הוועד הציבורי נגד עינויים בישראל

The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) held a special event in Tel Aviv to mark United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture (June 26th). The Focus of the event was PCATI's newest report, released on 22 June 2008, " No Defense: Soldier Violence Against Palestinian Detainees." The report revealed the widespread phenomenon of violence against shackled and defenseless Palestinian detainees by Israeli soldiers and the virtual indifference of the Israeli Army, the Ministry of Defense and the Knesset towards the phenomenon. The report made core recommendations for correcting this situation and represents PCATI's desire to contribute to this effort.

The event included a panel discussion and the screening of two videos. One produced by PCATI and B'tselem focused on the universal nature of torture from the perspective of two victims, one an Israeli, tortured as a POW in 1973 and the second a Palestinian tortured by Israel in 2005. The second video, produced in cooperation with Social TV, featured the testimony of a Palestinian who was abused at the hands of Israeli soldiers and whose narrative appears in PCATI's report, "No Defense."

Noam Hoffstadter, the report's author, led the discussion which included, Yitzhak Ben Moha, a former combatant in an elite Israeli military unit who witnessed and intervened to stop abusive behavior on the part of soldiers with whom he served in the Occupied Territories, Dr. David Senesh, an Israeli psychologist (who appeared in the video above) who was tortured as a POW in Egypt during the Yom Kippur war, Noted Israeli author, cultural critic and scholar, Ronit Matalon and Israel Prize laureate, Professor Yirmiyahu Yovel. Although invitations were extended, no military or other official representative participated in the discussion.