AL-KHALIL,
December 17 (IslamOnline) - Among various torture schemes adopted by
Israeli occupation forces against Palestinians is a so-called
"toss" game whereby they force Palestinians to choose their
own type of torture.
Speaking
to IslamOnline Tuesday, December 17, Youssef, a 22-year-old Palestinian,
recalled that he was on his way back home to Al-Khalil (Hebron) when he
ran into four Israeli soldiers.
"They
held me at gun-point, ordered me to take off my shirt and searched me to
the nose," he recalled.
"They
dragged me ten meters away and told me I have to choose my own torture
through a toss by picking a paper out of eight pieces of paper put in a
small pot," said Youssef.
"I
chose one of the eight papers and it had a "hand breaking"
phrase. One of them [Israeli soldiers] grabbed me while the three others
broke my right hand with the rear of their rifles. They then beat me up
until I was unconscious and I was taken to hospital.
"I
later learned from other boys how they too were forced to choose one of
the torture methods which varied from breaking a right hand, a left
hand, a head, a hand and a leg, both legs, a tooth, a nose or simply a
shot with a bullet," he asserted.
Omar,
a 30-year-old Palestinian taxi driver, said he was driving with seven
passengers when four Israeli soldiers stopped him on the way, ordered
them out and searched the car.
"Although
they did not find anything, they took me to a pot which had four pieces
of paper with writing varying from breaking car glass, to blowing the
tires, to taking the car keys to confiscating the vehicle
altogether," he recalled.
"I
chose the easiest of the four tough choices and they broke the car glass
and then let me go," he asserted.
On
other torture methods the Israeli forces use against Palestinian
civilians, Mohammad said he witnessed Israeli soldiers torturing
Palestinians near the new barbed wires in downtown Al-Khalil.
"I
saw them removing the teeth of Palestinian youths and hitting one child
with the rear of their rifles," said Mohammad, asserting that the
Palestinians were taken to hospital.
Rami,
a 27-year-old Palestinian who was also a victim of Israeli torture,
recalls: "I was going to wok in Al-Khalil industrial zone and on
the road Israeli patrol soldiers stopped me and beat me until I
couldn’t stand on my feet.
"After
that four soldiers stripped me and threw me into cold water of
industrial waste.
"They
finally ordered me to run home without allowing me to put my clothes
on," Rami conculded.
The
Palestinian Human Rights Society condemned these Israeli barbaric
aggressions, branding them as "stark violation of the simplest
human rights."
Speaking
to IslamOnline, Fahmi Shahein of Al-Khalil Law Society stressed they
received several complains about Israeli tortures.
The
society will contact Arab and foreign human rights watch-dogs to update
them on the Israeli violations and racist assaults, he said.
"The
Israeli aggression is part of maltreatment and disrespect of human
dignity that contradicts all international conventions and laws,"
Shahein stressed.
He
blamed the world community for such Israeli crimes, asserting that
international silence directly encourages the Israeli occupation to
pursue its waged war on the armless Palestinian people and perpetrate
more crimes.