This violence, B’Tselem showed, is part of Israel’s longstanding incarceration project, which has targeted hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, unraveling their social and political fabric. Since 1967, over 800,000 Palestinians have been imprisoned, dehumanized, and labeled as “terrorists,” facilitating their systematic oppression and the violation of their rights. The prison system serves as a tool of Israel’s apartheid regime to maintain control and to ensure Jewish supremacy between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. (“Between the river and the sea” is a slogan in the charter of the ruling Likud Party, by which it means it wants to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians).

Israel today holds some 10,000 Palestinians, many of them without charge or trial or any semblance of habeas corpus.

Although some prisoners had engaged in violence, many are arrested for thought crimes or by mistake. Like the FBI, the Israeli army gets people mixed up because of similar names.

The damning document has received almost no coverage on American television, and even the print media has largely ignored it and its implications. Israeli TV has now broadcast video of one of the gang rapes of a prisoner, which military police attempted to obscure from the camera with their riot shields.

B’Tselem’s report, based on testimonies from 55 former prisoners, reveals systemic abuse including violence, starvation, sexual assault, and denial of medical care. The Israeli government, under Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, implemented policies worsening prison conditions, particularly after declaring a “prison state of emergency” on October 18, 2023.

Ben-Gvir is the leader of the fascist “Jewish Power” bloc in parliament, allied with the equally fascist Religious Zionism block. These parties rooted in the racist ideas of Meir Kahane had been given the cold shoulder in Israeli politics until Benjamin Netanyahu brought them into his coalition and gave them powerful cabinet positions such as minister of national security. Ben-Gvir wondered aloud in early July why Israel could not deal with overcrowding in the prisons by just killing some of the Palestinian prisoners.

The B’Tselem exposé highlighted the ongoing oppression of Palestinian prisoners, who are subjected to harsh, inhumane conditions. It documented “violence, denial of medical treatment, starvation, withholding of water, sleep deprivation and confiscation of all personal belongings. The overall picture indicates abuse and torture carried out under orders, in utter defiance of Israel’s obligations both under domestic law and under international law.”

Witnesses reported that the Initial Reaction Force (IRF) personnel, wearing masks and unmarked black uniforms, engaged in extreme violence against Palestinian prisoners with impunity. Armed with batons, firearms, and often accompanied by dogs, the IRF used tactics that amounted to abuse and torture.

Cells meant for six prisoners were crammed with up to 14, forcing many to sleep on the floor without basic amenities. Prisoners often spent days without sunlight or fresh air, with some never seeing daylight during their entire period of incarceration. Frequent, violent roll calls and searches became opportunities for guards to degrade and assault prisoners. Access to legal counsel, courts, and aid organizations was severely restricted, with many inmates denied contact for up to 180 days, derailing any chance they had to report the torture they endured.

Prison authorities frequently denied essential medical care to Palestinian prisoners, leading to grave injuries and even amputations of limbs that had gone to sleep because they were too tightly shackled for too long. Testimonies revealed that medical staff were often instructed not to provide necessary treatments.

Physical and psychological abuse has escalated, becoming routine. Prisoners reported awful beatings, use of weapons, and frequent violence during transfers. Sleep deprivation was common, with guards constantly keeping the lights on and using loud noises to prevent rest. Sexual violence was also reported, with guards deploying physical and psychological tactics to humiliate and degrade prisoners, including strip searches and assaults.

Additionally, prisoners suffered from extreme food deprivation, resulting in significant weight loss and malnutrition. The poor quality of food further exacerbated their health issues, with rotten food often served. Hygiene conditions were dire, with a limited water supply and lack of cleaning supplies, leading to unsanitary living conditions and the spread of diseases.

Moreover, the B’Tselem report said that the dire state of the Israeli prison system is evident in the deaths of at least 60 Palestinian prisoners in custody. It highlighted three such cases: Thaer Abu ‘Asab, who was found dead with signs of violence on his corpse; ‘Arafat Hamdan, a diabetic who died after being denied insulin; and Muhammad a-Sabbar, who died from inadequate care needed to treat a special medical condition. The Israeli prison guards have gone from inflicting occasional, spontaneous vengeance on prisoners to instituting a systematic regime that violates human rights, supported by legal authorities, leading to widespread torture and inhumane conditions for thousands of Palestinian prisoners.

B’Tselem ends by saying, “The testimonies presented in this report provide an account of how Israeli prison facilities have been turned into a network of torture camps. Given the severity of the acts, the extent to which the provisions of international law are being violated, and the fact that these violations are directed at the entire population of Palestinian prisoners daily and over time – the only possible conclusion is that in carrying out these acts, Israel is committing torture that amounts to a war crime and even a crime against humanity. We appeal to all nations and to all international institutions and bodies, including the International Criminal Court, to do everything in their power to put an immediate end to the cruelties meted out on Palestinians by Israel’s prison system, and to recognize the Israeli regime operating this system as an apartheid regime that must come to an end.”

( Human Rights Watch ) – Less than a year after Human Rights Watch found Saudi border guards had committed widespread and systematic killings of Ethiopian migrants on its border with Yemen, the US appears poised to lift its years-long ban on the sale of offensive weapons to the country.

The ban would be ended despite the lack of accountability for the Saudis’ years of war crimes in Yemen, possible crimes against humanity on the Yemen-Saudi border, and what a US intelligence report concluded was approval of killing the journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and de-facto ruler. This would prove to the Saudi leadership that they can get away with murder.

The ban on US sales of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia originated from a Joe Biden campaign promise to “make sure America does not check its values at the door to sell arms or buy oil,” citing the Saudi-backed war in Yemen.

France 24 English Video: “‘Saudi Crown Prince believes rights are his to give, he’ll prosecute people who demand their rights'”

Last summer, we released a report detailing Saudi border guards’ horrific crimes against unarmed Ethiopian migrants. Among the devastating evidence, a 17-year-old boy told us how he survived an explosive weapons attack on the border between Saudi Arabia and Yemen. While approaching the border with a large group of migrants, he said Saudi border guards fired on them with rocket launchers.

He described seeing the remains of his group—mostly women and children—strewn across the mountain. Somehow, he survived the attack but was then intercepted by Saudi border guards. The next part was hard for him to tell. He said that the border guards forced him to rape another survivor—a 15-year-old girl. He witnessed border guards summarily executing a man who refused to rape her, leaving him with the unconscionable choice of his own death or raping the girl.

The news that Saudi border guards were murdering groups of unarmed migrants horrified people from Brazil to South Korea. Diplomats and politicians spoke out, some calling for an independent investigation. The UN’s senior-most human rights official noted the killings in his opening address at the September Human Rights Council session. The United States and Germany announced they had ended training and financial support of the Saudi border guard force.

Fast forward 10 months and the momentum has not so much stalled as reversed. What’s worse, this comes amid news that the US may soon resume offensive weapons sales to Saudi Arabia.

Despite an initial wave of concern from the international community, there has been no justice or accountability for the killings we documented, nor evidence that the killings have subsided. This is not the first time Saudi Arabia has successfully skirted accountability for grave crimes.

Between 2015 and 2022, Saudi-led coalition airstrikes in Yemen caused nearly 20,000 civilian casualties. For years, Human Rights Watch documented the Saudi-led coalition’s use of US weapons in some of the most devastating unlawful attacks on civilians in Yemen, including attacks on a market and a funeral in 2016 that killed nearly 100 people each, both apparent war crimes.

And yet Saudi Arabia has continued to avoid accountability for scores of unlawful airstrikes and civilian casualties in Yemen. In October 2021, after an aggressive lobbying campaign by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the UN Human Rights Council rejected the renewal of the mandate for the Group of Eminent Experts—the only international, impartial, and independent body investigating and reporting on conflict-related rights violations and abuses in Yemen.

As news that Saudi Arabia and the US are nearing agreement on a new mutual defense pact, concern and alarm for grave crimes committed by the Saudis appears long forgotten. Without accountability these crimes will continue. With a new defense pact and the intention of lifting the ban on the sale of offensive weapons, the Biden administration sends the message that heinous crimes can be committed, even rewarded, for political expediency.

As Human Rights Watch researchers we made a promise to people like the 17-year-old boy that we would tell the world their stories and try to persuade those in charge that brutal crimes like mass killings should not go unpunished.

The Biden administration should maintain its ban on offensive weapons and end arms sales to Saudi Arabia until the country takes meaningful, independently verified steps to end their abuses and hold those responsible for war crimes to account. The Biden administration also should move to apply Leahy Laws and similar standards against providing military aid to abusive entities that would suspend US equipment, arms, and training for units involved in grave human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia and anywhere else US assets are used to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Via Human Rights Watch

They pointed to the obligations laid on states by the Third Geneva Convention to ensure respect for the law: “States, whether neutral, allied or enemy, must do everything reasonably in their power to ensure respect for the Conventions by others that are Party to a conflict. This duty to ensure respect by others comprises both a negative and a positive obligation. Under the negative obligation, High Contracting Parties may neither encourage, nor aid or assist in violations of the Conventions by Parties to a conflict. Under the positive obligation, they must do everything reasonably in their power to prevent and bring such violations to an end.”

They also called for a halt to all transfers of arms to Hamas.

The joint statement said, “All States must ‘ensure respect’ for international humanitarian law by parties to an armed conflict, as required by 1949 Geneva Conventions and customary international law. States must accordingly refrain from transferring any weapon or ammunition – or parts for them – if it is expected, given the facts or past patterns of behaviour, that they would be used to violate international law.”

The experts added, “Such transfers are prohibited even if the exporting State does not intend the arms to be used in violation of the law – or does not know with certainty that they would be used in such a way – as long as there is a clear risk.”

They slammed private arms manufacturers as well, saying “They have not publicly demonstrated the heightened human rights due diligence required of them and accordingly risk complicity in violations.”

As for states, they observed, “International law does not enforce itself. All States must not be complicit in international crimes through arms transfers. They must do their part to urgently end the unrelenting humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.”

They cited approvingly the decision of an appeals court in the Netherlands forbidding the export to Israel from that country of spare parts for the F-35 fighter jet. A Dutch news site quoted Judge Bas Boele as saying, “It is undeniable that there is a clear risk that the exported F-35 parts are used in serious violations of international humanitarian law.” I also noted that the NL Times added that the court said, “Israel does not take sufficient account of the consequences of its attacks for the civilian population. Israel’s attacks on Gaza have resulted in a disproportionate number of civilian casualties, including thousands of children.”

They noted that the Dutch court of appeals pointed to indiscriminate bombing, the destruction of 60% of civilian homes, damage to hospitals, schools, mosques and other facilities, the displacement of 85% of the population, and the very high civilian death toll as indications that Israel is violating the laws of war.

The experts also pointed to the January 26 preliminary injunction against Israel by the International Court of Justice, which found the genocide case lodged against Tel Aviv by South Africa to be plausible and ordered that acts that constitute genocide under international law be halted by Israel.

They said, “The need for an arms embargo on Israel is heightened by the International Court of Justice’s ruling on 26 January 2024 that there is a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza and the continuing serious harm to civilians since then. This necessitates halting arms exports in the present circumstances.”

The 1948 Genocide Convention forbids countries from exporting arms into a situation where it is plausible that genocide is taking place.

The experts said, “State officials involved in arms exports may be individually criminally liable for aiding and abetting any war crimes, crimes against humanity or acts of genocide. All States under the principle of universal jurisdiction, and the International Criminal Court, may be able to investigate and prosecute such crimes.”

Israel’s main arms suppliers since October have been The United States, Germany, France, Britain, Canada and Australia. The experts are saying that the politicians and military men making these arms transfers to Israel could end up being prosecuted for complicity in war crimes, including the crime of genocide.

TRT World Video: “Israeli air strikes kill at least 104 people in Gaza in 24 hours”

Some countries have already halted arms shipments to Israel. They include not only the Netherlands but also Spain, Belgium’s Walloon regional government and Italy. The OHCHR says they lauded the Japanese company Itochu Corporation, as well, for ceasing exports to Israel.

The experts noted an obligation on UN member states to uphold international humanitarian law and urged that states take the following steps with Israel:

Diplomatic dialogue and protests;

– Technical assistance to promote compliance and accountability;

– Sanctions on trade, finance, travel, technology or cooperation;

– Referral to the Security Council and the General Assembly;

– Proceedings at the International Court of Justice;

– Support for investigations by the International Criminal Court or other international legal mechanisms;

– National criminal investigations using universal jurisdiction and civil suits; and

– Requesting a meeting of the parties to the Geneva Conventions.

Note that the ICJ proceedings have already been initiated. The Security Council has three times voted to impose a ceasefire, but the Biden administration vetoed it in each case. The General Assembly has also voted for a ceasefire but has no executive power.

The OHCHR press release listed the experts:

Ben Saul, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism; Margaret Satterthwaite, Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers; Cecilia M. Bailliet, Independent Expert on human rights and international solidarity; Claudia Mahler, Independent Expert on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons; Farida Shaheed, Special Rapporteur on the right to education; Livingstone Sewanyana, Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order; Surya Deva, Special Rapporteur on the right to development; Attiya Waris, Independent Expert on foreign debt, other international financial obligations and human rights; Ashwini K.P., Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance; Olivier De Schutter, Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights; Paula Gaviria Betancur, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons; Siobhán Mullally, Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children; Tomoya Obokata, Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences; Carlos Salazar Couto (Chair-Rapporteur), Sorcha MacLeod, Jovana Jezdimirovic Ranito, Chris M. A. Kwaja, Ravindran Daniel, Working Group on the use of mercenaries; Robert McCorquodale (Chair-Rapporteur), Fernanda Hopenhaym (Vice-Chair), Pichamon Yeophantong, Damilola Olawuyi, Elzbieta Karska, Working Group on business and human rights; Barbara G. Reynolds (Chair), Dominique Day, Bina D’Costa, Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent; Balakrishnan Rajagopal, Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing; Dorothy Estrada Tanck (Chair), Claudia Flores, Ivana Krstić, Haina Lu, and Laura Nyirinkindi, Working group on discrimination against women and girls; and Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967; Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences; Fabián Salvioli, Special Rapporteur on truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence.

The statement is endorsed by: Aua Baldé (Chair-Rapporteur), Gabriella Citroni (Vice-Chair), Angkhana Neelapaijit, Grażyna Baranowska, Ana Lorena Delgadillo Perez, Working Group on enforced or involuntary disappearances; Mary Lawlor, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders; Nicolas Levrat, Special Rapporteur on minority issues; and David R. Boyd, Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment.

The Special Rapporteurs, Independent Experts and Working Groups are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures’ experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organisation and serve in their individual capacity.

The human rights experts held a news conference on Monday to call for an impartial inquiry into the abuses apparently committed by Israeli troops against women and girls, including murder, rape, and sexual assault. They expressed extreme concern at the “horrifying reports” that had reached them

International human rights experts called for an independent investigation into suspected Israeli violations committed against Palestinian women and girls, including murder, rape, and sexual assault. The experts expressed their deep concern about the “horrific reports” that revealed cases of rape and threats of sexual assault by Israeli forces during their arbitrary detention of Palestinian women and girls in Gaza and the Palestinian West Bank. They said there were “credible and conclusive allegations of blatant violations” and that women and girls were victims of arbitrary execution, often alongside members of their families, including children. In a communique, they expressed their shock at the reports of deliberate targeting and extra-judicial killing of Palestinian women and children in places where they sought safety or while they were fleeing.

These human rights experts were appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, but are independent and not UN representatives. I give their names below.

TRT World Video: “Israeli violations against Palestinian girls, women in Gaza”

They pointed to the arbitrary detention of hundreds of Palestinian women, among them human rights defenders, journalists, and humanitarian activists in Gaza and the West Bank. They said, “Many were exposed to inhumane and degrading treatment and to severe beatings. They were deprived of menstrual pads during their periods, of food, and of medicine.”

The Office of the High Commission on Human Rights quotes the experts as saying, “We are particularly distressed by reports that Palestinian women and girls in detention have also been subjected to multiple forms of sexual assault, such as being stripped naked and searched by male Israeli army officers. At least two female Palestinian detainees were reportedly raped while others were reportedly threatened with rape and sexual violence.”

OHCHR adds, “They also noted that photos of female detainees in degrading circumstances were also reportedly taken by the Israeli army and uploaded online.”

They spoke of their dismay at reports of Palestinian women in prison being subjected to multiple forms of sexual assault, including strip searching by male troops of the Israeli army. They demanded an independent, unimpeachable, comprehensive, urgent and effective investigation into these assaults, with full Israeli cooperation.

They said that they had evidence that at least two imprisoned Palestinian women were raped, while others were threatened with rape and sexual violence. They said there were indications that Palestinian girls and women were deliberately targeted and extra-judicially executed in places of asylum or during their attempts to escape. Some of the latter were waving pieces of white cloth but were killed by the Israeli army.

According to OHCHR, the communique concluded, “Taken together, these alleged acts may constitute grave violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, and amount to serious crimes under international criminal law that could be prosecuted under the Rome Statute. . . . Those responsible for these apparent crimes must be held accountable and victims and their families are entitled to full redress and justice,”

The OHCHR notes that the experts were “Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences; Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967; Dorothy Estrada Tanck (Chair), Claudia Flores, Ivana Krstić, Haina Lu, and Laura Nyirinkindi, Working group on discrimination against women and girls. The experts are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN human rights system.”

The Israeli mission in Geneva hastened to denounce the communique, charging that the international human rights rapporteurs were animated by a hatred of Israel rather than a devotion to the truth. It said that the Israeli authorities had not received any complaints but were prepared to investigate the Israeli security forces if there were credible allegations and evidence.

It is a particularly ugly custom of Israeli officials to meet any criticism with charges of “hating Israel” or hating Jews, which they conflate with the former. Tel Aviv owes an apology to these internationally respected human rights experts, even if they are only women.

He continued, “It is not a war between soldiers and soldiers. It is a war between a well equipped army on the one hand and women and children on the other.”

Lula is not the first world leader to compare Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to Hitler over his actions in Gaza — Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan made the same comparison.

Since Hitler murdered six million Jews, the comparison is hurtful. It could also be rejected on grounds of scale. Hitler not only killed all those European Jews, he also killed 6 million Poles. And consider Ukraine: “of the 41.7 million people living in Ukrainian Soviet Republic before the war, only 27.4 million were alive in Ukraine in 1945. Official data says that at least 8 million Ukrainians lost their lives: 5.5 – 6 million civilians, and more than 2.5 million natives of Ukraine were killed at the front. The data varies between 8 to 14 million killed, however, only 6 million have been identified.”

The Times and the Sunday Times Video: “Brazil’s Lula likens Gaza war to Holocaust”

While Netanyahu’s policies are not like those of Nazi Germany in almost any respect if we consider absolute numbers and consider the scale of killing, Lula is not completely in error if we consider more qualitative aspects of history and look to European fascism as a whole and not just the German National Socialists (who were peculiar in many ways).

FIRST: KEEPING PEOPLE STATELESS ON THE BASIS OF ETHNICITY

For instance, the Fascists stripped citizenship from millions of people and made them stateless, without the rights that come from a direct relationship to a state of their own. Chief Justice Earl Warren defined citizenship as “the right to have rights.”

Hitler took citizenship from German Jews but also from the Roma and from persons of African heritage.

Netanyahu keeps 5.5 million Palestinians in the occupied territories stateless and without citizenship. So his policies in this narrow regard are similar to those of the National Socialists in the 1930s. In essence, the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza are living under something like the Nuremberg Laws. Their establishments and homes are attacked by militant Israeli squatters with impunity in a sort of rolling Kristallnacht.

Note that by Israeli law, Israeli squatters in the occupied Palestinian territories have all the citizenship rights of other Israelis. So the lack of rights on the West Bank is not territorial. It is by ethnicity.

Netanyahu has boasted about derailing the Oslo Peace Accords and presents himself as the only one who can prevent a Palestinian state from being established. He reiterated his opposition to any international diplomatic track that leads to a Palestinian state just this weekend.

SECOND: DEPRIVATION OF BASIC INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS

Another feature of Fascism, underlined by Robert Paxton, is the elimination of individual rights. Israel’s regime over the occupied, stateless Palestinians fully demonstrates this feature. Palestinians can be arrested under “administrative detention” without charge or trial or habeas corpus and held for months or years. We have seen a treatment of detained Palestinians in Gaza that constitutes war crimes. It is alleged that forms of torture are practiced.

THIRD: TOTAL WAR

Netanyahu’s Gaza campaign has demonstrated a reckless disregard for the lives of innocent noncombatants, who make up nearly all of the nearly 30,000 people so far killed, and who have been deprived of domiciles and sufficient food and potable water by the Israeli military.

Total war was adopted as a military strategy by fascist states, according to historian Alan Kramer. One academic summarized his argument: “Kramer indicated a very interesting question regarding the specificity of the kind of war implemented by fascist regimes during the thirties and the forties, characterized by its genocidal nature and opened, according to him, with the colonial war launched by Italy in Abyssinia [Ethiopia] in 1935. Kramer underlined that the specificity of this particular way of waging war typical of fascism would define itself by the final elimination of the «distinction between combatants and non-combatants», pointing how in the six years of this conflict between 350.000 and 760.000 Ethiopians were killed, victims of an asymmetric war based on the overwhelming use of air force, chemical weapons and politics of collective terror against any sign of real or imagined resistance.”

The fascist way of war eliminates the distinction between combatants and non-combatants and wreaks mass death on the latter to achieve military aims. There doesn’t seem much doubt that Netanyahu is waging total war on Gaza and Israel’s President Isaac Herzog and a whole plethora of Israeli officials have repeatedly insisted that there are no innocent civilians in Gaza. This, even though half of Gaza’s population consists children.

Total war easily leads to genocide, of course, which is why the International Court of Justice has found it at least plausible that Netanyahu is waging a genocide in Gaza, attempting to destroy a people in part or in whole because of who they are.

So, no, Netanyahu is not a Hitler. But, yes, his policies bear a strong resemblance to those of inter-war Fascism.

(The Conversation) – Israel has emerged as one of the world’s leading jailers of journalists, according to a newly released census compiled by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

Each year, the committee releases a snapshot of the number of journalists behind bars as of December 1 2023 was the second highest on record with 320 in detention around the world.

In a small way, that is encouraging news. The figure is down from a high of 363 the previous year.

But a troublingly large number remain locked up, undermining press freedom and often, human rights.

China takes out unenviable top spot

At the top of the list sits China with 44 in detention, followed by Myanmar (43), Belarus (28), Russia (22), and Vietnam (19). Israel and Iran share sixth place with 17 each.

While the dip in numbers is positive, the statistics expose a few troubling trends.

As well as a straight count, the Committee to Protect Journalists examines the charges the journalists are facing. The advocacy group found that globally, almost two-thirds are behind bars on what they broadly describe as “anti-state charges” – things such as espionage, terrorism, false news and so on.

In other words, governments have come to regard journalism as some sort of existential threat that has to be dealt with using national security legislation.

In some cases, that may be justified. It is impossible to independently assess the legitimacy of each case, but it does point to the way governments increasingly regard information and the media as a part of the battlefield. That places journalists in the dangerous position of sometimes being unwitting combatants in often brutally violent struggles.

China’s top spot is hardly surprising. It has been there – or close to it – for some years. Censorship makes it extremely difficult to make an accurate assessment of the numbers behind bars, but since the crackdown on pro-democracy activists in 2021, journalists from Hong Kong have, for the first time, found themselves locked up. And almost half of China’s total are Uyghurs from Xinjiang, where Beijing has been accused of human rights abuses in its ongoing repression of the region’s mostly Muslim ethnic minorities.

The rest of the top four are also familiar, but the two biggest movements are unexpected.

Iran had been the 2022 gold medallist with 62 journalists imprisoned. In the latest census, it dropped to sixth place with just 17. And Israel, which previously had only one behind bars, has climbed to share that place.

That is positive news for Iranian journalists, but awkward for Israel, which repeatedly argues it is the only democracy in the Middle East and the only one that respects media freedom. It also routinely points to Iran for its long-running assault on critics of the regime.

The journalists Israel had detained were all from the occupied West Bank, all Palestinian, and all arrested after Hamas’s horrific attacks from Gaza on October 7. But we know very little about why they were detained. The journalists’ relatives told the committee that most are under what Israel describes as “administrative detention”.

17 arrests in Israel in less than 2 months

The benign term “administrative detention” in fact means the journalists have been incarcerated indefinitely, without trial or charge.

It is possible that they were somehow planning attacks or involved with extremism (Israel uses administrative detention to stop people they accuse of planning to commit a future offence) but the evidence used to justify the detention is not disclosed. We don’t even know why they were arrested.

Video added by Informed Comment, Democracy Now! “Israel’s War on Journalists”

Israel’s place near the top of the Committee to Protect Journalists’ list exposes a difficult paradox. Media freedom is an intrinsic part of a free democracy. A vibrant, awkward and sometimes snarly media is a proven way to keep public debate alive and the political system healthy.

It is often uncomfortable, but you can’t have a strong democratic system without journalists freely and vigorously fulfilling their watchdog role. In fact, a good way to tell if a democracy is sliding is the extent of a government’s crackdown on the media.

This is not to suggest equivalence between Israel and Iran. Israel remains a democracy, and Israeli media is often savagely critical of its government in ways that would be unthinkable in Tehran.

But if Israel wants to restore confidence in its commitment to democratic norms, at the very least it will need to be transparent about the reasons for arresting 17 journalists in less than two months, and the evidence against them. And if there is no evidence they pose a genuine threat to Israeli security, they must be released immediately.

Peter Greste, Professor of Journalism and Communications, Macquarie University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Iranian authorities have killed hundreds of protesters, arrested thousands of people, and tortured scores of detainees, including women and children. Human rights groups are investigating the killing of more than 500 people, including 69 children, during the protests. The authorities have refused to open transparent investigations into security forces’ use of excessive and lethal force, torture, sexual assault, and other serious abuses, and have instead pressured families of victims to not hold public memorial services.

“For many, everyday life in Iran feels like a battle with a corrupt, autocratic government that has brought down the full force of its repressive machinery to quash dissent,” said Michael Page, Middle East deputy director. “Iranian authorities should know that anything short of fundamental change will only deepen public anger and frustration against their mismanagement and brutality.”

In the 740-page World Report 2024, its 34th edition, Human Rights Watch reviews human rights practices in more than 100 countries. In her introductory essay, Executive Director Tirana Hassan says that 2023 was a consequential year not only for human rights suppression and wartime atrocities but also for selective government outrage and transactional diplomacy that carried profound costs for the rights of those not in on the deal. But she says there were also signs of hope, showing the possibility of a different path, and calls on governments to consistently uphold their human rights obligations.   

Scores of human rights defenders, journalists, members of ethnic and religious minorities, and dissidents are serving lengthy sentences after being convicted of national security charges in grossly unfair trials. Detained protesters have died in suspicious circumstances.

In the months leading up to the protest anniversary, Iranian authorities increased their crackdown on peaceful dissent through intimidation, arrests, prosecutions, and trials of activists, artists, dissidents, lawyers, academics, students, and family members of those who were killed during the 2022 protests.

Iranian authorities substantially increased the rates of executions in 2023. During the 2022 protests, judicial authorities drastically increased the use of vaguely defined national security charges that could carry the death penalty against protesters, including for allegedly injuring others and destroying public property. Following grossly unfair trials in which many defendants did not have access to the lawyer of their choice, Iranian authorities issued 25 death sentences in connection to the protests. As of September 20, the authorities executed seven people, though the Supreme Court overturned 11 other cases.

Vice News Video: “Inside Iran: What Happened to Iran’s Women-led Uprising?”

Iranian authorities intensified efforts to enforce compulsory hijab laws. They prosecuted women and girls, including actors, who refuse to wear the hijab in public, issued traffic citations for passengers without the hijab, and temporarily closed businesses that do not comply with hijab laws. In recent cases, the judiciary mandated psychological treatment for at least two actresses convicted of not complying with hijab laws, a move Iranian mental health associations protested. 

On September 21, the Iranian parliament approved a draft Hijab and Chastity Bill with 70 articles proposing additional penalties, such as fines, increased prison terms up to 10 years for expressing opposition to hijab regulations, and restrictions on job and educational opportunities for hijab violations. The law also expands the authority of intelligence and law enforcement agencies in enforcing the compulsory hijab.

The authorities also intensified pressure on the Bahai religious minority community, arresting and resentencing several prominent members of the community.

Human Rights Watch documented far harsher use of repressive tactics, including arbitrary arrests and excessive use of force, in ethnic and religious minority areas of Kurdistan province and Sistan and Baluchistan province, which have played leading roles during the protests. Over the past year, the authorities have imposed several localized internet shutdowns, particularly in Sistan and Baluchistan province during mass protests.

“With rampant systemic impunity inside Iran, the UN Human Rights Council member states should ensure that independent investigations into serious allegations of abuse continue at the UN level,” Page said.

Via Human Rights Watch