http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_637000/637293.stm
Israel admits torture
BBC 02/09/2000
An official Israeli report has acknowledged for the first
time that the Israeli security service tortured detainees
during the Palestinian uprising, the Intifada, between
1988 and 1992.
The report, written five years ago
but kept secret until now, said the
leadership of the security service
Shin Bet knew about the torture but
did nothing to stop it.
The report did not detail the torture
methods used, but human rights organisations say some
detainees died or were left paralysed.
Security agents were also accused of lying to the
courts about their actions.
The release of the report in Israel was authorised by a
parliamentary committee after the Supreme Court
recommended it no longer be kept secret.
The Israeli Government has, in the past, denied that it
used any interrogation methods that amounted to torture.
Israel 'broke own rules'
But the report says the Shin Bet routinely went beyond
the "moderate physical pressure" authorised by a 1987
commission headed by then-Supreme Court Justice
Moshe Landau.
Human rights groups in Israel maintain that the practices
authorised by the Landau commission - keeping
prisoners in excruciatingly uncomfortable postures,
covering their heads with filthy and malodorous sacks
and depriving them of sleep - amount to torture.
The report, however, written by former State Comptroller
Miriam Ben-Porat, says the agents systematically
overstepped even these limits, especially at the
interrogation facility in the Gaza Strip.
"Most of the violations were not caused by lack of
knowledge of the line between what was permitted
and what was forbidden, but were committed
knowingly," the report said.
"At the Gaza facility, veteran and even senior
investigators committed very grave and systematic
violations."
The report accuses the entire leadership of the Shin Bet
of knowing what was going on but doing nothing to stop
it. It says that the agents lied about their activities in
court, to other investigating agencies and in their
reports to superiors.
"The assurances of senior Shin Bet officials to the
Landau Commission that truth-telling inside the
organisation is enforced ... were found to have no basis
in reality," it noted.
'Holy work'
The report acknowledged that the security issues faced
by the agents at the time were unprecedented, and that
they succeeded in preventing a number of guerilla
attacks.
The report describes this activity as "holy work" but
criticises the methods used and recommends measures
to ensure that they be stopped.
Two years after the report was written, the Supreme
Court banned the use of physical force in interrogations,
even within the limits set by the Landau Commission.
The Ben-Porat report was submitted to an intelligence
subcommittee of the Parliamentary State Audit
Committee in 1997, but the subcommittee decided to
keep it under wraps. It was made public on Wednesday
in response to a recommendation by the Supreme Court.
