Although the Palestinian Authority has already announced the results of an autopsy showing Arafat Jaradat’s death was the result of torture in an Israeli prison, this is not good enough for the U.S. State Department which refuses to comment until it sees the “Israeli results.”
From the February 26, 2013 daily State Department press briefing with Acting Deputy Spokesperson Patrick Ventrell:
QUESTION: If I could continue with the Palestinian issue, yesterday, an autopsy was performed in Israel and with the presence of Palestinians, and it was determined that Arafat Jaradat actually died under torture. Do you care to comment on this?
MR. VENTRELL: Said, you heard what – we talked about this at length yesterday in terms of the autopsy. You know that the Israeli Government is carefully looking into the circumstances of Mr. Jaradat’s death. And so we’re awaiting the results of that investigation.
QUESTION: But the results are out, Patrick. The results are out, and it has been determined by those present that he actually died under torture.
MR. VENTRELL: Well, I’m not sure that we’ve seen the final Israeli results. I certainly – and I don’t think anyone here in this building has, so we’d have to wait to see those.
QUESTION: Is the Department prepared to issue a statement once the results are well known and public?
MR. VENTRELL: I’m not going to speculate at this point.
(h/t Josh Ruebner)
Here are some interesting stats for the US State Dept for Israel, which they might like to study:
‘Since 1967, a total of 72 Palestinians have been killed as a result of torture and 53 due to medical neglect. Less than a month before Jaradat was killed, Ashraf Abu Dhra died while in Israeli custody in a case that Addameer argues was a direct result of medical neglect.
The legal impunity of the Shin Bet, commonly referred to as the GSS, and its torture techniques has been well established. Between 2001 and 2011, 700 Palestinians lodged complaints with the State Attorney’s Office but not a single one has been criminally investigated.
Writing in Adalah’s 2012 publication, On Torture [PDF], Bana Shoughry-Badarne, an attorney and the Legal Director of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, wrote, “The GSS’s impunity is absolute.”
Israel’s High Court has been extravagantly helpful in securing the Shin Bet with its imperviousness to accountability to international law, and thus enabling widespread and lethal torture.’
Thanks to Charlotte Silver
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/02/201322511744515745.html
Got an alert from a friend yesterday:
“Ask yourself: What would the mothers and fathers of the over 200 Palestinian children held as politcal prisoners in Israeli jails be thinking the day the Zionists tortured a 30-year old Palestinian man to death in their prisons. It won’t happen to us? Please do your share. Take a moment to write and call your elected officials. In the US, call president Obama at 1-202-456-1111 and write to him at http://www.facebook.com/l/lAQFiFbHK/www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments. Also call US Secretary of State John Kerry at 1-202-647-4000 or the Office of Near East Affairs at 1-202-647-7209. Demand that they intervene and set free Samer Issawi and all Palestinian political prisoners including the children, our children! Please do that and ask your friends to do the same.”
When I called the Office of Near East Affairs (1-202-647-7209), I was informed that Amb. Jones was on her way to the Middle East right now and the office here was recording the concerns of people who called their office, in advance of Obama’s visit to the area. The aide(?) insisted they were aware of the Issawi situation. Probably a pro forma response, but it might be worth making a call there.
BTW, when I tried to tweet this info, including the fact of the Ambassador’s travel, twitter refused to accept my tweet. As soon as I removed the travel info, it went through. They are censoring, instantaneously.
Mr Ventrell went to the same school for mendacious imperial tramps as Victoria Nuland.
Of course. How is the US State Department to know what to say until it recieves the script from the israelis???
So he’s waiting for Israel to investigate Israel and find Israel not guilty.
Just like the last time, and the time before that…