Israel claims to be a democracy that shares Canadian concerns for human rights, rule of law and tolerance. But information coming out of Israel on widespread public support for torture, rape and even murder of Palestinian prisoners, makes it difficult to find any “shared values”. Read more….
In the last few days, a damning and extensive report by Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem entitled “Welcome to hell”. has revealed the shocking conditions facing Palestinians incarcerated in inhumane conditions in Israeli prisons since October 7, 2023.
The report includes the first person testimonies of 55 Palestinian men and women showing how more than a dozen Israeli prison facilities, civilian and military, have become a network of camps operating within the framework of a systemic and systematic policy of abuse and torture.
That report was echoed a few days later by Francesco Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories. Based on testimony she has collected, torture and abuse of Palestinian prisoners (including rape of both male and female prisnoners in Israeli detention is not the result of a few bad apples, but the application of a deliberate policy.
Knowledge of the Israeli policy of torture and abuse has been widely available for some time but Canadian media has all but ignored it. This ignorance allows Canadians to remain blissfully comfortable with vague statements about our “shared values” with Israel.
Widespread torture and abuse
Reports of Israeli abuse are moving into mainstream discussion in the USA. A CNN investigation released in May, using testimony from Israeli whistleblowers as well as Palestinian former detainees and eyewitnesses, described widespread abuse at Sde Teiman military base. The abuses included blindfolding, extreme physical restraint, and prolonged handcuffing leading to severe injuries some necessitating amputation of feet or hands.
In mid August, the White House was forced to respond after Israeli media obtained leaked surveillance video that allegedly showed Israeli soldiers sexually assaulting a Palestinian detainee at Sde Teiman base in Israel’s Negev. The US State Department called allegations of sexual abuse of Palestinian detainees by Israeli soldiers “horrific” and said Israel must investigate “swiftly” and “fully,” according to a State Department spokesperson. “There ought to be zero tolerance of any sexual abuse, rape, of any detainees, period,” said State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller at a press briefing.
The Israeli daily Haaretz, gave extensive coverage to a UN report alleging torture of Palestinian prisoners.
In response to a CNN expose, Israel has begun moving hundreds Palestinian detainees to a new detention facility. But there is little reason to feel that the White House is serious about holding Israel to account.
Israeli values are not Canadian values
Most Israelis appear unconcerned about torture of Palestinians. “A deep moral deterioration is now being normalised in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” notes Bethan McKernan Jerusalem correspondent for the UK based Guardian.
In fact, a poll released on August 20 by the Israeli Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) revealed that 47 percent of Israeli Jews believe Israel should not be regulated by international law during Israel’s war on Gaza. It further suggested a majority of Israelis believe Israeli prison officials accused of sexually assaulting a Palestinian detainee should not face criminal charges.
Israeli Embassy in Canada still talks about “shared values”
“Israel and Canada have nurtured a friendship and partnership based on shared values since Canada voted in favour of establiushing a Jewish state at the United Nations on November 29, 1947″, notes the website of the Israeli Consulate in Montreal.
Global Affairs Canada seems to agree. In rejecting the United Church of Canada’s call for sanctions against Israel, Global Affairs Canada repeated the “shared values” claim: “Canada and Israel continue to have strong, multidimensional bilateral relations, marked by our history of shared values and our close people to people ties.”
Rape, torture, murder, ethnic cleansing, genocide. Based on what Israel and Israelis are doing, rather than what their representatives are telling Canadians, it’s hard to accept the claim that Israel and Canada share “common values”.
Canada Talks Israel Palestine (CTIP) is the weekly newsletter of Peter Larson, Chair of the Ottawa Forum on Israel/Palestine (OFIP). It aims to promote a serious discussion in Canada about Canada’s response to the complicated and emotional Israel/Palestine issue with a focus on the truth, clear analysis and human rights for all. Readers with different points of view are invited to make comment.
Want to learn more about us? Go to Ottawa Forum on Israel/Palestine.ca
Canada Talks Israel/Palestine 
Larson. The biggest asshole and greatest antisemite I have ever known.
Hello SE,
Lets say, for sake of argument, that I am both an “a**hole”, and an antisemite, as you claim.
What does that have to to with whether Israel is systematically torturing Palestinian prisoners with the knowledge and support of Israeli society? Or that Israelis have demonstrated in practice that their values are very different from the ones we hold up in Canada?
The basic difference is that in Canada all people, whether indigenous, people who have been here for a long time, new immigrants etc are recognized as having rights. In Israel, Jews have rights but others are, at best, tolerated.