Since 1954, Israel has abolished the use of the death penalty against those who commit ordinary offences. The last execution took place in 1962, with the hanging of Adolph Eichmann for his participation in the Shoah. Palestine uses the death penalty. Four death penalties by hanging were handed down in January 2017 for murder. Three more were carried out in February for leaking information to Israel.

The SHAMS organization (Human Rights and Democracy Media Center SHAMS) published in January 2017, a report on the use of the death penalty in 2016 in Palestine. It is available in English and in Arabic. Prison Insider published an article on this topic.

The Palestinian Authority, led by Hamas, handed down 21 death penalties between January and November 2016. It carried out four executions on the Gaza strip. An officer, by the name of Mahmoud Rushdi Eshteiwy, was executed on the 7 February 2016 by his own brigade. He was convicted for an “ethical infraction”. Three citizens convicted of murder were executed on the 31 May 2016 - A. Sh., age 43, by firing squad; M. A., age 28, and Y. Sh., age 38 by hanging.

Since its inception in 1994, the Palestinian Authority has carried out 184 death sentences: 30 in Jordan and 154 in the Gaza strip. It carried out 35 executions: 2 in Jordan and 33 in the Gaza strip. When Hamas came to power in 2007, it handed down 96 death sentences that same year, as well as 22 extrajudicial executions. By law, the president of the Palestinian Authority, who is currently Mahmoud Abbas, must give permission for any execution. Hamas, which does not recognize the president’s authority, does not respect that obligation.

The death penalty is carried out in Palestine mainly in cases of murder, collaboration with Israel, or drug trafficking. It was re-introduced in 1994 by Yasser Arafat, former president of the Palestinian Authority. There is a decree stating that the laws in force before the beginning of the occupation by Israel in 1967 are still valid in Palestine. These laws are not all Palestinian in origin. According to a 1960 British law, the death penalty may be applied for 16 crimes. The 1979 Revolutionary Code specifies 42 crimes.

The people who receive the death penalty are poor and marginalized and cannot afford to pay for their defence. The citizens are prosecuted by military courts against international law.

This information comes from the brochure “Enfermés au mépris du droit, les Palestiniens dans les prisons israéliennes” [Locked up in disregard of the law, Palestinians in Israeli prisons,(only in French)] provided by the Platform of French NGOs for Palestine.

“Since 1967, more than 200 Palestinians have met their death following or during their detention; 71 deaths were due to violence, 51 to medical neglect, 74 Palestinians were assassinated immediately after their arrest, and 7 were shot down inside detention centres, without counting those who died just after their release (granted early so that they would not die in prison).”

This information comes from the brochure “Enfermés au mépris du droit, les Palestiniens dans les prisons israéliennes” [Locked up in disregard of the law, Palestinians in Israeli prisons,”(only in French)] provided by the Platform of French NGOs for Palestine.

Despite numerous condemnations by the United Nations, torture remains very widespread, and more specifically against all individuals suspected of harming Israel’s interests, such as political opponents, civil society representatives, etc…

The Supreme Court of Israel, which affirmed the absolute prohibition of torture in 1999, has also ensured its own impunity by allowing the exoneration from all penal responsibility of those authors who would pretend to have had recourse to torture in order to thwart an imminent attack on the security of Israel. Most of the time in front of military tribunals, when lawyers refute their clients’ confessions under torture, miltiary prosecutors justify its use with the necessities of the inquiry. Thus, none of the complaints brought by Palestinians for acts of torture against the Israel Security Agency has resulted in any condemnation.

Types of torture

At the time of their arrest, prisoners are bound with plastic ties that lacerate their skin. During the transfer from the place of arrest to the interrogation centre, a prisoner is beaten in most cases. Depending on his profile and the infraction in question, he is subsequently interrogated either by the police, or by soldiers from the Israel Security Agency.

During interrogation sessions, at the hands of soldiers, detainees are subjected to different types of torture, such as sleep, water, food, toilets and shower deprivation; solitary confinement; or permanent exposure to distressing sounds. They are often blindfolded, sometimes repeatedly beaten, kept bound in painful positions, and also threatened with torture, death, or sexual assault.

Prisoners are also the victims of ill-treatments and sometimes torture. According to a 2008 study, 95% of prisoners had suffered blows, 89% had been deprived of sleep during long periods, 82% had been forced to maintain painful positions for hours, 55% had been subjected for hours to extreme cold (for example, outside in snow or inside a refrigerator) or suffocating heat (immobile under the sun).

Punitive water and power cuts lasting hours are common. Violent night raids are often carried out in the cells - under the pretext of security searches, or as punitive measures – with the use of tear gas and lethal weapons, body searches, blows, confinement in the prison’s courtyard regardless of weather, transfer of some prisoners to other prisons, and steep fines. One of the cruellest measures is the isolation of prisoners, sometimes for several years without any contact with their fellow inmates, along with the severe mental and physical damage this can cause.

Force-feeding

The Israeli Parliament has approved a law authorizing force-feeding. This law allows for feeding, against his will, a prisoner who is on a hunger strike. Force-feeding is defined as an act of torture by the World Medical Association, and is condemned by the United Nations, as well as by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

This law is the Israeli government’s response to successive hunger strikes movements aimed at drawing attention to prisoners’ demands for their release and improvements in their detention conditions. It’s a new attack on their fundamental rights.

This information comes from the brochure “Enfermés au mépris du droit, les Palestiniens dans les prisons israéliennes” [Locked up in disregard of the law, Palestinians in Israeli prisons,(only in French)] provided by the Platform of French NGOs for Palestine.

“Administrative detention allows the Israeli army to detain a person for a maximum period of 6 months, indefinitely renewable, without charge or trial, by administrative decision. It is applied in the West Bank (outside of East Jerusalem) and is used by the Israeli authorities as a means of controlling the Palestinian population.

Administrative detention in international law

Administrative detention is not prohibited as such by international humanitarian law. However, it is an exceptional measure that can only be applied for imperative security reasons, and only if it is not possible to respond to security needs by less constraining measures.

Arbitrary administrative detention

In Israel, administrative detentions are decided on the basis of information viewed as “secret” by the army and that, consequently, is not accessible to the prisoner, or to his lawyer. It is thus impossible for the prisoner and his lawyer to effectively contest a placement in detention. Administrative detention, as envisaged by Israeli law and applied in practice, constitutes a mistreatment according to the United Nations Committee Against Torture.”

For more information, you can obtain the brochure “Palestine-Israël : la détention administrative, un déni du droit“ [Palestine-Israel: detention administration, a denial of rights], only in French)] and consult this infographic.