Today, May 23, a group of 27 writers, pilots, academics, including Shulamit Aloni, Michael Ben-Yair and law professor S.Z. Feller, and the organizations Yesh Gvul and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel appealed for an interim injunction to the High Court demanding the Court to prohibit the appointment of Major General Dan Halutz as Deputy IDF Chief of Staff. The appeal is based on Haluz’s role in the assassination of Salah Shehadeh, during which a one-ton bomb was dropped on a residential neighborhood in Gaza killing 15 Palestinians, mostly children, and wounding dozens. The petitioners claim that Dan Halutz is not worthy of a senior command position in the IDF. Read more about Pilots, writers, human rights activists appeal High Court to stop appointment of Deputy IDF Chief of Staff
The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel calls on Chief of Staff Moshe Ya’alon and Judge Advocate General Menachem Finkelstein to investigate the killing of five unarmed Palestinian civilians from Khan Yunis. On December 11, 2002, an Israeli Merkava tank fired a shell at five unarmed Palestinians, all members of the same family from Khan Yunis, killing them all. An Israeli spokesperson said that they had carried ladders but no arms were found. PCATI demands that the incident be immediately investigated. Read more about Israeli rights group calls for investigation into killing of unarmed Palestinians in Khan Yunis
The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), through attorneys Avigdor Feldman and Michael Sfard, this week called on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Minister of Defense, Shaul Mofaz and Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein, demanding that they the revoke the status of facility 1391 as a military prison and stop incarcerating detainees, suspects, prisoners or any other persons in it. The full text of the letter follows. Read more about PCATI to Israeli government: "Shut down secret detention facility 1391"
The Israeli Public Committee Against Torture called on Israel’s Minister of Internal Security, Tzahi Hanegbi, and Prison Service Commissioner, Yakov Granot, to investigate the violent behaviour of prison guards in Neve Tirza and allow independent doctors to visit the female prisoners. Read more about Israeli prison guards use violence against Palestinian female prisoners
At a hearing held today at the High Court of Justice on Israel’s assassination policy, the Court denied the petitioners’ request for an interim injunction prohibiting the assassinations and granted the State 60 days to reply to the arguments presented by the petitioners including the opinion of first president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and world renowned expert on International Humanitarian Law, Professor Antonio Cassese, that determines that the assassinations are war crimes. Read more about Israeli High Court denied request for interim injunction on extra-judicial executions by the State of Israel
The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) through its attorney, Gaby Lasky, yesterday, June 29, called on Minister of the Interior, Abraham Poraz, demanding that he stop deporting peace and human rights activists who come to provide humanitarian aid in Israel and the Occupied Territories. Read more about PCATI called on Israeli Minister of the Interior to stop deporting peace and human rights activists
On the occasion of the UN International Day in Support of the Victims of Torture tomorrow, June 26, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) published some of its finding on torture in Israel. These findings are part of a report that will be published by PCATI in the coming weeks. Read more about A sharp increase in torture, ill treatment and violence in GSS interrogations
In an opinion, unprecedented for it�s severity, Professor Antonio Cassese, renowned expert on international humanitarian law, determines that the assassinations carried out by the IDF in the Occupied Territories could be included in the legal definition of war crimes. Professor Cassese�s opinion will be submitted tomorrow to the High Court of Justice prior to the hearing scheduled for July 8, 2003 on the petition filed by LAW-The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI). Read more about International legal export: Israel's assassinations are war crimes
Eric Sottas, director of the World Organization Against Torture sent a letter to Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon calling on him to order the immediate cessation of the use of Orders Prohibiting Meeting with Counsel and any other practices that increase the risk of torture and to take all measures necessary to ensure that the absolute prohibition of torture is recognised by Israeli law. Read more about Israel's use of "Orders Prohibiting Meeting with Counsel" increase risk of torture
Iman Shukri Abdl Rahman Jamjum, a student from Hebron, was held in isolation for twenty-two days, without access to legal counsel. Mr. Jamjum was arrested on April 4th, 2003, and has reportedly been held in the GSS Interrogation Unit at the Shikma Detention Center in Ashkelon. Read more about Israel: incommunicado detention and ill-treatment of Palestinian student
