Facilitating torture and impunity

Israeli colonial violence functions upon two seemingly contradictory trajectories – the flaunting of legislation that serves to obliterate evidence of violations and the committing such violations with impunity. So far, Israel’s employed tactics have served it well. Despite ample testimony of torture during interrogations by the Israeli police and the Shin Bet security agency, accountability has remained very elusive.

On Monday, the Knesset approved a bill presented by Israeli Public Minister Gilad Erdan, which exempts interrogators from recording interrogations of “suspected terrorists”. While a waiver of the existing law requiring recordings of all interrogations already existed, the current bill, if enacted, would change the waiver from one that is periodically renewed into permanent legislation.

According to Haaretz, Erdan justified the bill by stressing the importance of countering what is already a known procedure “because terrorist organisations study how interrogations are handled and train their members to thwart them.” The other justification was an alleged preoccupation that disclosure of such recordings during court proceedings might translate into a refusal to collaborate during interrogation sessions.

Opposition to the bill was voiced only by MKs from the joint list, who deemed the legislation as “a crime not only against international law, but also against basic morality.” Decades of colonisation have shown that Israel deems itself above international law unless in some tangential manner it conforms to, or aids, its political violence against the Palestinian population. It is of course needless to say that the “suspected terrorists” euphemism is a direct reference to Palestinians actively involved in the anti-colonial struggle, which is a right under international law.

Hence, the bill can be read as collusion on all levels to safeguard interrogators’ impunity and, as a result, make it impossible for any form of legal action to occur should a detainee’s rights be violated, as is routine practice in Israel. Shin Bet interrogators would be spared scrutiny if excessive violence is inflicted upon detainees or prisoners, or if such victims are murdered through excessive torture.

One should recall the case of Arafat Jaradat in 2013, arrested for alleged stone throwing and who died in Israel’s Megiddo Prison after interrogation by Shin Bet agents. A translated copy of Jaradat’s autopsy results were made available and clearly states the cause of death as: “Nervous shock as result of extreme pain from the injuries described above, which resulted from multiple direct and extensive acts of torture.”

Expecting the international community to clamour for the rights of Palestinians in this instance would be preposterous. Yet the impunity enjoyed and generated by Israel is also reflective of international complicity in the erosion of Palestinian rights. While the UN continues to single out selective settlement expansion, in complete isolation from the rest of Israel’s colonial practices, Palestinians are facing complete suppression which remains completely unacknowledged by the international community.

Ultimately, the bill will serve the international community as well. With even less possibility of referencing facts that expose Israel’s abuse of detainees, there will be a reduced need of senseless posturing and pretence, while Palestinians remain shacked to a cycle of detention, torture and possible murder – all for upholding their rights as enshrined under international law.

Read: Israeli medics collude with the torture of Palestinians; indict them

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