Associated Foreign Press
November 21, 2001

GENEVA (AFP) - Amnesty International said Tuesday that Israeli security forces are increasingly using torture against Palestinian suspects despite a 1999 High Court ruling, which sought to stop the practice.

Members of the Israeli security forces are benefiting from impunity for torture or ill-treatment of Palestinians

In a written submission to the UN Committee Against Torture, which began its regular examination of Israel on Tuesday, the human rights group said the Israeli government had failed to counter evidence of the increasing use of torture by law enforcement officials during interrogations.

Amnesty said that members of the Israeli security forces are benefiting from impunity for torture or ill-treatment of Palestinians.

Amnesty said it had strong evidence that methods such as sleep deprivation, painful handcuffing and forced positioning were being used again, mainly against Palestinians.

"We regret that notwithstanding the (Israeli) High Court of Justice's 1999 ruling and the (UN) Committee Against Torture's clear statement in 1997 that these methods constitute torture, the state of Israel, in its report to the committee, continues to deny this," Amnesty said.

It told the committee that detainees were frequently held for more than 20 days without access to lawyers or families, and drew attention to incidents of prolonged detention and brutality.

Amnesty said Israel's failure to acknowledge the illegality of some interrogation methods "has been an important factor in encouraging their revival."

In its report however, Israel said the high court ruling "had an immediate and profound effect" on the conduct of investigations by security forces, while claiming that the judgement "did not find the alleged interrogation methods constituted torture in violation of the (UN) Convention." It claimed that even in the current security situation, after 14 months of a Palestinians Intifada against Israeli occupation of Arab land, "if any investigator is found to have used physical pressure against a suspect during an investigation he will be disciplined and where necessary he will be dismissed." Israeli forces are using all kinds of force against Palestinian civilians

It said the Israeli authorities were investigating complaints.

At the opening of the session, UN committee members welcomed the Israeli court decision -- which occurred about a year after the United Nations last examined Israel's torture record -- but voiced concern about the reports of ongoing torture.

In its last report in 1998, the committee had called for an immediate end to interrogations involving the use of force or "physical pressure," including hooding, shackling in painful positions, sleep deprivation and shaking of detainees.

Israel had alleged at the time that pressure might be necessary to stop "terror attacks."

The 10 independent experts on the UN committee regularly examine the application of the International Convention Against Torture by the 126 countries that have ratified it.

The United Nations says the convention requires signatories to outlaw torture and explicitly prohibits the use of "higher orders" or "exceptional circumstances" as excuses for acts of torture.