הוועד הציבורי נגד עינויים בישראל

by Yoav Loeff, PCATI's Coordinator of Public Engagement

On Friday, 3 October 2008, a prominent article was published in the Yediot Ahronot newspaper stating that Israel has appealed to Spain requesting that it does not issue arrest warrants against senior Israeli personnel who were involved in 2002 in the assassination in the Gaza Strip of a senior member of the Hamas, Salah Shehadeh. In addition to Shehadeh, fourteen Palestinians, most of them children, were killed and dozens were wounded following the dropping of a one-ton bomb on a building in the heart of a residential neighborhood. Spanish attorneys who represent the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Gaza (PCHR) demanded that a Madrid Court issue arrest warrants against Israelis who were involved in the decision to carry out the operation. Among these are former Minister of Defense, Benyamin Ben Eliezer, former head of the General Security Service (GSS), Avi Dichter, former IDF Commander in Chief, Moshe Yaalon, Dan Halutz, Commander of the Air force at the time and other senior officers, and others.

Three days following the publication of this article, an appeal was filed in the Netherlands against the fact that the former head of the GSS, Ami Ayalon, was not detained when he visited this country. The appeal is based on a case of interrogation during which serious forms of torture were employed that took place in 1999 when Ayalon headed the GSS. This appeal was filed by PCHR on behalf of the victim of torture, Haled El-Shemi.

Mr. El-Shemi's case was handled by PCATI and a complaint was filed in 2000 based on a detailed sworn affidavit given by the victim describing the serious torture he suffered. To this day PCATI has received no concrete reply to its complaint. Additional interrogees were tortured by the GSS in the years following El-Shemi's interrogation yet the State Attorney's office has refrained from submitting charges against those responsible for employing torture in contravention of Israeli law, international law and the UN Convention Against Torture which Israel ratified and is obligated to uphold.

The international legal procedures that are underway at this time are a result of the refusal of Israeli authorities to investigate allegations of torture and war crimes and take the necessary legal steps against these. As a result, Israel is exposing its soldiers and officers, and the political authorities responsible for them, to criminal procedures abroad, and the State to diplomatic tangles.

PCATI calls on the law enforcement authorities to carry out investigation to the fullest in Israel in each and every case of suspected war crimes, even when these involve the highest ranking military, GSS or government officials. Refraining from doing so is illegal, immoral and irresponsible. The growing numbers of international legal procedures that have been initiated against Israelis prove that "hiding one's head in the sand" does not cause the world to overlook our deeds and our irresponsible behavior. On the contrary, the more we avoid confronting allegations of severe crimes, the stronger the criticism in the world will grow and we will be doomed to witness a sharp increase in international legal procedures that will follow every officer, interrogator and soldier even on the basis of general suspicions as to their involvement in illegal deeds.