Rev. Pike warns about the moral consequences of aiding and abetting a criminal State
Torture In Israeli Prisons
By Rev. Ted Pike
Today, more than 8,000 Palestinians are locked in Israel ’s prisons, most without due process. For the majority, their crime is resisting a nation that violently stole 90 percent of their parents’ and grandparents’ land and possessions and expelled them to wretched detention camps in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon. (See, The Simple Explanation for Mid-East Strife) These sons and grandsons were imprisoned for crimes ranging from stone-throwing at Israeli tanks to violent terrorist activity. As prisoners, they have virtually no rights. Many are held without charge or trial. They can be legally tortured without restraint.
Since at least 1967, the government of Israel has vehemently denied that it uses torture, and Israel signed the 1987 Landau Agreement banning most forms of torture. 1 But in 1995 a secret government report (not released until 2000) admitted Israel does torture. 2 In 1999 Israel ’s Supreme Court ruled that torture can be employed as a “necessity” in exceptional cases when officers have reason to believe they can prevent a crime. This has created a loophole, exempting interrogators/torturers from punishment as long as they claim they tortured in the national interest. 3
Since every Palestinian prisoner may be viewed as possessing information valuable to preventing terrorist attacks, virtually all have been tortured. The Palestine Monitor (www.palestinemonitor.org) reports that since 1987 the Israeli Security Agency has tortured at least 850 Palestinians a year during interrogations. Since the Supreme Court ruling in 1999, according to the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselm, 85 percent of Palestinian prisoners are still subjected to torture. The Monitor asserts that during the first Intifada (1987-1993), Israeli security “interrogated approximately 23,000 Palestinians.” The Public Committee Against Torture (PCAT) estimates that almost all suffered some torture during interrogation. 4



My Struggle












RSS 2.0
Atom 0.3
RDF