under no pressure in the absence of pictures
Maher Talhami, from Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, enumerates the abuses imposed during interrogation on some of the 7,000-odd Palestinians currently behind Israeli bars.
Hooding, sleep deprivation, nudity, noise, prolonged enforced standing or the "banana position" � which consists in leaving a prisoner on his stomach with his hands tied to his heels � are among routine complaints.
"Today an Israeli soldier can shoot anybody he wants and nothing will happen to him," Talhami said. "Unless there are powerful pictures, there is nothing to expect from the Iraqi prisoner scandal."
Widely-published pictures of grinning US troops abusing and humiliating naked Iraqi detainees at the notorious prison have angered the Arab world and prompted the Palestinians to bring their own prisoners' fate into the spotlight.
"Since the start of the occupation, Israel has been practising physical or psychological torture against Palestinians and this is still ongoing," Palestinian minister of prisoners' affairs, Hisham Abdelrazeq, told AFP.
"I'm sure the pictures we saw in Iraq could be matched in many Israeli prisons," he said. "The difference is that the abuse in Iraq was documented. If the same pictures came out of here, it would have a huge impact."
But Talhami suggested that should such shocking pictures be published of Palestinian detainees being mistreated they might not have the same impact on public opinion.
"A lot of Israelis tend to see any criticism of their human rights record as an expression of anti-Semitism," he said.
Jordan Times/AFP May.19.04
