Apartheid

134
and were approved by a governmental committee. A Parliamentary
committee and the State Comptroller were appointed to monitor
implementation of these guidelines, and the courts were called upon to
approve legal maneuvers to sanction them.
In their precedent-setting decision [to outlaw torture], the Justices
stated that, ‘If the state wishes to enable GSS investigators to utilize
physical means in interrogations, it must seek the enactment of
legislation for this purpose’…Following the decision, some public
officials called for enactment of a law that would allow the GSS to
continue to use physical force in its interrogations. Likud MK
[Member of the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset] Reuven Rivlin
submitted a bill along these lines.
On 15 September 1999, the Ministerial Committee for GSS Matters,
headed by Prime Minister Ehud Barak, appointed a committee to
examine whether and how to incorporate into legislation interrogations
that include the use of physical force. In December 1999, the
committee (headed by Deputy Attorney General Manny Mazuz and
Deputy State’s Attorney Rachel Suqar) submitted its
recommendations to the government. The members did not reach
agreement on what legislation should be enacted, and submitted to the
prime minister different recommendations regarding appropriate
legislation.
On 15 February 2000, the head of the GSS, Ami Ayalon, announced
that he was withdrawing his demand for legislation allowing the use of
physical force in interrogations. Ayalon abandoned this demand
primarily because of the repercussions such legislation would have on
Israel’s international stature. 247
Israel’s reputation is at stake here, not human lives or human rights. Yet, although
Israel has thus ended state-sanctioned torture in word and in principle, it has not done so in
deed. After the eruption of the Second Intifada in September 2000, and especially after the
election victory of Ariel Sharon in the following year, Israel was even looking to reintroduce
legal torture, thus once again making Israel the only country in the world with this dubious
distinction. The cases of suspected torture by Israeli authorities again skyrocketed and now
also involved more Palestinian children being victimized. 248 A report on the mistreatment of
247 N.N.: Torture by the General Security Service, no date.
248 Mahnaimi: Sharon Set to Legalise Torture, 2001. See further Seitz: Israel Continues to Torture Prisoners,
2001; N.N.: Israel: Palestinian Children Still Being Tortured in Israeli Prisons, July 3, 2001. The latter report was
published by the World Organisation Against Torture (known by its French acronym, OMCT), the umbrella
organization for 240 non-governmental organizations around the world that oppose torture. It is the largest
coalition of its kind. A year into the Second Intifada, the OMCT slammed the Israeli General Security Services
for illegally using sleep deprivation, shackling, forced squatting, suffocation and beatings against Palestinians
and also alleged that there had been deaths ‘during the interrogation process’. It further cited death threats and
other kinds of ill-treatment of Palestinian children and severe beatings of Palestinian women. No Israeli
interrogator, however, had been criminally charged and brought to justice. The OMCT said the Palestinian
authorities were also torturing Palestinians suspected of collaboration with Israel. See N.N.: One Year After the
Beginning of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, OMCT Expresses its Deep Concern Regarding the Deteriorating Human
Rights Situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, September 28, 2001; N.N.: Israel, Palestinians
Accused of Torturing Inmates, September 28, 2001; N.N.: UNICEF Slams Israel on Jailed Palestinian Children,
November 20, 2001; Nebehay: Amnesty Accuses Israel of Torturing Palestinians, 2001; Nebehay: U.N. Rights
Body Urges Israel to Prevent Torture, 2001; Heritage: Israel Holds Thousands of Palestinian Prisoners, 2002. By
the time this last article was written, Israel was also being accused of forbidding prisoners to pray, blindfolding
and tying up prisoners for days, even weeks, undernourishing them, exposing them to heat and cold, torturing
them in other ways and holding them for months without filing any charges against them. Out of an estimated
total 7,800 Palestinians who remained in Israeli detention centers at this time, around 1,800 were held under
‘administrative detention’ – detention without charge or trial. Before the Intifada broke out in September 2000,
only nine Palestinians were held in administrative detention, though hundreds of thousands of such detentions