Dear Friends,
Two weeks ago, Israel’s Knesset passed a law establishing a special military court to try those suspected of participating in the attacks of October 7, 2023, in southern Israel. The law authorizes judges appointed by the military, who lack judicial independence, to waive procedural protections and evidentiary rules, hold hearings without the defendants being present in the courtroom and impose death sentences by majority vote - fast tracking show trials leading to executions. The lack of due process protections and ease with which death could be imposed as a punishment raise the specter of arbitrary deprivation of life, which can be a war crime.
>> See my op ed in +972 opposing the October 7 show trials law
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We are now preparing, with partners, to fight the implementation of this law. Our job will be to make it as difficult as possible to issue death sentences, and if they are issued – to act through every legal means to prevent their execution.
In addition, some of you might have read the recent New York Times column detailing severe accounts of sexual violence of Palestinians in Israeli detention, which relied on information and analysis from PCATI, as part of our work to put torture on the global agenda. The publication highlights the kinds of worsening abuse that we’ve reported to the United Nations and to the Israeli authorities, in the form of filing complaints from detainees. The vast majority of those complaints – detailing physical, sexual and emotional torture and other forms of cruel, degrading and inhumane treatment – were closed without significant action being taken.
The Israeli government has threatened to sue the New York Times, but it is well aware of the abuse taking place in detention centers – if only because we’ve been telling them about it in official complaints for the last 36 years. The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture wrote to Israeli authorities in March requesting investigations into the same conduct described in the Nicholas Kristof column. She did not get a response.
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We take testimonies from detainees in different facilities throughout Israel and the West Bank, people who are largely cut off from the outside world with no obvious way to communicate with each other – and they report similar, unlawful patterns of conduct by Israeli prison guards, soldiers and ISA (Shin Bet) interrogators.
>> Click here for a conversation with Issa Amro, who survived abuse in detention by Israeli security forces, and me on sexual violence in detention
Please help us. The horrific accounts in the New York Times piece are shocking but not new. We invite you to be an ambassador in your community for taking the testimonies seriously – and pressuring the Israeli authorities to protect victims and survivors and hold perpetrators to account.
Please also consider making a donation. As our work expands to include trying to stop executions, we need your help more than ever.
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Wishing a joyous holiday to those of you celebrating Eid al Adha.
Yours in solidarity,
Adv. Sari Bashi
Executive Director
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