousness to accountability to international law,
and thus enabling widespread and lethal torture."
"Meanwhile, Palestinian prisoners’ rights organization Addameer published its 1 February monthly detention report, which notes the following trends:
- The total number of Palestinians prisoners in Israeli jails increased by 69 to 4,812.
- It is disturbing to note that the number of child prisoners increased by 26 to 219, including 31 children younger than 16 which is 8 more than per 1 January 2013.
- The number of female prisoners rose by 2 from 10 to 12.
- The number of Palestinian Legislative Council members increased from 12 to 15. Nine of the lawmakers are held without trial under administrative detention. In total, 178 Palestinians are held under administrative detention.
- The number of prisoners from Gaza remained the same with 437.
- Furthermore, the number of Palestinians serving life sentences increased with 2 to 531"
viernes, 22 de febrero de 2013
The "Ceasefire" in numbers
Illustration and design: Rachele Richards
"Three months have passed since the ceasefire that brought an end to
Israel's eight-day attack on the Gaza Strip known as Operation "Pillar
of Defence". This infographic depicts the number of attacks on the Gaza
Strip by the Israeli military during this three-month period, as well as
the number of Palestinian attacks emanating from Gaza. Since late
November, Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip have averaged over one a
day, everyday. These include shootings by troops positioned along the
border fence, attacks on fishermen working off the Gaza coast, and
incursions by the Israeli army.
This data is important for three reasons. First, it is a response to
the Western media's failure to cover the vast majority of Israeli
attacks. This fits with a familiar and disturbing pattern, where a
regional "period of calm" is exclusively defined in terms of attacks on
Israelis. "Calm" from this perspective means security for Israelis - but
more dead and injured Palestinians.
Second, data of this nature lay bare the daily reality for
Palestinians and the power imbalance between the occupier and an
occupied, colonised people fighting for their basic rights. It is
instructive that the Israeli army refers to the entry of its forces into
the Gaza Strip as "routine activity". Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers
continue to snatch Palestinians from their homes in the West Bank,
enforce segregation, and protect settler land theft. We have included
numbers for Palestinians killed and wounded in the West Bank over this
same period because developments there and in Gaza ought not to be
viewed as isolated from one another.
Third, if or when there is another assault by Israel on the Gaza
Strip, the Israeli government and many in the West will seek to
emphasise the "rockets" narrative once again. So remember this data, and
note what the Israeli army has been doing when - in the words of Israel's own consul general in Los Angeles - "for the last three months, there hasn't been a rocket fired from Gaza"."
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