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British security company, G4S, accused of involvement in torture of a Palestinian prisoner to death

February 15, 2014 at 1:25 pm

A British charity to combat poverty has accused a local private security company of involvement in torturing a Palestinian to death in an Israeli prison.

It called for holding the company accountable for complicity in Israeli crimes against Palestinians prisoners.


In a statement released on Tuesday, the organization, War on Want, demanded that G4S withdraw all its contracts to provide Israeli prisons with supplies, in the wake of the death of a Palestinian detainee, Arafat Jaradat, in prison following his detention by the Israeli intelligence agency, Shin Bet. It also said that the British security company, which was responsible for security at the Olympics in London last year, provided a prison in northern Israel with security systems and a main control room, as well as contributed to equipping an interrogation centre in the West Bank.

The British charity also added that G4S signed a contract five years ago to supply the main facilities operated by Israeli prisons with security and surveillance systems. It has also supplied control rooms equipped with touch screens and internal and external recording and monitoring CCTV systems, as well as the lines of communication in a number of Israeli prisons.

The charity organization also mentioned that the British security company also illegally supplied Ofer Prison in the occupied Palestinian territories with security systems, noting that human rights organizations in Israel and the Palestinian territories reported cases of torture of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention facilities.

Moreover, Rafeef Ziadah, from War on Want said that G4S provided equipment and services to Israeli prisons, where political prisoners and Palestinian children are being held and are subjected to torture.

Ziadah also added that G4S is financially benefitting from human rights violations against the Palestinian people. The death of Arafat Jaradat sheds light on the urgent need to end their involvement with Israel’s prison system.