UN rapporteurs urged to uncover Israeli crimes against Palestinians

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Malki has called upon United Nations special rapporteurs to expose Israeli crimes committed against Palestinians especially in the wake of the severe torture of prisoner Samer al-Arbeed, who has been taken to hospital in a critical condition.

In letters sent to the Special Rapporteur on Torture, the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the Special Rapporteur on Justice, and the Special Rapporteur on the State of Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory on Thursday, Malki briefed them on the suffering of the 44-year-old father of three, who is between life and death at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem al-Quds.

The top Palestinian diplomat then urged the special rapporteurs to expose the Israeli crimes and to find mechanisms to hold accountable the Israeli officials responsible for Arbeed’s torture, which was done in coordination with and through the endorsement of the Tel Aviv regime and Israeli courts.

Malki stressed that the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates has been contacting international human rights organization and UN bodies, including the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), to demand their intervention and protection of Arbeed.

Palestinian human rights organization Addameer said on Sunday that Arbeed was arrested on September 25 after a special unit of the Israeli forces raided the central occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.

During the arrest, Samer was harshly beaten by Israeli forces using their guns. He was then taken to the Mascobiyya interrogation center in Jerusalem al-Quds and an order was issued immediately, banning him from meeting his lawyer. 

The Palestinian man appeared in a court session the following day without his lawyer in attendance. Samer told the judge that he suffers from severe pain in his chest and that he cannot eat anything and throws up continually.

He was not transferred immediately to the hospital, and in fact his interrogation continued with torture and ill-treatment techniques.

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Palestinians protesters voice their outrage at the the brutal torture of a Palestinian detainee during interrogation by Israel’s domestic spy service Shin Bet.

Finally, Addameer’s lawyer was informed on Saturday morning by a phone call from one of the interrogators at al-Mascobiyya that Samer had been transferred to Hadassah Medical Center.

The lawyer was also told that the Palestinian prisoner’s health condition is critical, and that he is unconscious and dependent on the ventilator.

Samer had in fact been transferred to the hospital the previous day, though his family and lawyer were not informed until Saturday.

PressTV-‘Dozens of Palestinian inmates tortured to death in Israel jails’

A Palestinian human rights group says 73 Palestinian prisoners have died from torture at the hands of their Israeli interrogators since 1967.

More than 7,000 Palestinians are reportedly held at Israeli jails. Hundreds of the inmates have apparently been incarcerated under the practice of administrative detention, a policy under which Palestinian inmates are kept in Israeli detention facilities without trial or charge.

Some Palestinian prisoners have been held in administrative detention for up to eleven years.

Palestinian inmates regularly stage hunger strikes in protest at the administrative detention policy and their harsh prison conditions in Israeli jails.

According to reports, at least 13 Palestinian lawmakers are currently imprisoned in Israeli detention facilities. Nine of them are being held without trial under administrative detention.

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