500 signatures reached
To: Biden Administration, State Department, United Nations, International Criminal Court
Investigate Horrendous Reports of Torture at Israeli Detention Centers!
Israeli whistleblowers have sounded the alarm on disturbing reports of torture against Palestinians occuring at military bases in Israel. The workers shared stories of physical abuse and punishment, including forcing detainees to wear blindfolds and diapers, strapping them on beds, and keeping them in constant handcuffs and restraints and then subjecting them to botched amputations, leading to complications and even death.
Torture is in violation of both Israeli law and the Geneva Conventions. Demand the State Department, the United Nations, and the International Criminal Court investigate reports of torture in Sde Teiman!
Why is this important?
Whistleblowers have reported that detainees are being strapped to beds, or restrained in inhumane positions for so long that they are subject to botched amputations. And this isn’t the first time reports of this kind of abuse have surfaced. In April, an Israeli doctor reported that there were routine amputations at Sde Teiman—sometimes leading to health complications and even death—from detainees being held too long in handcuffs and restraints. The doctor himself called the conditions “deplorable” and said that it violated “medical ethics and the law.”
CNN on May 11 released a comprehensive investigative report, “Strapped down, blindfolded, held in diapers: Israeli whistleblowers detail abuse of Palestinians in shadowy detention center,” detailing the whistleblowers’ accounts and other reports or torture coming out of Israel detention centers.The journalist detailed heartbreaking, terrifying stories of abuse and humiliation.
Reports of Palestinians being forced to stand in prolonged stress positions, sometimes even zip tied to fences. Physical beatings. Botched medical procedures without anesthesia. At night, dogs are let loose to run over detainees, barking and terrifying them. Palestinians are subject to prolonged and even constant blindfolding over the course of weeks and months, a form of psychological torture. Dr. Mohammad al-Ran, a Palestinian detainee who was released after 44 days, was asked by a fellow detainee if Dr. al-Ran could find his wife and kids and deliver a message. He said, “Tell them that it is better for them to be martyrs. It is better for them to die than to be captured and held here.”
The leaked photos and stories hark back to Abu Ghraib, where, in 2004, leaked photos revealed abhorrent abuse at a U.S. military base in Iraq with smiling U.S. soldiers torturing detainees, some of whom were never even charged with a crime. Already comparisons are being made, calling the Sde Teiman detention center "Israel’s 'Abu Ghraib.'" We can’t sit back and allow history to repeat itself as human rights violations and torture transpire in real time. We must act now.
Sign and share the petition.