Demand to take Israel to ICC for death of Jaradat by torture UPDATES


February 27, 2013
Sarah Benton

This posting has these items plus photos:
1) MEMO: PA to sue Israel over crimes against Palestinians;
2) Reuters: Israel concerned new Palestinian uprising could erupt;
3) Addameer: Demand for international inquiry into death of Arafat Jaradat;
4) Guardian: Prisoner was tortured before dying in Israeli jail, says Palestinian Authority;
5) Daily Beast: Hoping For An Intifada At Jaradat’s Funeral;
6) Al Akhbar: Thousands rally for hunger strikers across Palestine;
UPDATES
7) 14 NGOs statement: 14 Palestinian and Israeli Organisations Condemn Lack of Accountability for Torture of Palestinian Detainees;

Adam Horowitz in Mondoweiss reports that preliminary autopsy findings by forensic scientist Dr Saber Al Aloul, Director of the Palestinian Medico-Legal Institute show

Reason of Death: nervous shock as a result of extreme pain from the intensity of the injuries described above, which resulted from multiple direct and extensive acts of torture’

A translation of the report is not yet publicly available.



The funeral of Arafat Jaradat on February 25, 2013 in the village of Saair, West Bank, becomes a mass rally. Jaradat died while in Israeli custody. An autopsy has shown evidence of torture. Photo by Getty Images.

PA to sue Israel over crimes against Palestinians

By MEMO
February 25, 2013

A Palestinian newspaper has reported that the Palestinian Authority (PA) decided on Monday to take the Israeli occupation to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against Palestinians in general, and against deceased Palestinian prisoner, Arafat Jaradat, in particular.

“The Palestinian leadership has definitely decided to go to the ICC and other human rights organisations in order to hold the Israeli occupation accountable for its crimes against Palestinians, especially Palestinian prisoners,” the Palestinian minister of prisoners’ affairs in Ramallah, Issa Qaraqe, told the Gaza based Al-Resalah newspaper.

Qaraqe said that the time had not been specified as yet, but that the necessary arrangements were being put in place to start an international anti-occupation campaign. “The need for this was reiterated after Jaradat’s death,” he said. “Prisoners in Israeli jails live in a very bad situation which requires an international movement supported by the Arabs.”
Abdul-Kareem Shobair, a Palestinian expert in international law from Gaza on Sunday called for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to take such steps. He also called for him to sign the Rome Treaty in order to be able to sue the Israeli occupation over its crimes.

“If he does not go, one of the Arab states should adopt the prisoners’ issue and sue the Israeli occupation instead,” he said during a rally held on Sunday in Gaza protesting against Jaradat’s murder.

While Israeli sources claimed that Jaradat died of a heart attack, Palestinian officials insist that he was tortured to death as no signs of cardiovascular problems and no blood clots were found in his heart.

Final findings of the PA autopsy concluded that Jaradat was pummelled repeatedly on his chest and body. He sustained a total of six broken bones – in his spine, arms and legs, his lips were lacerated and his face was badly bruised.



Women mourn during funeral of Arafat Jadarat. Photo by Getty Images.


Israel concerned new Palestinian uprising could erupt

By Jeffrey Heller, Reuters
February 25, 2013

JERUSALEM – Israel’s homeland security minister voiced concern on Monday that a surge of violent Palestinian protests in the occupied West Bank could erupt into a new Intifada (uprising) if confrontations turned deadly.

A Palestinian’s death in an Israeli jail on Saturday and a hunger strike by four other prisoners have raised tension in the West Bank, where stone-throwers have clashed repeatedly with Israeli soldiers in recent days.

“The previous two Intifadas … came about as a result of a high number of dead (during protests),” minister Avi Dichter told Israel Radio. “Fatalities are almost a proven recipe for a sharper escalation.”

Israeli soldiers turned out in force on Monday for the funeral of Arafat Jaradat, 30, who was arrested just one week ago for throwing stones at Israeli cars in the West Bank.

Palestinian officials say he died after being tortured. Israel said an autopsy, carried out with a Palestinian coroner present, was inconclusive and that injuries, such as broken ribs, could have been caused by efforts to revive him.

Palestinian frustration has been fuelled by Israel’s settlement expansion in the West Bank, a peace process in limbo since 2010 and a persisting rift between President Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority and Hamas Islamists who run Gaza.

“We have no choice but to continue the popular resistance and escalate it in the face of the occupation, whether it be the army or the settlers,” Mahmoud Aloul, a senior member of Abbas’s Fatah movement, told Reuters.

“DEAD CHILDREN”

Dichter said Israel had to tread carefully in dealing with any protests, accusing the Palestinians of trying to portray themselves as victims before U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to the region next month.

“I don’t think the Palestinian Authority will gain from an Intifada, just as it didn’t achieve anything from the first or second Intifadas,” he said.

“But I would say that after conducting themselves with poor and warped thinking over the years, they don’t always recognise what’s in their best interests,” he added.

Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior Abbas aide, said Israel’s treatment of prisoners and anti-Palestinian violence by Jewish settlers were “the cause of the deterioration”.

Israel demanded on Sunday that the Palestinian Authority put a lid on the protests, many of which have taken place in areas outside the PA’s jurisdiction. Abbas has said he would not allow a third armed Intifada, but Israeli officials cautioned that events could spiral out of control.

“They (the Palestinians) are trying to drag us to a situation where there will be dead children,” Dichter said.

Palestinians have rallied to the cause of the four hunger-strikers, two of whom are being held without trial on suspicion of anti-Israeli activity.

Some 4,700 Palestinians are in Israeli jails and Palestinians see them as heroes in a statehood struggle. The death of any of the hunger-strikers, one of whom has been refusing food, off and on, for more than 200 days, would likely lead to more widespread violence.

The first Palestinian uprising began in 1987 and ended in 1993, when the Oslo interim peace accords were signed.

The second Intifada broke out in 2000 after the failure of talks on a final peace agreement. Over the following seven years, more than 1,000 Israelis died, half of them in suicide attacks mostly against civilians. More than 4,500 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces.

Additional reporting by Ori Lewis in Jerusalem and Ali Sawafta in Ramallah; Editing by Alistair Lyon



Addameer Prisoners Support and Human Rights Association demands an official international inquiry into the death of Arafat Jaradat, a martyr of the prisoners movement

Media release from Addameer
February 24, 2013

Occupied Ramallah, 24 February 2013 – Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association mourns the death of Arafat Jaradat, a martyr of the prisoners movement who died in Megiddo Prison yesterday, 23 February 2013.

The Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) and the Shin Bet arrested the martyr Arafat Jaradat (30 years old) from his home in the small town of Sa’eer, near Al-Khalil (Hebron) at midnight on 18 February 2013, with claims that he threw stones at cars from a nearby settlement. Arafat was transferred to Jalameh Interrogation Center in the northern West Bank before being transferred to Megiddo Prison.

Mr. Kamil Sabbagh, Arafat’s lawyer from the Ministry of Prisoners and Ex-Prisoner’s Affairs who defended him in a court hearing at Jalameh on 21 February 2013, reported that Arafat was subjected to torture during his interrogation, including being forced to sit for long hours in stress positions with his hands shackled behind his back. Arafat suffered from pain in his back, and therefore, during the court hearing on 21 February, his lawyer requested that he be given a health examination due to the severe conditions that he was detained under. Despite this, the judge ruled to extend his detention for a further twelve days, reducing the prosecution’s request of a fifteen day extension by only three days. The judge also ordered that the medical officials in the interrogation center examine his psychological and physical health and to report the results to the Shin Bet and the court. Two days later, on Saturday 23 February 2013, it was learned that Arafat Jaradat had passed away in a special section for the Shin Bet in Megiddo Prison, under conditions which are still unclear.

Arafat’s family stated that their son was heavily beaten by the IOF during his arrest at the entrance of Sa’eer and that he was screaming from the difficult torture he was subjected to. The martyr’s wife, Ms. Dalal Ayayda, added that the intelligence officer that accompanied the IOF during the arrest requested that they allow him to return to his home for a moment to say goodbye to his wife and children. She considers this to be an indicator that his death in the prison was premeditated.

Arafat Jaradat was born on 14 January 1983. He was a student at Al Quds Open University, married with two children (Yara, 4 years old and Mohammad, 3 years old) and was expecting a third child with his wife in June. Since 2003, there have been 700 complains of torture in the Israeli Prisons, none of which have been investigated. There have been 53 deaths from medical neglect and 72 deaths resulting from torture in the Occupation’s prisons since 1967. Arafat’s death is the second this year that is attributed to Israeli detention; Ashraf Abu Dra’ was subjected to medical negligence during his detention and died on 21 January 2013 from a fatal coma shortly after his release.

Addameer holds the Occupation forces, including the judges in the military courts, the Israeli Prison Service the Shin Bet security services and the medical staff, completely responsible for the death of Arafat Jaradat. Addameer also expressed its utmost concern about the lives of all prisoners and detainees, especially those who continue their long-lasting hunger strikes, those who suffer from diseases and those who are subjected to medical neglect.

Addameer calls Ban Ki Moon, secretary general of the United Nations, to immediately form an international investigation committee to inquire about the conditions that the Palestinian prisoners suffer from in Israeli prisons and to monitor the torture practices used by security forces and the Israeli Prison Service.

Addameer warns that the silence of the international community reassures the Occupation’s impunity.

Addameer considers the death of Arafat Jaradat inside the prison a war crime as it violates the Geneva Convention IV, where torture is considered a violation to Articles 50, 51, 130, 147.

According to Article 85 from the Additional Protocol I in 1977, practices of torture are considered war crimes.

Addameer calls on Palestinian human rights organizations to create a unified Palestinian legal strategy to protect the lives of prisoners and detainees and to hold the occupying power accountable in all the legal ways possible, including boycott, divestment and sanctions.

Tomorrow, 25 February 2013, in response to Israel’s neglect of the Palestinian prisoners, including Arafat Jaradat and the hunger strikers who are nearing death, Addameer’s lawyers will join the Ministry of Prisoners Affairs and the Prisoners Club to boycott the Israeli military courts.



Prisoner was tortured before dying in Israeli jail, says Palestinian Authority

Death of 30-year-old man sparks violent clashes in Hebron that leave three Palestinians and one Israeli soldier injured

By Phoebe Greenwood, Guardian.co.uk,
February 24, 2013

A Palestinian prisoner whose death in Israeli custody fanned violent clashes across the West Bank over the weekend was tortured before he died, the Palestinian Authority has said.

The results of an autopsy conducted in Tel Aviv were revealed at a press conference in Ramallah on Sunday evening after a day of angry protests across the West Bank and Gaza in which dozens were injured.

The findings contradict the Israeli prison service’s claim that Arafat Jaradat died on Saturday from a cardiac arrest.

A Palestinian doctor’s investigations found that while Jaradat’s arteries were clear, the state of his body suggested he had been beaten in the days before his death.

That contrasts with an Israeli health ministry statement that said that the autopsy found “no signs of external trauma … apart from those pertaining to resuscitation [attempts] and a small graze on the right side of his chest”.

It said: “No evidence of disease was found during the autopsy. Two internal hemorrhages were detected, one on the shoulder and one on the right side of the chest. Two ribs were broken, which may indicate resuscitation attempts. The initial findings cannot determine the cause of death. At this stage, until microscopic and toxicology reports are in, the cause of death cannot be tied to the autopsy findings.”

The 30-year-old, a petrol station worker and father of two, was arrested on 18 February in relation to a stone-throwing incident in November during which an Israeli was slightly injured.

Aside from an old back injury inflicted by a teargas canister, his relatives insist he was healthy when he was arrested. A few days later, he died in Megiddo prison.

Kameel Sabbagh, a lawyer who attended Jaradat’s last hearing on Thursday, said he had advised the Israeli judge his client had been tortured and should be examined by the prison doctor. According to Sabbagh, this did not happen.

“He had serious pains in his back and other parts of his body because he was being beaten up and hanged for many long hours while he was being investigated,” Sabbagh told Ma’an news agency. His notes from the court hearing describe his client as “extremely afraid” of returning to his cell.

A rumour that he had been beaten to death during an interrogation spread quickly on Sunday through Hebron, where hundreds of protesters clashed with Israeli soldiers for the second day running in the streets kilometres from Jaradat’s home.

“When the soldiers came to arrest him last week, they told him say goodbye to your wife and your babies, you won’t be seeing them again,” said Mohamed Hashlamon, 58, as he watched masked Palestinian youths hurl concrete blocks from the roof above his home in downtown Hebron to arm themselves with the rubble.

A phalanx of Israeli soldiers lining the border between the Israeli and Palestinian quarters answered rocks with rubber bullets and teargas. Three Palestinians and one Israeli soldier were injured in the clashes.

“People here are angry. They will fight until nightfall and they will protest again from 10am tomorrow just as they did yesterday,” Hashlamon said.

Jaradat’s body was taken for the autopsy in Tel Aviv on Saturday and will be returned to his pregnant wife for burial in his village of Saeer after midday prayers on Monday.

His death has inflamed already heightened tensions across the occupied Palestinian territory.

On Friday, hundreds clashed with Israeli soldiers in a continuation of months-long demonstrations supporting four hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners held without charge in Israeli jails. On Saturday, nine Palestinians were injured, one critically, when settlers used live rounds of fire in clashes near Nablus. The Hebrew-language media have noted with alarm that the Palestinian Authority is doing little to dissuade protests but is lending its voice to the popular outrage. Issa Qaraqea, the PA’s minister for prisoners’ affairs, expressed his suspicion of foul play in Jaradat’s death.

“Our information was that Jaradat was being interrogated and then he died. Therefore we call for an international investigation into his death that may have resulted from torture,” he told Reuters.

As night fell on Sunday, the West Bank showed no sign of calming. In Beitunia, near Ramallah, two teenagers were reportedly hit with live rounds fired by Israeli soldiers. One, the 15 year-old son of the Palestinian secret services chief, was undergoing surgery having been shot in the stomach.

“Statements from the international community calling upon Israel to ‘respect Palestinian prisoner rights’ are insufficient when Israel can arrest, incarcerate and even kill Palestinians without … consequences for its appalling actions,” a statement from the Palestinian leadership read. “Without justice, there will be no peace.”



Hoping For An Intifada At Jaradat’s Funeral

By Anna Lekas Miller, Daily Beast
February 26, 2013 

A week ago, Arafat Jaradat, a 30-year-old Palestinian from the village of Sa’ir in the West Bank, was arrested near the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba for throwing a stone at an armed Israeli settler during Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip last November. On Saturday, he died suddenly at Megido Prison Facility in Northern Israel, during his period of interrogation. Although the Israeli Ministry of Health claimed that he had died of natural causes, specifically a cardiac arrest, an autopsy—at which Palestinian Authority Chief Pathologist Saber Aloul was present—revealed that his body showed clear signs of having undergone torture, including two broken ribs, marks from beatings on his chest, lashes on his back and shoulders and blood inside his mouth.

 

 Palestinians mourn during the funeral Arafat Jaradat on February 25, 2013 in the village of Saair in the West Bank. (Uriel Sinai / Getty Images)
Palestinians mourn during the funeral Arafat Jaradat on February 25, 2013 in the village of Saair in the West Bank. Photo by Uriel Sinai / Getty Images)

 

Jaradat has been arrested and detained many times, but his wife, Dalal became nervous when, after this arrest, the Israeli army took him to his home, where his family was told to say their goodbyes. Jaradat was a father of two with a third child on the way.

Yesterday, Jaradat’s funeral was held in Sa’ir. It was no ordinary burial gathering. Young Palestinian men stood in the back of pick-up trucks to wave massive Palestinian flags. Families—men and women alike—stood on the roofs and balconies of their homes to show support for Jaradat. In the square itself, there were flags from Islamic Jihad, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and Fatah—many of which were carried by small children. Palestinian school girls no more than eight years old carried signs that had a symbol of a Swastika, followed by an equals sign, then a Star of David.

“I believe that he was both physically and psychologically tortured, that is why I am here,” Hakim, a student at Palestine Polytechnic University who asked that his last name not be used for safety reasons, told me. “Jaradat was held in Section 12 of Megiddo Prison—this section is notorious for the worst kinds of torture.”

The Israeli army closed most of the main roads leading to the village, expecting what one soldier who stopped my group expressed as “life-threatening protests.” Still, this did not deter thousands of Palestinians coming from around the West Bank to the normally quiet village, showing both their support for Arafat Jaradat and their political allegiances.

More than 20 percent of the Palestinian population—and 40 percent of the Palestinian male population—has been arrested, detained and imprisoned. Before they are imprisoned, many experience lengthy interrogation periods that are often indefinitely renewed—legal, according to the Israeli military law that Palestinians are subjected to. During these interrogation periods, prisoners are often questioned for up to 16 hours per day while they are beaten, hung and given only enough food to survive and confess information.

“Our violence is nothing compared to the Israeli violence,” Hakim continued. “We must resist, throwing stones—and if it takes missiles, throwing missiles. Anything to make our voices heard.”

Often, Palestinian prisoners are arrested for minor crimes, such as throwing rocks at a demonstration—which for even a Palestinian child can carry a prison sentence up to twenty years. Despite Hakim’s conviction in the David-and-Goliath image of Israel’s powerful army and a Palestinian man armed with only a stone and a slingshot, it is very likely in the current power system that more stone throwing will only lead to more incarceration and criminalization of Palestinians—and more untimely deaths, like Jaradat’s. However, Hakim remains unfazed: “I really hope that the third intifada”—or uprising—”starts soon.”



Thousands rally for hunger strikers across Palestine

By Al Akhbar
February 22, 2013

Israeli border police detain a Palestinian demonstrators during a protest in solidarity with hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners in the city of Nablus on February 22, 2013. Palestinians demanding the release of hunger-striking prisoners clashed with Israelis in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, as three fasting inmates were taken to hospitals.  Photo by Jaafar Ashtiyeh/ AFP.

By Al Akhbar
February 22, 2013

Palestinians demanding the release of hunger-striking prisoners rallied across the West Bank and east Jerusalem on Friday, as three fasting inmates were taken to hospitals.

Around 2,000 Palestinians marched in the northern West Bank city of Nablus, while protesting worshipers at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem threw stones at police, a police spokesman told AFP.

Dozens were injured by extensive use of tear gas.

“Stun grenades were used to disperse the rioters and police are at the moment in complete control of the situation,” Micky Rosenfeld said of the Jerusalem incident, adding that there were no reports of injuries on either side.

Hundreds of demonstrators, some waving Palestinian flags, also clashed with troops at the Jalameh military checkpoint, outside the northern West Bank city of Jenin, an AFP journalist reported.

He said that protesters hurled stones at the soldiers who fired tear gas in response, but nobody was hurt.

An Israeli official, meanwhile, said that hunger strikers Tareq Qaadan, Jafar Ezzedine and Ayman Sharawrna were admitted to hospitals for protective check-ups.

“We moved them (to hospitals) because we want them examined to see if they are really alright,” said Israel Prisons Service spokeswoman Sivan Weizman, adding that she expected them to stay in hospitals until Saturday.

The three along with fourth hunger striker Samer Issawi, who on Thursday was given eight months in jail for violating the terms of his release from a previous sentence, have been fasting on and off for months to demand their freedoms.

Qaadan and Ezzedine, accused of participating in activities of Islamic Jihad militant group, have been imprisoned without trial since November.

Sharawrna, an alleged Hamas activist involved in attacks on Israelis was, like Issawi freed in the 2011 swap for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and later rearrested.



14 Palestinian and Israeli Organisations Condemn Lack of Accountability for Torture of Palestinian Detainees

By PCHROC, Adalah, Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel
Posted by Al Haq
March 01, 2013

The Palestinian Human Rights Organisations Council (PHROC), along with Adalah, Public Committee Against Torture in Israel and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, express their outrage at the death of Arafat Jaradat, 30, which, according to the autopsy report of Dr Saber al-‘Aloul, Director of the Palestinian Medico-legal Institute, was caused by torture and ill-treatment inflicted while in Israeli custody. The preliminary autopsy, to which there are links below, found that Arafat displayed severe bruising on his upper back, deep bruising along the spine, and significant bruising on both sides of the chest. The postmortem also discovered bruising on both arms and inside the mouth, blood around the nose and three fractured ribs. In addition, the examination discounted the claim by the Israeli authorities that Arafat died of a heart attack. His heart was completely healthy and there was no evidence of damage or weakness of any kind. The report concludes that all injuries were the result of very recent, severe and direct torture. The undersigned organisations reiterate the demands made by UN representatives for an immediate international investigation into the death of Arafat Jaradat with a view to holding those responsible for his death accountable.

Arafat Jaradat was arrested on 18 February on suspicion of throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at settlers and was transferred to al-Jalameh prison where he confessed to throwing stones but denied any involvement with firebombs. On 21 February, his lawyer, Mr. Kamil Sabbagh, reported that Arafat was suffering from severe pain in his back and appeared to be psychologically and physically weak after three days under interrogation. According to Mr. Sabbagh, Arafat also expressed strong fear at the prospect of returning to interrogation when his detention order was extended by 12 days. After a request from Mr. Sabbagh, the Israeli military judge ordered that a full physical and psychological examination of Arafat be carried out, the results of which were to be presented to the Israeli Security Agency (ISA) and the court. It is unclear if this medical examination ever took place. If it did, the results of the exam should be disclosed. If it did not, the Israeli authorities must explain why this order was not complied with.

The absolute prohibition against torture is a peremptory norm of international law and “has now become one of the most fundamental standards of the international community”[1]. Since 2001, there have been more than 750 complaints of torture and ill-treatment against the ISA. Not one complaint has resulted in a criminal investigation. Indeed, given that all complaints are reviewed by the Inspector of Interrogee Complaints, who is himself an ISA agent, it is a process that guarantees the absence of credible and impartial investigations. The fact that the Israeli Attorney General has ratified each recommendation not to investigate is further evidence of the institutional impunity which shields the ISA and those who commit torture in Israeli prisons.

Article 12 of UN Convention Against Torture, of which Israel is a State Party, obliges States to perform prompt and impartial investigations in all alleged incidents of torture. Torture is also considered a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention and is further listed as both a crime against humanity and a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. In addition, torture has permissive universal jurisdiction according to customary international law, which allows any State to prosecute those accused of torture, regardless of their nationality.

However, in 1999, the Israeli High Court of Justice ruling in the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel v The State of Israel contributed significantly to the current climate of impunity, shielding those who commit torture. While the Court affirmed that the practice of torture was prohibited, it also held that such prohibition would not apply in cases of “necessity”, leaving room for the use of extreme measures in arbitrarily-defined situations, in blatant contradiction to the jus cogens status of the absolute prohibition of torture. The ruling effectively allowed for the continuing use of torture by affirming that an Israeli official charged with torture would not be criminally liable by virtue of the “necessity defence”, which can legitimise the use of “physical pressure” in certain circumstances.

In 2009, the UN Committee Against Torture reiterated its call on Israel to remove ‘necessity’ as a justification for the crime of torture as well as calling for all interrogations to be recorded on film. These demands have been ignored. In short, while torture is a crime that the international community maintains cannot be allowed to go unpunished, in Israel both the High Court of Justice and the Attorney General contribute to the lack of accountability that pervades the Israeli judicial system. Unless this culture of impunity is challenged, Palestinians in Israeli prisons will continue to be victims of torture and ill-treatment with regularity.

Arafat’s death is symptomatic of the utter disregard with which Israel holds the lives of Palestinian prisoners. Since the beginning of the occupation in 1967, 203 Palestinians have died in Israeli detention centres. At least 71 of these died as a direct result of torture.[2] One hundred and seventy eight Palestinians are being held in administrative detention without charge or trial or any access to the information upon which their detention is based. Presently, ten Palestinians are engaged in hunger strikes in protest against their detention. Tarek Qa’adan and Jafar Azzidine, who spent more than 90 days on hunger strike and are in critical condition, have suspended their strikes for a week ahead of a court hearing on 6 March in the hope that their detention orders will be dismissed. Both men had their administrative detention orders renewed for another three months on Friday 22 February.

In light of the above, the undersigned organisations call for the following steps to be taken:

An international investigation into all complaints of torture by Israeli forces must be carried out, followed by effective accountability for those responsible and redress for victims;
All ISA interrogations of Palestinians must be subject to video recording, in line with the recommendations of the Turkel Commission;
Given that Israel does not offer due process or a fair trial to Palestinian prisoners, all administrative detainees should be promptly released;
The UN Committee Against Torture and Third States should pressure Israel to adopt adequate criminal legislation to define and penalise torture under domestic Israeli law;
The European Parliament must promptly activate the parliamentary fact-finding mission that includes members of its Subcommittee on Human Rights to investigate the conditions of detention and interrogation of Palestinians detained by Israel;
The EU parliamentary fact-finding mission must include an investigation into Israel’s illegal practice of administrative detention and the use of the “Unlawful Combatant Law”;
All hunger strikers in advanced stages must be moved immediately to civilian hospitals where they can receive the appropriate standard of care without being shackled;
Immediate intervention from the IPS to provide all hunger strikers with unrestricted access to independent doctors;
All hunger strikers should be allowed family visits;
UN Member States should urgently put pressure on Israel to end its policy of arbitrary detention and to abide by the standard rules for the treatment of prisoners adopted in 1955, which set out what is generally accepted as being decent principle and practice in the treatment of prisoners.

© Copyright JFJFP 2024