In 2008, PCATI received hundreds of appeals concerning the torture and ill treatment of detainees, primarily by GSS interrogators, but also by soldiers and police officers. Most of the complaints came from Palestinians from the Occupied Territories. We submitted scores of individual complaints to the authorities based on the victims' experiences demanding the criminal investigation of the incidents and that those responsible for the crimes be held accountable. We also continued to legally challenge the practice of holding GSS interrogees incommunicado, denying them the right to meet with attorneys during the period of their interrogation.
Petitions of principle we filed focused on three main areas:
"Contempt of court" petition addressing the High Court of Justice 1999 torture ruling
In the decade, since the judgment known as "the torture ruling" was handed down, PCATI has gathered evidence and sworn affidavits that demonstrate that the GSS has maintained a permit system and that senior GSS officials grant a-priori authorizations to use torture against security detainees. These permits are blatantly illegal and violate the High Court of Justice ruling, domestic criminal law and international law. The contempt of court motion was filed on behalf of PCATI in November 2008 by Attorney Avigdor Feldman and demanded the enforcement of the 1999 ruling. We are now awaiting the State's reply.
Petition to the High Court of Justice to Nullify the Criminal Procedure (Detainees Suspected of Security Offenses) Temporary Law legislated in 2006
In March 2008, PCATI together with the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and Adalah filed a petition to the High Court of Justice demanding that the court annul a law that blatantly violates the basic rights of detainees suspected of committing security crimes. The law allows such persons to be detained for 96 hours (instead of 48 hours) without judicial oversight, to have their detention reviewed and extended in their absence, and not to be informed of the court's decision. This law is one of many measures that violate the rights of security detainees including the prohibition of meeting with an attorney for 21 days and the law exempting the interrogation of these detainees from visual or audio documentation. As a result it is possible to deny a person's freedom and to interrogate him in a GSS facility for 3 weeks while he is virtually isolated from the outside world and brought before a judge only once. In July 2008, the petition was transferred for review by an extended panel of nine justices. The first hearing on this petition was held on 4 January 2009.
Petition against the use of family members as a form of pressure on GSS interrogees
As a part of our public campaign on this issue, PCATI filed a petition to the High Court of Justice in April 2008 demanding that the systematic practice of exploiting family members of detainees as a form of pressure during their interrogation be prohibited. One way that this form of pressure is applied is by creating a charade for the detainee leading him to believe that a family member is being, or will be detained, if he does not confess, or that if they do confess this will result in the release or improvement in the detention conditions of their relatives. According to the cases described in PCATI's report “Family Matters, Using Family Members to Pressure Detainees under GSS Interrogation” (see below) this form of interrogation causes severe psychological suffering to interrogees and to their relatives who had been used as a tool in the interrogation of their loved ones without their knowledge or consent. A hearing on the petition is scheduled for November 2009.
Additional petitions
PCATI, in addition, filed petitions on individual issues and also continued its work on two petitions that were submitted prior to 2008 which concern detention conditions in the holding cells adjacent to military courts and the collection of testimony in the interrogees' language. We also filed two freedom of information petitions. The first petition demanded the receipt of regulations concerning the restraint of detainees in hospitals. Following the submission of this petition, the Prison Service Commissioner published a directive concerning the restraint of a prisoner in a public place. In view of this, we agreed to withdraw the petition. The second petition, submitted in October 2008, together with the Movement for Freedom of Information demanded to receive information concerning the number of complaints filed by GSS interrogees concerning interrogations that took place in the years 2005-2007 and their handling by the Official in Charge of Interrogees' Complaints (the "Mavtan"). We also requested to receive the directive regulating this official's authorities. A hearing on this petition is scheduled for February 2009. |
“Family Matters - Using Family Members to Pressure Detainees under GSS Interrogation" In April 2008 we published our report “Family Matters - Using Family Members to Pressure Detainees under GSS Interrogation" and carried out an extensive public campaign surrounding it. The report received the wide attention of the media and also that of the Knesset. In a precedent setting move, PCATI launched the report at a special session of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee whose participants included senior GSS representatives who had been asked to attend. The committee held an in-depth discussion of the report and the GSS representatives were asked to address the report's findings. The Head of the GSS Interrogations Department admitted, during the discussion, that in at least one case detailed in the report - that of Mahmoud Sweiti – there was a wrongful exploitation of the detainee's relatives. At the end of the discussion, the Committee's chairman, Professor Menachem Ben-Sasson demanded that the GSS representatives provide detailed replies to all of the cases detailed in the report. Because following the release of the report and the special session in the Knesset we continued the campaign by serving an important petition on behalf of the victims to the Israeli High Court of Justice, it was agreed that these replies would be submitted to the Court. Professor Ben-Sasson stressed to the media that discussions of the sort held in the Committee are essential for the protection of democracy and of human values.
The launching of the report, the reaction of the GSS representatives and the discussion held in the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee brought about a widespread exposure of the issue in the local and international media. In the days that followed, the subject was cited in over 120 articles and news items in the press and electronic media in Israel and abroad. This exposure also led to requests by several bodies, among them official bodies such as the Israel Prison Service, to receive copies of the report. This is in addition to the copies we sent to Knesset members, government offices and various law-enforcement agencies in Israel.
Soldier violence against Palestinian detainees
In June 2008, PCATI inaugurated its report “No Defense: Soldier Violence against Palestinian Detainees” and carried out a public campaign on the issues raised in it. The report generated a great deal of interest and was brought to the Knesset plenary which voted to send the report for deliberation in the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee. Due to the dispersal of the Knesset, this deliberation did not take place but we plan to request that it be held after the new Knesset convenes.
On 26 June, the UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, we held a conference on the report and its findings in Tel Aviv. Speakers at the event included Noam Hoffstater, author of the report, Dr. David Senesh, psychologist and a former POW in Egypt who is a victim of torture, Professor Yirmihau Yovel, Ronit Matalon, a prominent Israeli author and Izhak Ben Moha, a soldier in the reserves who spoke about his experience witnessing the ill treatment of Palestinian detainees that during his military service. A film produced by PCATI and B'tselem, in which two torture victims testified about their experiences was screened.
Particularly moving was Dr. Senesh's talk, based on his personal experience, about the harshness of the experience of torture and ill treatment, the impossibility of being freed from this experience even after many years, and on the similarity of the experience of torture victims regardless of their nationality. Dr. Senesh stated that "suffering and pain have no border that divides and separates the good from the bad, those that are right from those that are mistaken, because it is here and there, on this side of the wall and on the other side of the checkpoint", and also his view on the responsibility for torture: "…how can we know that we, as individuals, as parents, as educators, as citizens, as tax payers, as soldiers, are not knowingly or unknowingly, participants in torture that is taking place at this very moment?"
This report, also, received widespread exposure in the press. At least 63 news items were broadcast on the Israeli radio, published in the press and internet in Hebrew, English in Arabic And in the Palestinian and international media.
Following the publication of the report we were invited to meetings with senior officers in the Military Advocate General's offices. At these meetings we recommended steps that should be taken against the ongoing ill treatment of detainees by the army. PCATI will continue to monitor the issue in order to examine whether promises for the treatment of this issue are actualized.
The high price of silence and non-involvement
During the second half of 2008, we initiated an ongoing campaign that focuses on the bad things that happen when people keep silent. In the framework of this campaign we piloted, in Jerusalem, a four-part series on film and human rights titled "Bad Things Happen when Good People Keep Silent". At each of the meetings a film was screened, preceded by an introductory lecture by an expert on the subject raised in the film (some of whom are colleagues from Amnesty International- Israel Section, "Yedid" and the "Awareness center"), and a discussion was held on the film following its screening. The pilot project focused on the many faces of oppression that exist because we do not take a stand against them. The project formed the basis for a series of similar meetings in schools and informal education frameworks. Towards the end of the year we held meetings in schools in Jerusalem and at the community center at the Dora neighborhood in Netanya (in cooperation with the "The Mizrahi Democratic Rainbow"). PCATI plans to expand this kind of activity in the coming years.
PCATI also initiated and organized the art exhibition "Silence over the Abyss: On the silence of the Israeli public in the face of oppression". The exhibition held at the Artists House in Tel Aviv presented works of art by prominent artists Lahav Halevy, Activestills, Sharif Waked, Gunilla Sköld Feiler, David Tartakover, Alex Levac, Sigalit Landau, Avi Mograbi and Dror Feiler. The curators of the exhibition were artists David Reeb and Miki Kratsman, and PCATI's Executive Director, Ishai Menuchin. The exhibition opened with a musical event attended by a large audience. During the exhibition we held four public events in collaboration with other organizations such as Physicians for Human Rights, Breaking the Silence, Shatil and Etgar Publishers. Over 2500 persons viewed the exhibition including groups from several schools, and groups of art students who took part in guided tours. In January and the beginning of February 2009, the exhibition, in a somewhat different format, was shown at Jerusalem's Barbur art Gallery where a variety of public events also took place. An exhibition catalogue was produced and may be ordered from PCATI.
Strengthening of PCATI's dialogue with the public
In addition to the events described above, PCATI participated in a wide range of public events in various parts of Israel. We manned a stand at the "Time for a Change" book fair and the "Different Voices" festival in Jerusalem, and at both "One Shekel Festivals" held during the summer in Tirat Hacarmel and Kiryat Malachi. At these events PCATI representatives spoke with hundreds of visitors and distributed materials on our work.
PCATI also engaged the public through meetings, lectures and trainings. Some of these were initiated by us and others by human rights and social change organizations with whom we collaborate. We lectured on PCATI's activities and other relevant subjects to students and lecturers at the Al-Quds University and the Hebrew University, participated in a conference on torture in Ramallah in the framework of the "United Against Torture" (UAT) coalition, in Adalah's annual conference, led workshops on torture in Israel to student activists from the "Mahapach" and the "Academy-Community Cooperation" organizations, and took an active role in professional and academic conferences. In addition, we held training seminars for Israeli and Palestinian attorneys in the framework of UAT.
As part of our work in support of Palestinian attorneys, we took part, together with Machsom Watch and the Palestinian Prisoners Club, in the publication of an Arabic-Hebrew resource book for Palestinian attorneys who represent detainees at the military courts. The two-volume collection which compiles essential information concerning military legislation, Israeli law and international law, was published in July 2008.
In the framework of our collaboration with Social TV, we produced the first two short films of a series on international humanitarian law "Defence of Civilians" and "the Laws of War". The films were widely disseminated and posted on various internet sites during the latter part of 2008.
In the past year we updated PCATI's website and launched our website in Arabic. We also widely distributed six electronic newsletters in both Hebrew and English. Our activities this year were echoed in the media. At least 178 articles and news items on our activities were published in Hebrew, close to 200 items were published in English, Arabic and other languages throughout the world, ten television stories were broadcast in Hebrew in Israel and at least 16 stories in Arabic and five in English were broadcast worldwide. (Unfortunately we cannot always follow the media abroad and we presume that the real numbers are probably higher than the above mentioned).
In the final months of 2008 we initiated "Friends of PCATI" and began recruiting supporters who will form a network of public and financial support for PCATI's activities. By the end of the year 70 persons joined "Friends of PCATI" and others joined in the beginning of 2009. |
PCATI carried out extensive activities in the international arena. We continued our participation in two of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN) working groups, the Palestine, Israel and Palestine (PIP) Working Group and the Human Rights Education Working Group, and took an active part in the activities of the groups (participation at meetings, discussions, international lobbying, the writing of letters, statements and reports and the organization and implementation of the human rights summer school). We took part in EMHRN meetings in Istanbul and Madrid and at the General Assembly that was held in Barcelona.
We continued to take part in the activities of the United Against Torture (UAT) Coalition. In this framework we participated in conferences, seminars and meetings locally and abroad that greatly contributed to the international dialogue on the subject of torture and human rights during the "war on terror" and to the advancement of the issue of protection of civilians. In addition, PCATI representatives continued in 2008 to participate in conferences abroad and to strengthen our contact and cooperation with international organizations. Members of PCATI's staff lectured at the conference held by Amnesty International – Netherlands and conferences held by Diakonia in Belgium, Cordaid in Holland and the New Israel Fund in the United States. We also spoke at various forums and synagogue settings in the United States and at a conference at the Democracy and Human Rights Institute in Germany. We also actively participated at the NGO conference that took place in the Hague alongside the conference of the member states of the International Criminal Court.
2008 budget implementation
2008 saw a decrease in donations which led to cutbacks in the staff of PCATI and in the funds available for activities at the end of the year. Expenditures in 2008 totalled approximately three million NIS–a sum similar to that of 2007. Additional income served to expand PCATI's public engagement activities. The expansion of these activities was made possible through the use of donations that were received in 2007 for 2008 and reserve funds designated for such situations. In 2008 we began to see the benefits from small donations given by Friends of PCATI, and we also began to raise funds through our website via credit cards. As of now, we have raised approximately 10,000 NIS from these donations.
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