הוועד הציבורי נגד עינויים בישראל

A new report by PCATI exposes an intolerable reality. Israeli authorities systematically prevent investigations of complaints of torture against General Security Service (GSS) interrogators. 

Subsequent to the petition submitted by five human rights organizations led by the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), the High Court of Justice today clearly stated that it is forbidden to use threats, false promises and charades that relate to family members of interrogees as a form of pressure in General Security Service (GSS) and police interrogations.

With the publication of the Goldstone Committee report today, human rights organizations in Israel are studying the report and its conclusions, and they call upon the Israeli Government to take the report seriously and to refrain from automatically rejecting its findings or denying its legitimacy.

PCATI attorney Samah Elkhatib-Ayoub testified on 9 August 2009 in Amman before the UN Special Committee to Investigte Israeli Practices affecting Human Rights of the Palestinian People and other Arabs of the Occupied Territories.

The Israeli High Court of Justice ruled today in favor of changing the indictments filed against the soldier and commander who were involved in the shooting of a handcuffed detainee in Ni’lin.

The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) this morning petitioned the High Court of Justice demanding that it order the GSS to refrain from using shackling as an interrogation tool and, particularly, to refrain from shackling interrogees in degrading positions or in positions that cause pain, suffering, or that constitute torture.

A variety of agencies in Israel – chief among them the GSS and the IDF – shackle detainees in painful ways that amount to torture and ill treatment.This is done in violation of Israeli law, basic moral principles and international law, including international human rights conventions  signed by Israel. The primary victims of this practice are Palestinian ‘security’ detainees.

An article from The Guardian on physicians and torture in Israel that refers to PCATI'S 2007 report, "Ticking Bombs" ...

PCATI and PHR-Israel wrote to chair of the Israeli Medical Association (IMA) ethics committee, Prof. Avinoam Reches, claiming that the manner in which complaints concerning physician involvement in torture are investigated are flawed.

The report, published this morning, reveals the widespread phenomenon of violence against bound Palestinian detainees by IDF soldiers and the almost absolute indifference of the IDF, the Ministry of Defense and the Knesset towards the existence of this phenomenon and the need to take action in order to eradicate it completely.