Since the onset of the war, there has been a substantial deterioration of prisoner’s rights in Israel in which security prisoners have suffered from starvation, inhumane living conditions, lack of medical treatment, and many more violations. ACRI has submitted numerous pieces of litigation against the violation of prisoner’s rights including our petition to restore access and information to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the petition against the policy of starving security prisoners. Today, we want to share with you important developments regarding the grave violation of prisoner’s rights at the Sde Teman military detention facility.
Sde Teman was activated as a military detention facility as part of the emergency regulations added by the government, following October 7th. The facility is not under the jurisdiction of the Israeli prison service and many human rights organizations have stated that the facility resembles the Guantanamo prison by operating entirely outside current prison regulations. Mounting testimonies have exposed the unimaginable abuses at Sde Teman - surgeries without anesthesia, prolonged restraint in agonizing positions, handcuffing injuries requiring amputation, permanent blindfolding even during medical treatment, detainees held in diapers, severe beatings and torture.
For the past eight months, the Israeli military has been using Sde Teman, where according to reports they have detained over 1,000 suspected "unlawful combatants" from Gaza in cage-like enclosures surrounded by barbed wire - with no cells, beds or basic equipment. As stated by former Supreme Court President Aharon Barak: "Even those accused of the worst terrorism are entitled to basic humane detention conditions meeting their fundamental needs. We cannot be humane if we deny such humanity to detainees under our custody.”
On Thursday May 23rd, ACRI submitted a petition to the High Court of Justice demanding the closure of the Sde Teman detention facility. Together with partnered human rights organizations, we argued that egregious human rights violations taking place at Sde Teman is in violation of Israel’s obligations under International Law as well as unconstitutional under Israeli law. Moreover, arguring that “by declaring Sde Teman a 'detention center' under the Unlawful Combatants Law, Israel is required to ensure humane conditions that protect detainees' dignity, health and human rights under Israeli and international law."
Following the hearing on the petition held at the Supreme Court, the state began to reduce the number of detainees, transferring 500 inmates to prison facilities of the prison service and releasing 30 of the inmates to the Gaza Strip. Currently, there are approximately 160 prisoners held at Sde Teman. The state has announced that until the end of June, it intends to keep detainees in Sde Teman only for intake, interrogation and initial screening. However, ACRI has insisted to the court that as long as the facility does not meet the conditions set forth in the law, detainees cannot be held in Sde Timan, even for short periods.
This week the State of Israel announced that they are intending to replace the ICRC, as the impartial, neutral and independent body which visits Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons. Since 1967, until October 7th 2023, Israel has respected the special mandate of the International Committee of the Red Cross as protected in the Geneva Conventions of 1949. The fact that Hamas has not allowed the ICRC to visit Israeli hostages and ignores International Law, does not give Israel the right to do the same.
ACRI is determined to compel the Israeli government to uphold its duties under International Humanitarian Law and with respect human rights, particularly during times of war. Join us today.
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