Israeli Lawmakers try to Block Torture Prosecutions

By Bill Van Esveld, Associate Director, MENA, Children’s Rights Division | –

A standoff at Israel’s Sde Teiman military base this week has thrown longstanding abuses against Palestinian detainees and the Israeli military’s history of impunity for torture into stark relief.

On July 29, Israeli military police arrested nine Israeli soldiers at the base on suspicion of “severe abuse” of a Palestinian detainee. News reports said the man was admitted to the hospital with broken ribs and life-threatening injuries to the anus and lungs.

Soldiers barricaded themselves inside the base to prevent the arrests. Protesters against the arrests, including members of Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, pushed their way through the perimeter fence. When security forces removed the nine soldiers, protesters went to the Beit Lid military base, where the soldiers were eventually taken for questioning, and breached its perimeter as well.

Arrests of Israeli soldiers for abusing Palestinians are rare. From 2017 to 2021, just 0.87 percent of complaints against soldiers led to prosecutions, according to the Israeli rights group Yesh Din.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as Israel’s defense minister and the military chief of staff condemned the clashes at the two bases, though not the alleged torture of the detainee. Israel’s justice minister criticized detaining for questioning soldiers he said were performing a “holy job.” The finance minister and the national security minister both tweeted “hands off our reservists.” The Knesset’s foreign affairs and defense committee chair slammed “this despicable pursuit of our fighters.”

Since June, Israeli authorities have been transferring Palestinian detainees from Sde Teiman to other facilities due to reports of abuse. But the transfers, and investigations into some cases, are a grossly insufficient response to reports of “widespread torture” and ill-treatment at Sde Teiman. Rights groups cite beatings, stress positions, surgeries without anesthesia, sexual violence, and the prolonged cuffing of arms and legs. An Israeli doctor working there wrote in April that in one week, “two prisoners had their legs amputated due to handcuff injuries, which unfortunately is a routine event.”

The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights also reported waterboarding, electrocution, and the detention of healthcare workers, girls, and a woman over 80-years-old with Alzheimer’s disease. One man said Israeli soldiers fired a nail gun into his knee. At least 53 Palestinians have died in custody since October 7.

Israel’s allies should increase pressure to end grave abuses against Palestinians in custody, stop detaining them without charge or trial, and allow independent monitors access to detention facilities.

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Israeli protesters enter army base after soldiers held over Gaza detainee abuse | BBC News Video