PAGE 01 JERUSA 01500 02 OF 04 11119Z
ACTION NEA-11
INFO OCT-01 ISO-00 HA-05 CIAE-00 DODE-00 PM-05 H-01
INR-10 L-03 NSAE-00 NSC-05 PA-01 SP-02 SS-15
ICA-11 10-13 MCT-01 /084 W
020415 311129Z /12
R 310907Z MAY 78
FM AMCONSUL JERUSALEM
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 1021
INFO AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV
CONFIDENTIAL SECTION 2 OF 4 JERUSALEM 1500
4. INTERROGATION. ALL FIFTEEN APPLICANTS CLAIMED THAT THEY HAD
BEEN BEATEN OR OTHERWISE TORTURED DURING THE INTERROGATION
SESSIONS WHICH FOLLOWED THEIR ARREST. FOUR MADE THIS CLAIM
ORALLY; ELEVEN MADE WRITTEN STATEMENTS (APPENDED TO THIS REPORT) ABOUT THEIR EXPERIENCES. NONE OF THE APPLICANTS APPEARED TO REGARD THESE EXPERIENCES AS UNUSUAL. THEY GENERALLY INTRODUCED THE SUBJECT OF TORTURE WITH SUCH EXPRESSIONS AS, "OF COURSE, I WAS BEATEN," "I CONFESSED FOR THE USUAL REASON," AND THE LIKE. FOUR APPLICANTS SPECIFICALLY STATED THAT PERSONS ARRESTED AT THE SAME TIME AS THEY WERE, OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SAME MATTER, HAD ALSO BEEN TORTURED.
5. THE CLAIMED PHYSICAL ABUSE RAN THE GAMUT FROM "SOME MINOR
BLOWS", WHICH THE INDIVIDUAL WAS QUITE READY TO DISMISS AS
UNIMPORTANT, TO EPISODES WHICH ALLEGEDLY CONCLUDED WITH THE
VICTIM LOSING CONSCIOUSNESS FROM PAIN, AND WHICH POSSIBLY
COULD HAVE CAUSED DEATH. TWO APPLICANTS SAID THAT THEY HAD
BEEN SLAPPED AND PUNCHED DURING INTERROGATION BUT CONSIDERED
THIS UNIMPORTANT BECAUSE THEY BELIEVED THAT NORMALLY A PERSON
ARRESTED IN A SECURITY CASE WAS TREATED MUCH WORSE. FOR THE
REMAINING THIRTEEN APPLICANTS, INTERROGATION SEEMS TO HAVE
3 of 10
4 of 10
BEEN A MORE SERIOUS MATTER. ONE, WHO DID NOT CONFESS, BUT WHO
WAS ULTIMATELY CONVICTED ON THE BASIS OF AN ASSOCIATE'S
DENUNCIATION, CHARACTERIZED HIS EXPERIENCE AS A SEVERE PHYSICAL
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AND PSYCHOLOGICAL TRAUMA. TWO OTHERS STATED THAT THEY WERE
BEATEN TO THE EXTENT THAT THEY CONSIDERED SIGNING FALSE
CONFESSIONS, ALTHOUGH THEY DID NOT DO SO. ONE SEEMS TO HAVE
CUT SHORT HIS INTERROGATION BY DENOUNCING OTHER INDIVIDUALS. EIGHT SAID THAT THEY CONFESSED TO PUT AN END TO WHAT THEY REGARDED AS INTOLERABLE PAIN AND DEGRADATION. ONE CLAIMED THAT HE CONFESSED TO AVOID PERMANENT PHYSICAL DAMAGE.
6. OF THE FIFTEEN APPLICANTS, THREE HAD BEEN ARRESTED IN 1977, FIVE IN 1976, THREE IN 1975, AND FOUR PRIOR TO 1975. EIGHT HAD BEEN INTERROGATED AT RAMALLAH, FOUR AT THE RUSSIAN COMPOUND OF JERUSALEM, TWO AT HEBRON, AND ONE AT NABLUS. DESPITE THIS DIVERSITY OF TIME AND PLACE OF INTERROGATION, THE ORAL AND WRITTEN STATEMENTS OF MOST APPLICANTS HAVE A CERTAIN BASIC SIMILARITY IN THEIR DESCRIPTION OF INTERROGATION PROCEDURES, INCLUDING THEY [sic] PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL PRESSURES INVOLVED. THE MOST COMMON METHOD DESCRIBED WAS BEATING WITH FISTS OR BLUNT INSTRUMENTS. ONE APPLICANT CLAIMED THAT HIS INTERROGATORS HAD USED SPECIAL TECHNIQUES OF BEATING WHICH MINIMIZED BRUISING -- SHARP BLOWS WITH THE HEEL OFTHE [sic] HAND TO THE STOMACH, THROAT, EARS, OR TEMPLES. APPLICANTS ALSO CLAIMED TO HAVE BEEN KICKED IN THE GENITALS, GOADED TO RUN UNTIL THEY COLLAPSED FROM EXHAUSTION, FORCED TO HOLD HEAVY OBJECTS FOR LONG PERIODS OF TIME, AND JABBED WITH STICKS OR LARGE NEEDLES. SOME INDIVIDUALS ARRESTED IN THE WINTER SEASON SPOKE OF EXPOSURE TO EXTREME COLD: ONE, FOR INSTANCE, SAID HE HAD BEEN TAKEN OUTDOORS DURING A FREEZING JANUARY NIGHT, STRIPPED, AND DOUSED WITH COLD WATER. SOME SAID THAT THEY HAD BEEN HUNG UP BY THEIR HANDS OR SHACKLED IN AWKWARD POSITIONS. APPLICANTS MENTIONED THEY THEY UNDERWENT PORTIONS OF THEIR INTERROGATIONS (AND BEATINGS) NUDE OR BLINDFOLDED. THREE SPECIFICALLY CLAIMED TO HAVE BEEN SUBJECTED TO VARIOUS FORMS OF SEXUAL SADISM. MOST APPLICANTS CHARACTERIZED THE ADMINISTRATION OF PHYSICAL PAIN AS ALMOST A CASUAL PART
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OF THE INTERROGATION, BEGINNING BEFORE A SINGLE QUESTION WAS
ASKED, OR PUNCTUATING QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS. ALL FIFTEEN
4 of 10
5 of 10
APPLICANTS STATED THAT THEY HAD BEEN SUBJECTED TO SEVERAL
INTERROGATION SESSIONS, EXTENDED OVER PERIODS VARYING FROM
SEVERAL DAYS TO MORE THAN A MONTH. ONE INDIVIDUAL SAID THAT
BETWEEN INTERROGATION SESSIONS HE WAS KEPT IN A CAGE ONE METER
LONG AND ONE METER WIDE. THREE OTHERS ALSO MENTIONED BEING
KEPT IN TINY CAGES INSTEAD OF NORMAL CELLS.