Of course, 'being better than this' translates as meaning 'doing the same thing they've always
done'....
10 years ago;
14 August 1996
Under constant medical supervision
Torture, ill-treatment and the health professions
in Israel and the Occupied Territories SUMMARY
Health professionals working with the Israeli General Security Service the security branch most involved in the interrogation of Palestinian detainees form part of a system in which detainees are tortured, ill-treated and humiliated in ways which place current prison medical practice in conflict with medical ethics. It is a system which, Amnesty International believes, could not function without the acquiescence of health professionals responsible for the care of detainees.
Interrogation methods described in this report, such as prolonged sleep deprivation usually while hooded for long periods in painful, contorted positions, violent shaking, and threats are not denied by the Israeli authorities. But the authorities deny wrongly in AIs view that such treatment constitutes torture.
Amnesty International has received no evidence suggesting that any Israeli doctor or other health professional assists actively in torture or ill-treatment. But Israeli doctors and paramedics are silent witnesses, participating in a system which denies the physical and mental integrity of the human being which health professionals are bound to uphold. Amnesty International believes that health professionals have a vital role in documenting and exposing human rights violations and is calling on the Israeli government and the Israeli Medical Association to ensure that torture and ill-treatment are stopped and that health professionals are not drawn into colluding in a system of torture and ill-treatment.
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE150371996?open&of=ENG-2MD ____________________
5 years ago;
21 February 2001
ISRAEL AND THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES
State Assassinations and Other Unlawful Killings INTRODUCTION
''We will continue our policy of liquidating those who plan or carry out attacks, and no one can give us lessons in morality because we have unfortunately 100 years of fighting terrorism''. Deputy Defence Minister, Ephraim Sneh, after nine people were killed when a Palestinian driver drove a bus into a queue of people on 14 February 2001.
Since 9 November 2000 the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) has actively pursued a policy of deliberately targeting those alleged to have carried out, or to have planned to carry out, violent attacks against Israelis(1).
Since the beginning of the current intifada (uprising) in Israel and the Occupied Territories on 29 September, more than 350 Palestinians, including nearly 100 children, have been killed by Israeli security forces. The majority of the Palestinians were killed during riots or demonstrations where stones or Molotov cocktails were thrown. Many have been killed outside demonstrations, in streets, checkpoints, or even in houses. The great majority of these killings were unlawful: a result of the excessive use of lethal force when no lives were in danger. Some Palestinians have died in fire-fights with the IDF.
During the same period over 60 Israelis have been killed by Palestinian members of armed groups, members of Palestinian security forces or individuals; more than 30 of them have been civilians. Israeli civilians have been killed in drive-by shootings, bombs placed to target buses or public places, individual murders or in other ways. Some of these killings have been carried out by groups close to the Palestinian Authority, such as the tanzim, others have been claimed by armed groups such as Hamas or Islamic Jihad, opposed to the Palestinian Authority. Some killings are claimed by new groups, such as the ''Brigades of the Martyrs of al-Aqsa'', whose political direction and organization remain vague. Some of the victims may have been killed, in a growing cycle of violence and revenge, by individuals unconnected with armed groups.
Human rights abuses by opposition groups or individuals can never justify abandonment of human rights principles by a government.
An extrajudicial execution is an unlawful and deliberate killing carried out by order of a government or with its acquiescence. Extrajudicial killings are killings which can reasonably be assumed to be the result of a policy at any level of government to eliminate specific individuals as an alternative to arresting them and bringing them to justice. These killings take place outside any judicial framework.
Most governments who have carried out extrajudicial executions deny it; the Israeli Government, however, states that the liquidation of those alleged to be a threat to Israelis is government policy and is legal. The IDF describes the situation as one of armed conflict thus allowing it to attack those who are alleged to have targeted Israelis and to kill without investigating each death.
The acceptance and even instigation of unlawful killings by the Israeli Government and its failure to investigate each death caused by its security services is leading to a culture of impunity in the IDF. Since the beginning of the intifada scores of other Palestinians have been killed unlawfully: the result of excessive, disproportionate or negligent use of force.
In the latest of a series of visits to Israel and the Occupied Territories, including areas under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority, Amnesty International delegates, including an independent military adviser, investigated several cases of these targeted killings. They found that not only could some of those killed have been arrested, but in a reckless use of disproportionate force, uninvolved Palestinians were killed alongside some of those targeted.
In addition, Amnesty International delegates visited residential areas targeted by Israeli fire and Israeli settlements targeted by Palestinian fire. During their visit they collected disturbing evidence of the use by Israel of high explosive weaponry using air burst rounds against Palestinian residential areas. Such attacks have resulted in numerous civilian deaths, including children.
Details of unlawful killings of Palestinians as a result of targeted, random or negligent shooting by Israeli soldiers in other circumstances, particularly at checkpoints, were also gathered during this visit and are examined in this report.
It is a basic rule of customary international law that civilians and civilian objects must never be made the target of an attack. This rule applies in all circumstances including in the midst of full-scale armed conflict. Due to its customary nature it is binding on all parties. Israel is prohibited from attacking civilians and civilian objects. Palestinians are also prohibited from targeting Israeli civilians, including settlers who are not bearing arms, and civilian objects.
In this report Amnesty International is calling on the Israeli Government to repeal its policy of targeting for liquidation and not to use lethal force except against those posing an imminent danger to life. In order to ensure respect for human life, each individual killing should be fully investigated. Amnesty International also calls on Palestinian armed groups to halt deliberate and arbitrary targeting of civilians which is an abuse of the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law.
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE150052001?open&of=ENG-2MD