Torture in Israel

I received an email from the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel on the Israeli exploitation of family members of detained Palestinians to extract confessions. PCATI - itself an Israeli group - works indefatigably against the use of physical and psychological torture in Israel. The email says,

Demonstrating a heightened level of concern surrounding the findings of the report, which show the continued use of interrogation methods that have been condemned as torture or ill treatment under international law, Knesset Constitution Law and Justice Committee Chairperson, Professor Menachem Ben Sasson, has agreed to PCATI’s request to discuss the report in a special committee session, which is taking place, today, the 13th of April at 13:30 in the Knesset. The extraordinary nature of this act is further demonstrated by Professor Ben Sasson’s calling on the GSS to respond to the report during the hearing.

Furthermore, we are filing a High Court of Justice Petition on this matter in the coming days. The petition and the report represent our attempt to attack this issue at more than one level.

Here's an article on the PCATI report, "Family Matters," in Ha'aretz (soon to be released in English). Another article is here. And here's the Jerusalem Post's article on the Knesset Law Committee's hearing prompted by PCATI, which says further that,

Torture has become an accepted tool of the so called "war on terror" and we cannot stand silently by while this tool is being dressed up and made to appear something less than it is. This is but a small part of our contribution, not only to the local fight but the global one too.