Jonathan Cook reports on the UN Committee Against Torture’s efforts to uncover details about Israel’s infamous “Facility 1391.” From Cook’s article in the National “UN torture watchdog demands access to secret jail“:
According to the testimonies of the Palestinian cousins, Mohammed
and Bashar Jadallah, they were held in isolation cells measuring two
metres square, with black walls, no windows and a light bulb on 24
hours a day. On the rare occasions they were escorted outside, they had
to wear blacked-out goggles.When Bashar Jadallah, 50, asked where he was, he was told he was “on the moon”.
According
to the testimony of Mohammed Jadallah, 23, he was repeatedly beaten,
his shackles tightened, he was tied in painful positions to a chair, he
was not allowed to go to the toilet and he was prevented from sleeping,
with water thrown on him if he nodded off. Interrogators are also
reported to have shown him pictures of family members and threatened to
harm them.
Israeli organizations submitted reports to the UN showing that Palestinian detainees have been
systematically tortured in the facility even though the Israeli Supreme Court outlawed the practice in 1999. Ironically, the article also points out that the Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that it was “‘reasonable’ for the state not to investigate suspicions of
torture at the prison.” How convenient. (Thanks to Eva Smagacz for passing this along.)
