Stephen Lendman

Israel is more Balfour Declaration created monster than legitimate nation-state, a Zionist global scourge, run by Arab-hating fascists.

Daily evidence exposes their viciousness, what media scoundrels systematically suppress, supporting Israeli high crimes demanding accountability - not as long as the world community turns a blind eye.

Israeli soldiers and police rampage out-of-control, murdering and brutalizing defenseless Palestinians with impunity, holding 1.8 million Gazans hostage under siege, collectively punishing an entire population.

A joint B’Tselem/Hamoked report revealed systematic torture and abuse at Israel’s Shikma interrogation facility - Palestinians (including young children and women guilty of no crimes) horrifically brutalized, standard practice in all Israeli detention facilities.

Forced sleep deprivation continues at times for days. Detainees are painfully bound arms and legs to a chair - movement restricted for excruciating hours.

Shouting, screaming, swearing, spitting, intimidating, threatening, and other disturbing indignities are standard practice.

So is denial of medical treatment, lack of food and water, inedible or awful tasting when provided, exposure to extreme heat or cold, incarceration in small cells under deplorable conditions, and often protracted solitary confinement.

Twenty-two-year-old Mazen Abu ‘Arish described his ordeal as follows:

“I spent 20 days in total solitary confinement. Psychologically, being alone is like living in a toilet.”

“If something happens to you, no one will notice. You could die and be discovered days later. You could die in a toilet and no one would notice.”

“You’re dumped in a corner and forgotten. You can bang on the door for all the good it’ll do you. You won’t get any help.”

“No one talks to you and no one sees you except when you’re brought food. And even then, they don’t talk. They put the food down and leave.”

“Sometimes, a brawny guard shows up and bangs hard with a club, maybe to check if you’re still alive, without saying anything…”

“You lose the will to even stand up. I’m used to moving around at work, I find it hard not to move. In there, you have no room to move and no desire to do a thing.”

Published in December, B’Tselem and Hamoked titled their report “Backed by the System: Abuse and Torture at the Shikma Interrogation Facility.”

Reports revealed horrific Israeli treatment - affidavits and testimonies obtained from 116 Palestinians interrogated at Shikma from August 2013 - March 2014.

Virtually all detainees were brutally treated. Viciousness “weaken(s) both mind and body,” facilitating interrogations, the report explained.

Twenty-year-old LH said he was brutally interrogated most of the day and night for over three weeks, describing his ordeal as follows:

“The chair is small and low, with a low backrest. Three of the legs are the same length and the fourth is shorter.”

“It’s tough, because if you nod off or grow tired and fall over to the short side, the handcuffs tying you to the chair behind your back pull at you and it hurts your bound arms and hands terribly.”

“There was another chair, the same size and height but with two shorter back legs instead. When you sit on it, it makes you lean back but the interrogator yells at you to stay straight.”

“To do that, you have to lean forward. It hurts your hands and back. The pain in my arms and hands, and especially in my left arm, became unbearable.”

International law prohibits torture at all times, under all conditions, with no allowed exceptions. Israel’s High Court banned it.

Israeli officials continue what just societies don’t tolerate, systematically operating lawlessly.

The report said Palestinian “detainees interviewed described unlawful conduct by the authorities. The descriptions bear a striking resemblance to accounts previously provided by detainees held at other interrogation facilities.”

“Taken together, it would seem that this conduct constitutes official interrogation policy. Systematically implemented, the policy includes violence and degradation during arrest and interrogation; inhuman detention conditions that force detainees to endure crowding and filth; isolation of detainees, subjecting them to extreme sensory, motor, and social deprivation…”

Nothing too cruel or inhumane is ruled off-limits. Anything goes is official Israeli policy. Unrestrained viciousness best describes it.

Israel does what it pleases because no international action intervenes against it. Rule of law principles and Palestinian suffering don’t matter.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III".

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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