הוועד הציבורי נגד עינויים בישראל

In light of the lack of attention in the Israeli government report submitted to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (U.N. Doc CEDAW/C/ISR/3) on the effect of the current conflict and the occupation on Palestinian women from the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), this report addresses the violence against Palestinian women committed by the Israeli authorities in this context and includes the gender-related impact of the violence against Palestinian women and girls.Except for the cases of Mona Obeid, a Palestinian citizen of Israel and of Israeli Peace activist Tali Fahima, this report does not address discrimination, including violence, against Israeli women.

Special emphasis is given to torture and ill-treatment of Palestinian women from the OPT who have been detained, interrogated and imprisoned by Israeli security forces. It highlights the issue of interrogation of Palestinian detainees by the General Security Service (GSS), during which torture and ill-treatment are routinely applied.

Methods used are beating, slapping, kicking, stepping on shackles, bending the interrogee and placing him in other painful positions, intentional tightening of shackles, violent shaking, sleep deprivation, prolonged shackling behind the back, cursing, humiliating, and threatening the detainee, depriving the detainee of essential needs, exposing the detainee to extreme heat or cold, isolation and secrecy, and imprisonment under inhuman conditions.1

A large number of Palestinian detainees are held in incommunicado detention, deprived of their basic human rights to legal counsel, legal scrutiny, and contact with their families. Incommunicado detention both facilitates torture and ill-treatment and forms an integral part thereof.The interrogators enjoy impunity, which is engineered by a combination of incommunicado detention, the isolation from the outside world, and a strictly internal investigation of complaints.The report also considers the conditions of Palestinian women in detention.

Palestinian female detainees and prisoners are often held in appalling, crowded conditions, suffer from severe punitive measures and are maltreated by prison authorities. Many detainees complain of being denied proper medical care, education, and regular family visits. Women have no access to psychologists or to social workers. Sometimes it is impossible for detainees to communicate with doctors because of language barriers. The report also highlights the loss of life of Palestinian women as a result of military actions. Some 184 Palestinian women from the OPT were killed or died of causes related to the conflict, twenty-four sick Palestinian women died at checkpoints.2 Approximately 200 Israeli women were killed during this time in attacks by armed Palestinians.3 Moreover, the report presents cases of women who are forced to give birth at checkpoints because of delays or denial of passage.