A prison without a state
For years, Israel denied that it was in any way involved in what
transpires at Al Hiyam prison in southern Lebanon and refused
to accept responsibility for the system of arrest without trial that
the South Lebanon Army carries out and for the torture the SLA
uses in its interrogations - reports of which were provided by
some former prisoners to international human rights groups.
Just 10 kilometers from Israel's northernmost town of Metulla,
and in an area where Israel maintains full security control, a
detention facility exists in which the SLA does whatever strikes
its fancy. The State Attorney's Office maintained in the High
Court of Justice that "Israel has no effective control in southern
Lebanon, the SLA is not subordinate to the IDF, and Israel does
not run the Al Hiyam prison." The justices of the High Court did
not take that statement at face value and asked for an affidavit
from the IDF concerning the scale of its involvement.
In that affidavit, which was signed by Major General Dan Halutz,
the IDF stated that the Shin Bet internal security service
maintains permanent contact with the SLA with respect to
interrogations at Al Hiyam prison. It turns out that in the first
seven months of 1999, Shin Bet personnel made three visits to
the prison in order to instruct SLA interrogators and to collect
information.
Interrogations at Al Hiyam are conducted using techniques that
are far more brutal than those that are utilized in Israel. Amnesty
International, the human rights group, collected testimony about
interrogees being hung from the ceiling, forced starvation and the
application of electric shocks to the fingers and the genitals of
those under interrogation. Over a lengthy period the International
Red Cross was not permitted to enter the facility. According to
Amnesty International, 181 Lebanese citizens, including three
women, are currently being held at Al Hiyam without trial. One of
the women is more than 70 years old. Only a week ago news
arrived about the arrest of a Lebanese journalist, Cosette
Ibrahim. Ibrahim, a student at Beirut University, was detained
when she paid a visit to her parents in the village of Remeish.
The Israeli defense establishment declined to accept
responsibility for the arrest, but defense sources said the
journalist was suspected of spying on behalf of the Hezbollah
organization.
From the conflicting statements, it is difficult to determine
whether Ibrahim was in fact a spy, or only a journalist whose
presence in the region made the SLA uncomfortable. One way
or the other, the manner of her arrest, without due process and
without any possibility of appeal, must be condemned.
Ibrahim's arrest focuses attention on the moral degeneracy that
is entailed in the protracted occupation of southern Lebanon.
What is taking place behind the fence of Al Hiyam prison in
Israel's name is an important consideration in grounding the
need to leave Lebanon quickly. If Shin Bet interrogators are
instructing the warders of Al Hiyam, then Israel should apply to
the facility the recent decision by the High Court holding that the
use of torture in interrogations is illegal.
The contention by the state that the defense establishment is not
involved in the details and does not decide who will be arrested
or for how long, does not divest Israel of responsibility for the
continuing abuses of human rights at the facility. In 1983, the
state commission of inquiry chaired by the late Justice Yitzhak
Kahan found that Israel and its ministers were responsible for
the massacre at the Beirut refugee camps of Sabra and Shatilla
in September 1982, even though it was perpetrated by the
Christian Phalangists. In the light of that decision, it can be
inferred that Israel is also responsible for what is wrought at Al
Hiyam prison by SLA chief Gen. Antoine Lahad and his army,
who are the hired implementers of Israeli policy in southern
Lebanon.
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