Combating Torture & Ill-treatment against Palestinians in the OPT
Since 2009, Adalah has conducted two consecutive EU-supported joint projects on Israel’s use of torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment (CIDT) against Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).
Adalah leads the project together with the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights in Gaza, and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-I) in Tel Aviv, in cooperation with the Treatment and Rehabilitation Center (TRC) in Ramallah and the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme (GCMHP).
Read Adalah’s updates on torture & ill-treatment
Background
To this day, Israel has no legislation that establishes torture as a crime, as defined in Article 1 of the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UN CAT), and which is prohibited by Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), two human rights treaties to which Israel is a party.
Furthermore, Israel has taken essentially no measures to ensure that cases of torture, ill-treatment, and disproportionate use of force are independently investigated and that those responsible are prosecuted and punished.
As a result, practices of torture and CIDT are routinely used by Israeli security authorities against Palestinians from the OPT. Frequent examples include: measures against administrative detainees on hunger strike in protest of illegal arrests or dire conditions; promoting legislation to legitimize the forms of torture and CIDT; firing upon and harassment of Gazan fishermen; physical and psychological torture during arrest and interrogation of adult and child prisoners; among many others.
Infographic: Israeli authorities’ practices against hunger-striking prisoners
Key documents
Adalah’s legislative proposal to outlaw torture in Israel (“the Anti-Torture Bill”)
Adalah’s “On Torture” journal, June 2012
Joint statements
International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, 26 June 2016
Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, 17 April 2016
International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, 26 June 2015
Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, 17 April 2015
International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, 26 June 2014
Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, 17 April 2014
Reports and briefings
Submission to the UN Committee Against Torture, March 2016
Submission the EU European Neighborhood Policy (ENP), 29 October 2014
Submission to the UN Human Rights Committee (ICCPR), 14 October 2014
Submission to the UN Human Rights Committee, 4 June 2012
International Expert Workshop
Psychological Scars of Torture: International Expert Workshop on the Identification of and Response to Torture without Physical Traces, 29-30 October 2015
Highlights of cases related to torture and CIDT
UN Committee Against Torture recommends 50+ measures to Israel to end its use of torture, 17 May 2016
Israeli Supreme Court suspends administrative detention order against Palestinian hunger striker Mohammad Allan, 19 August 2015
Military Police opens 12 criminal investigations into Israeli soldiers’ torture of Palestinian children, 12 July 2014
UN Special Rapporteurs on Torture and Health urge Israel to drop Force-Feeding Bill, 26 June 2015
Op-eds and articles
- A law banning torture in Israel? Don’t hold your breath by Amjad Iraqi – +972 Magazine, 6 May 2016
- Palestinians will continue to eat the fruit of the poisonous tree by Fady Khoury and Nadeem Shehadeh – Ynet News, September 2015
- U.S. torture report shows the danger of Israel’s legal loopholes by Nadeem Shehadeh and Amjad Iraqi - +972 Magazine, 13 December 2014
- Palestinian kids detail abusive interrogations, arrests by Fady Khoury - +972 Magazine, 8 June 2014
This project is supported with the financial assistance of the European Union. The products are the sole responsibility of Adalah, Al Mezan and PHR-Israel and under no circumstances should be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union.
