Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences

Translation Department

Group 1,2 and 3

Translation Arabic-English-Arabic

Teacher : Mrs Benabda

When will Israel stop torturing Palestinian prisoners?

On June 15, 2016, Israeli forces arrested Mohammed El-Halabi, the director of
the Gaza branch of World Vision, a Christian humanitarian aid organisation.
Mohammed was accused of funnelling money from World Vision to resistance
groups in Gaza. Probes conducted both by World Vision and the Australian
government found no evidence of any diversion or misuse of funds. Mohammed
was nevertheless subjected to 52 days of interrogation and torture. His father,
Khalil El-Halabi, testified to the torture his son endured during those months in
detention: “Israeli intelligence officers placed a filthy bag over his head and
hanged him from the ceiling for prolonged periods.” Mohammed was also
subjected to sleep deprivation and frequently physically assaulted by the Israeli
officers who slapped him, “kicked him, especially in his genitals, and then
strangled him until he felt that he was about to die … At times, they placed him
in a small room and played extremely loud music until the pain in his ears
became unbearable. In the summer, they would strip him naked, and then blast
him with flashes of hot air. They would repeat the same process in the winter,
but with cold air, instead.” More than five years later, Mohammed remains in
Israeli detention. For Palestinian detainees in Israel, these experiences are
unfortunately far from rare. On the 37th anniversary of the United Nations
drafting of the Convention Against Torture (UNCAT), the international
community must demand an end to the continuing systemic torture of
Palestinian detainees by Israel. The UNCAT was implemented on June 26,
1987, and ratified by Israel on October 3, 1991. Israel’s participation might
seem surprising in light of the numerous human rights violations it has been
accused of during the last few decades, including the use of torture, by well-
respected human rights organisations, such as Amnesty International and Human
Rights Watch. Until 1999, torture was considered a legal means of extracting
confessions in Israel, especially for Palestinian “security” detainees. However,
once it was made illegal by Israel’s Supreme Court, the Israeli attorney general
promised to protect any interrogator who continues to use “special means”. And
indeed, special means continued to be employed as Israel made broad exceptions
to this law, most notably in what they call “ticking bomb” scenarios. According
to Amnesty International, “Shin Bet operatives have tortured hundreds of
Palestinians, citing the ‘ticking bomb’ scenario.”