New York Times · 8 May 1997

CP-1997-011

In Israel, Coercing Prisoners Is Becoming Law of the Land

The Use of Force

Serge Schmemann

Scan 864 × 1138 pixels

Transcribed from the clipping

“He was kept sleepless in contorted and excruciating positions with a stinking bag over his head, he was threatened, he was beaten and he was subjected to violent shaking until he passed out.”

Context added by this archive

A special report, and the clearest single account of the Landau regime in the archive. It names what Israel officially calls the practice — moderate physical pressure — says that human rights groups call it torture, and states that the Israeli Supreme Court has regularly condoned it.

The man it opens on is a twenty-year-old student called George, arrested at a checkpoint between Jerusalem and Bethlehem in December 1995. Filed the day the United Nations Committee Against Torture summoned Israel to an extraordinary hearing in Geneva.

Cite this item

"In Israel, Coercing Prisoners Is Becoming Law of the Land," New York Times, 8 May 1997. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1997-011. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1997-011

This clipping is read closely in the section below

• The commission, and the one paper that printed it

More from New York Times

• ARAB HUNGER STRIKE FREES 100 PRISONERSNew York Times · 16 May 1937
• MASS STARVATION OF ARABS IS FEAREDNew York Times · 6 July 1949
• Israeli Prison Chief Denies Any Torture Of Arab PrisonersNew York Times · 20 January 1975
• U.N. Agency Says Israel Tortures and PillagesNew York Times · 16 February 1977
• Israeli Torture of Arab Prisoners Reported by London Sunday TimesNew York Times · 20 June 1977
• Israelis Deny a London Paper’s Charges of TortureNew York Times · 3 July 1977
• 13 more from this paper in the full text →

More from the 1990s

• Israeli soldier shoots into a crowd in Hebron, injuring six PalestiniansThe Baltimore Sun · 2 January 1997
• Arabs celebrate Hebron self-ruleDaily News · 19 January 1997
• Israel: Women to go freeSouth Florida Sun Sentinel · 8 February 1997
• Israel Frees 30 Arab Women In Long-Delayed Peace MoveThe New York Times · 12 February 1997
• Israel releases 7 Palestinian women prisoners after year of hagglingMidland Reporter-Telegram · 12 February 1997
• Israeli troops firebombedSouth Florida Sun Sentinel · 3 April 1997
• All 187 clippings from the 1990s →

In these collections