Abuse in Israeli prisons

The Guardian -  The scale of abuse, torture and death in Israeli prisons is well documented, but every once in a while an image appears that is Abu Ghraib-like in its relish and abandon. Earlier this month, a photo taken by an Israeli soldier was posted on social media. It shows a Palestinian man from Gaza face down, stripped to his underwear, bound with ropes to a plank and an iron rod. The caption said “good morning” in Hebrew. The echoes of Abu Ghraib were all there, the sinister gloating, the sexualised humiliation of stripped prisoners, the taking of photos as some sort of trophy.

These are not isolated incidents, or even measures established during the current conflict, although they have accelerated during it. The administrative detentions and abuse are part of a wider longstanding system that has severed Palestinians from human rights, and appears to be designed to terrorize, break morale and collectively punish. For decades, the Israeli state has practiced a policy of keeping the bodies of Palestinians, refusing to hand them over to their families for burial. Some bodies are buried in numbered graves in sealed military zones, others are held in freezers. …

And then there are the missing. Those in Gaza who, according to eyewitnesses, were detained by Israelorities, but never recorded. These amount to “enforced disappearances” according to the Israel-based human rights organization HaMoked, which is trying to trace the whereabouts of almost 2,000 people