The Letter (Hebrew)
On 16 August 2007, Adalah sent a letter to the Israeli Prime Minister, the Minister of Public Security, the Head of the General Security Services (GSS) and the Attorney General, following an article published in the Haaretz newspaper on the subject of a new method of torture being employed by the GSS against Palestinian detainees. In a recent development, investigators have forced detainees to remove their clothing in front of other detainees, soldiers and interrogators and to put on disposable nylon overalls. In the letter, Adalah demanded that the use of this practice be ceased immediately and that a criminal investigation be opened into the actions of the GSS’s investigators.
According to the article written by journalist Amira Hass, the GSS made two Palestinian detainees enter a three-walled wooden hut. The interrogators then asked the detainees to remove their clothes and ran a metal detector over their naked bodies in front of soldiers standing nearby. Then the detainees were asked to put on overalls and to place their own clothes inside a black plastic bag. Their hands were then bound with plastic ties and blindfolds were placed over their eyes.
The GSS has been employing this method of torture for three months against detainees from the Gaza Strip, according to the evidence presented by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights-Gaza to Haaretz.
In the letter, Adalah Attorney Fatmeh El-‘Ajou argued that this practice violates the constitutional rights of the detainees, including the right to dignity and privacy and causes them severe humiliation, in breach of the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Freedom. “The new method used by the interrogators of the General Security Services is a cruel, inhumane and exceptionally humiliating method of torture, which violates international law, and is considered a crime under Israeli law. Under international law such methods are absolutely prohibited without exception,” argued Attorney El-‘Ajou.
Adalah further argued that the GSS employs this method of torture for the sole purpose of humiliating the detainees and affronting their dignity. According to the aforementioned article, the investigators who used this illegal method work for the GSS. The GSS Law does not authorize the employees of this service to inspect detainees in a way that entails a violation of their basic rights and is at odds with international laws, emphasized Adalah.
Adalah further indicated that forcing Palestinian detainees to wear disposable nylon overalls raises numerous questions regarding the intentions of the GSS, as the goal behind this practice could be the creation of a genetic data bank from material gathered from the overalls, such as blood, sweat and hair. This is also an illegal action that is in breach of human dignity, freedom and privacy.