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GSS - Shabac, interrogate many more patients at Erez

 

Articles - Personal Accounts

New data about GSS (Shabac) unorthodox methods at Erez Crossing

4 May 2009

New data and 30 new testimonies show: Rise in the number of patients interrogated; interrogation of minors; Policy conducted in full “cooperation of High Court, Legal Advisor to Government;” says PHR director Hadas Ziv

Data and new testimonies collected by Physicians for Human Rights – Israel (PHR-I) and presented today (Monday May 4) at the UN Committee Against Torture in Geneva, indicates a rise in the number of Palestinian patients interrogated and forced to provide information as a precondition to exit Gaza for medical care. The information also exposes a series of new practical measures employed by the GSS. PHR-Israel has learned that:
- GSS has interrogated minors,
- photographed patients against their will,
- detained patients for undisclosed periods of time for interrogation,
- implemented interrogations without prior notice;
- Harassed, accused, cursed and intimidated patients during interrogations;
- Patients that did not cooperate were returned to Gaza without receiving a permit to exit for medical treatment.

Between January 2008 and March 2009, at least 438 patients have been summoned for GSS interrogations at Erez Crossing, as a precondition for the review of their applications for an exit permit for the purpose of accessing medical treatment outside the Strip.  The data points to an increase in the ratio of the number of interrogations to the total number of applications submitted to the authorities at Erez Crossing: from 1.45% in January 2008 to 17% in January 2009.

About a year ago, PHR published a report which exposed the ways in which the GSS operates systematically in order to recruit patients as collaborators.  Since the release of this report, the GSS has continued its policies despite international criticism that these policies negate the International Treaty Against Torture and general codes of Medical Ethics.

Collaboration as a condition for exiting for treatment:
…they asked me: “What’s your full name, where did you study, what did you study, where do you work, why do you want to go out, which area do you live in, who lives around you and who are the neighbors?” They asked me to provide information on some of the people who live in my neighborhood. I said to them: “I don’t know them and I know nothing about the people around me. I’m only concerned with myself.” Then the interrogator asked me about someone called Amer. I said: “The whole town is full of Amers, which Amer are you talking about?” Then he asked me about someone called Hisar, someone called Aladia and finally he asked me if I know Hamas people and who I know among the activists. I said:” I don’t like politics and all those things.” The interrogator said: “I understand that you don’t want to answer me and that you don’t want to work with us, so go back to Gaza.”
Taken from testimony of “R”, a patient referred for orthopedic treatment at Saint George Hospital in East Jerusalem.  The testimony was taken on September 22, 2008.

Detaining patients for undisclosed periods of time:
…When he didn’t get an answer which satisfied him, he ordered the other man to take me to another room. They took me there and closed the door and I was left alone there. After 45 minutes the interrogator opened the door and said: “Do you want to answer my questions now or not? If you tell me which members of your family belong to the Hamas and which to the Islamic Jihad, I’ll let you leave Gaza for the hospital”. I said: “There aren’t any people like that in my family”. At 16.30 the interrogator said: “Enough. Take him and send him back to Gaza”. I said: “If it’s to Gaza – then to Gaza it will be."
From the testimony of W., who was interrogated on 8.12.08. The testimony was submitted to PHR-Israel on 17.12.08. The patient suffered from kidney stones and was referred for treatment to St. Joseph hospital in East Jerusalem.

Interrogating Minors
R., a 17.5 years old cancer patient who is being treated at Sheba Medical Center in Israel, arrived at the Erez Crossing after having been informed by PHR-Israel that her departure, accompanied by her mother, had been approved. When they reached the crossing point at 9 a.m they were told to sit and wait in the departure hall. At around 11.30 three GSS men in civilian dress came over and asked R. to follow them for interrogation. Despite the girl’s tears and pleading, one of the GSS men threatened that if she did not accompany him, he would send her back to Gaza. R. was separated from her mother and taken for interrogation. All this time, her mother was locked in the adjacent room and told to wait for her daughter. The interrogation lasted an hour, and in its course, the girl’s cell phone was taken, she was questioned about her uncle and her father, their place of employment etc. On conclusion of the interrogation, the girl was taken back to her mother, and at the end of the day, around 17.00 she was permitted to leave for Israel
From the testimony of R., who was interrogated on 29.1.09. Testimony submitted to PHR-Israel on the same day. The patient suffers from a malignant tumor on the leg and is being treated at Shiba Medical Center in Israel.


Patients from Gaza – between the devil and the deep blue sea: patients have reported to PHR-Israel that since February 2009, Hamas police – stationed at a checkpoint a kilometer and a half south of  Erez Crossing -  have been preventing individuals from reaching  Erez Crossing for GSS interrogations. According to the testimonies, patients claim that Hamas policy is to permit patients to reach the crossing only if they are going there in order to exit for medical treatment. In some cases patients report threats leveled at them that if they attend the interrogations they will be harmed.

PHR-Israel demands an immediate halt to the GSS policy of extortion targeted at patients requiring exit permits and demands that official bodies responsible for supervising GSS policy and practices exert their authority to revoke the policy which renders departure from Gaza for medical treatment conditional on collaboration with the GSS at Erez Crossing.

Hadas Ziv, Director of PHR: “It is incredibly dangerous for any democratic nation when a secret agency known to use unorthodox methods is allowed to operate without proper supervision or criticism.  The silence of the High Court of Justice, the Legal Advisor to the Government and other official bodies implicates them as partners to the Shabac’s cynical use of patients.”

For more information:
Libby Friedlander 054-245-7682