Israeli human rights groups report prisoner abuses
Report: Shin Bet uses torture

Sun May 6, 3:24 AM ET

JERUSALEM -
Israel's Shin Bet security service uses torture in its interrogation of Palestinian prisoners, violating a 1999 court ruling outlawing such practices, two Israeli human rights groups charged in a report Sunday.

The physical abuse includes "beating, painful binding, back bending, body stretching and prolonged sleep deprivation," according to the report. These methods constitute torture under international law, according to the report by B'Tselem and The Center for the Defense of the Individual.

Israel's Supreme Court in 1999 outlawed what the Shin Bet called "moderate physical pressure," such as sleep deprivation, exposure to extreme temperatures and tying up detainees in painful positions.

Despite the ruling, prisoners are shackled to chairs in painful positions for protracted periods of time and subjected to humiliation, swearing and threats by the interrogators, the report said.

"Their purpose is to break the interrogees' spirit and as such, they contradict the Supreme Court ruling and constitute prohibited ill-treatment under international law," the report said.

Routinely the prisoners are held in appalling conditions, which include isolation and sensory deprivation.

No criminal investigations have been opened against the Shin Bet even though 500 complaints have been filed since 2001, the groups said.

Israel's Justice Ministry, which oversees investigations of security services, said in response to the report that the Shin Bet investigations are "performed in accordance with the law." The report is "fraught with mistakes, groundless claims and inaccuracies," the ministry said.

If, during detention by the army, prisoners complain that they have been beaten or signs of violence are found on their bodies, the details are transferred to the military police for investigation, the ministry said.

Shin Bet interrogations can provide valuable information about militant activities that prevent further attacks, the ministry said.

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Shabak
Shin Bet
Israel Security Service
Sherut ha-Bitachon ha-Klali (Shabak)

Shabak, or Shin Bet, the Israeli counter-intelligence and internal security service, is believed to have three operational departments and five support departments. The current director (2003) is Avi Dichter.

* Arab Affairs Department is responsibile for antiterrorist operations, political subversion, and maintenance of an index on Arab terrorists. Shabak detachments worked with Aman undercover detachments [known as Mist'aravim] to counter the uprising. This Department has also been active in countering the military wing of Hamas.
* Non-Arab Affairs Department, formerly divided into communist and noncommunist sections, concerned itself with all other countries, including penetrating foreign intelligence services and diplomatic missions in Israel and interrogating immigrants from the Former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
* Protective Security Department is responsibile for protecting Israeli government buildings and embassies, defense industries, scientific installations, industrial plants, and the El Al national airline.

Shabak monitors the activities of and personalities in domestic right-wing fringe groups and subversive leftist movements. It is believed to have infiltrated agents into the ranks of the parties of the far left and had uncovered a number of foreign technicians spying for neighboring Arab countries or the Soviet Union. All foreigners, regardless of religion or nationality, are liable to come under surveillance through an extensive network of informants who regularly came into contact with visitors to Israel. Shabak's network of agents and informers in the occupied territories destroyed the PLO's effectiveness there after 1967, forcing the PLO to withdraw to bases in Jordan.

Shabak's reputation as a highly proficient internal security agency was tarnished severely by two public scandals in the mid-1980s. In April 1984, Israeli troops stormed a bus hijacked by four Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Although two of the hijackers survived, they were later beaten to death by Shabak agents. It appeared that the agents were acting under orders of Avraham Shalom, the head of Shabak. Shalom falsified evidence and instructed Shabak witnesses to lie to investigators to cover up Shabak's role. In the ensuing controversy, the attorney general was removed from his post for refusing to abandon his investigation. The president granted pardons to Shalom, his deputies who had joined in the cover-up (but who aided its exposure), and the agents implicated in the killings.

In 1987 Izat Nafsu, a former IDF army lieutenant and member of the Circassian minority, was released after his 1980 conviction for treason (espionage on behalf of Syria) was overturned by the Supreme Court. The court ruled that Shabak had used unethical interrogation methods to obtain Nafsu's confession and that Shabak officers had presented false testimony to the military tribunal that had convicted him. A judicial commission set up to report on the methods and practices of Shabak found that for the previous seventeen years it had been the accepted norm for Shabak interrogators to lie to the courts about their interrogation.

In 1987 the Israeli government-appointed Landau Judicial Commission condemned torture but allowed for the use of "moderate physical and psychological pressure" to secure confessions and obtain information. In addition, although the Israeli Penal Code prohibits the use of force or violence by a public official to obtain information, the GSS chief is permitted by law to allow interrogators to employ "special measures" that exceed the use of "moderate physical and psychological pressure" when it is deemed necessary to obtain information that could potentially save Israeli lives in certain "ticking bomb" cases. The GSS first permitted interrogators "greater flexibility" in applying the guidelines shortly after a bus bombing in Tel Aviv in October 1994 that killed 22 Israelis. The Government has not defined the meaning of "greater flexibility" or what might constitute a "ticking bomb" case. At roughly quarterly intervals, the Government has approved the continued use of "special measures." On August 22, Israel's ministerial committee on GSS interrogations authorized the continued use of "special measures," including shaking.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) declared in 1992 that such practices violate the Geneva Convention. Human rights groups and attorneys challenged the use of "special measures," especially shaking, before the Israeli High Court a number of times. Israeli authorities maintain that torture is not condoned but acknowledge that abuses sometimes occur and are investigated. However, the Government does not generally make public the results of such investigations. Israel conducted two official investigations into the 35 complaints received in 1997. In 2000, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled against the use of torture by the Shabak, although the use of informants as proxies is rumored to serve as a loophole.

Shabak's reputation was further compromised by the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in November 1995 by a right-wing Israeli extremist.

Shabak was known as the General Security Service until 2002, when it was renamed the Israel Security Service.

Sources and Resources

* Shabak official web site (Hebrew)

* Shabak (unofficial)
* "Inside Israel's secret organisations" JANE'S INTELLIGENCE REVIEW October 1996