Pals believe Abu Ghraib abuses learned from Israel

By: Ahmad Hammadi

HELD JERUSALEM: Palestinians who remained Israeli prisoners say the images of abuse and humiliation from Baghdad's Abu Ghraib jail are painful reminders of their own experience at the hands of Israeli interrogators.

Some, like the Palestinian minister for prisoners Hisham Abdel Razzaq, believe the similarity is more than coincidental. “I am inclined to think that the Americans copied the Israeli techniques,” he said. “I can't prove it in an objective manner, but the striking similarities are overwhelming.”

But veterans of Israel's Shin Bet secret service scoff at such charges and say humiliation of the type seen in photos from Abu Ghraib is not even a useful tool in interrogating suspects.

The Shin Bet and other Israeli law enforcement bodies operate under detailed interrogation guidelines set in a 1999 Supreme Court ruling, which resulted from a lawsuit filed by human rights advocates. Israel is a signatory to the 1991 International Convention Against Torture.

Abed Al-Ahmar, a Palestinian human rights worker from Bethlehem who has been detained for most of the past three years, said he experienced shabah even after its use was banned. In shabah, a prisoner is locked in tight handcuffs and leg irons and forced to sit in a contorted position with a stinking sack over the head and loud music playing nonstop.

“The shabah position caused terrible tightening in my back muscles, and I felt that my stomach was being ripped out from my body,” said Al-Ahmar.

The Palestinian rumor mill has been rife with accusations that Israel was involved in the Baghdad prison abuses, but Yossi Melman, a journalist who is regarded as one of Israel's best-informed experts on intelligence matters, dismisses such allegations.

“US documents (related to the prison abuse scandal) and Shin Bet history clearly show that Israel is not aiding the United States in the torture of Iraqi prisoners,” he said.

In another development, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog (IAEA) Mohamed ElBaradei said Sunday Israel should start talking seriously about ridding the Middle East of nuclear weapons, whether it admits to having them or not.

Speaking to reporters on an official visit to the Russian capital, ElBaradei said this would be a main topic of his visit to Israel in early July. He said he would like Israel, as well as everyone else in the Middle East, to open up its nuclear facilities to IAEA inspections.

In Nablus, about 30,000 people packed the streets during funeral procession of seven Palestinians martyred Saturday, calling for swift revenge attacks. All schools and shops were closed in the city.

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