CNN has published a deeply troubling report on the torture that Israel is committing on Gazan detainees at the Sde Teiman prison in Israel’s Negev desert. The Israeli whistleblower revealed that detainees, some of whom are innocent surgeons and physicians from the hospitals that were raided by the IDF in Gaza, were subject to cruel and inhumane punishment leading to amputation and/or death. “The IDF holds these detainees without an arrest warrant for 45 days under the authority of Israel’s Unlawful Combatants Law passed in December. One surgeon who survived the torture and was subsequently released, Dr. Al-Ran, was among those interviewed by CNN for its report.” Read here: www.cnn.com/...
The report is well-researched and hearkens back to our own ignominious policies at Abu Ghraib - the “glorious, good ole days of enhanced interrogation techniques.” While the government of Israel is engaged in inhumane, torture practices that shock the conscience, the US provides 68% of Israel’s foreign sourced weapons. It is time to end our unconditional, military support of a regime that can stoop no lower. PM Netanyahu had praised the President for signing the blockbuster military supplemental and said by aiding Israel, the US was “defending Western civilization.” Do we really want the barbaric Israeli torture chambers in the Negev to become the current “face of Western civilization?”