LYNA AL TABALI stand with Francesca Albanese

Dr. Lyna Al-Tabal, Rai Al Youm, 11/7/2025

Arabic original

Translated by  Ayman El Hakim

Lyna Al Tabal  is Lebanese, holds a PhD in political science, is a lawyer by training, and a professor of international relations and human rights.

Yes, I chose to title this article in English. Not because I like to show off, nor because I believe more in the globalization of language than in its fairness. But because this phrase has become, without anyone’s permission, a declaration of global solidarity.

I stand with Francesca Albanese

A short sentence but loaded with meaning... only five words. Spoken calmly, but classified as dangerous to national security... How?

There is an Italian woman who is currently being prosecuted because of Gaza. She does not have the genes of resistance, she has no family ties to Gaza, no past marked by the Nakba, not even a photo. She is not an Arab, she was not born in a camp, she was not raised on the rhetoric of liberation. She is not a left-wing dreamer, she may not have read Marx in cafés. She has never thrown a single stone at an Israeli soldier... All she did was fulfil her professional duty.

“Crazy,” Trump said. He who monopolizes this label and dishes it out like narcissists do when they crumble in front of a woman who has not remained silent in the face of injustice.

Her name is Francesca Albanese. An Italian lawyer and academic, she has served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967. As an international civil servant, sitting behind a white desk, she writes reports in precise language and impartial legal terms. She is not a gifted orator, but she has made her position clear and unambiguous: what is happening in Gaza is genocide.

She wrote it in black and white in an official report published as part of her duties, in a language that is understandable under international law: what Israel is doing in Gaza is genocide.

Overnight, her name became dangerous and had to be destroyed, just as the Israeli army destroys houses in Rafah. Her name was destroyed by a single political missile, and she was placed on the sanctions list alongside traffickers and financiers of terrorism.

Now I know: in this world, all you have to do is not lie to be banned from traveling, have your accounts frozen, and be excluded from the international system.

Francesca did not break the law, she enforced it. And that is her real crime.

She did not make any errors in her definition, she did not exaggerate in her language, she did not overstep her authority. All she did was call the crime by its name.

No, this report does not deal with the genocide of Native Americans. Nor does it deal with Vietnam, white phosphorus, Baghdad, or Tripoli... This report does not stir up America’s past; it deals with an unabashed present. And with the right that is lost when we claim it... This report deals with international justice, which is being stifled before our very eyes, and with the charter of human rights, which is also evaporating before our eyes. While the guilty party sits on the Security Council.

This report talks about a world that does not punish liars. A world that kills you when you love sincerely, when you give without counting the cost, when you speak with courage, when you try to repair the damage.

This report simply talks about the dark world.

This world that strangles all those who don’t want to be like it.

Francesca wasn’t the first.

When the Rome Statute came into being, the US treated the International Criminal Court as a “legal virus” because they couldn’t control it... Bill Clinton signed it (without ratifying it). Then George W. Bush came along, withdrew his signature and passed what was called the “Hague Invasion Act,” which authorizes the military invasion of the Netherlands if the Criminal Court dares to try even one American soldier... Barack Obama, the wise man, did not repeal the law... Then came Trump, the blond cowboy with two guns in his belt, who delivered the coup de grace to justice... He punished Fatou Bensouda, the former chief prosecutor of the Court, for opening the Afghanistan and Palestine cases. He revoked her visa, froze her assets, and hung her on the noose of his sarcastic tweets.

Then came Karim Khan, the current attorney general, tasked with the heavy Gaza case and a list of equally heavy names: Netanyahu, Galant... Once again, the cutlass of political vengeance returned and threatened the sword of justice.

Karim Khan has been inundated with threats from Congress, the White House, and Tel Aviv.

 On his first day in the White House, Donald Trump signed the law imposing sanctions on the International Criminal Court. A man of Pakistani origin who dares to touch untouchable names? The game is over.

This is how an international institution, with all its staff and equipment, was placed under US sanctions, as if it were an armed militia... Its employees were banned from traveling, working, and even breathing freely... Who said America prevents justice? As long as it doesn’t come near Tel Aviv or the Pentagon.

And in a moment of sincerity, Joe Biden said it in his convoluted way: these laws were not written to apply to “white men,” but to Africans... and to Putin, when necessary.

And so the paradox is complete: 85% of prosecutions and trials before the International Criminal Court involve Africans.

 And when cases are opened on Westerners, justice becomes a threat... and the Court a target.

And now you know too: if you cross the line,

it is the Court that is being judged,
the judge who is judged,
and the witness who is being judged.

All that remains is the murderer... sitting in the front row, smiling at the cameras, receiving invitations to attend a conference on human rights. Why not?

Trump dealt a fatal blow to international law, a stab in the heart of the International Criminal Court, then buried what remained of the human rights system and threw us the corpse: “There, bury it,” he said in the same tone used to give orders during the massacres on the Syrian coast, when Alawites were buried under the rubble, without witnesses, without investigation, sometimes without names, with only a number... A hole, and it’s all over.

Trump acted like a cowboy: he fired first, then declared that the target was a threat to security. All this in full view of the world. And in full view of us too... In full view of Europe, to be precise.

Europe drafted these laws from the ashes of its wars, its unresolved psychological complexes, and its fear of itself.

And today, it watches, silent... With all its psychological complexes, Europe remains silent today. It buries its legal child in cold blood, just as the mothers of Gaza bury their children...

With a single tear, because time does not allow for long crying.

Do you understand now? All human rights laws, from the Rome Statute to the International Charter, are good for academic seminars and training courses that end with the awarding of diplomas and photos of happy experts.

And everything is decided in Washington.

This is how international justice is administered in the age of hegemony: a list of sanctions... and a red carpet rolled out for the executioner.

Did you follow the story correctly?

An Italian woman on the US list of political terrorists... Her name is Francesca Albanese. She is not from Gaza, she has not been through a war, she was not born under a blockade. She does not hide weapons or bombs in her bag, she does not belong to a secret organization... She comes from the world of law, from United Nations institutions, from a neutral bureaucracy... All she did was write an official report on what happened in Gaza...

She wrote what she saw: blood, rubble, a crime in its own right... She wrote that what happened there was not a security operation, nor self-defence, but genocide... She did her job in the language of reports, without slogans, without rallying cries, without even putting a red half-watermelon in the margin... Francesca Albanese shook up the world order because she didn’t lie...

She did not violate diplomatic rules... She simply applied the law...

 ➤Sign the petition

Nobel Peace Prize for Francesca Albanese and the doctors of Gaza

Marco Rubio sanctions/sanctionne/sanciona a Francesca Albanese

Sanctioning Lawfare that Targets U.S. and Israeli Persons Press Statement Marco Rubio, Secretary of State July 9, 2025 Today, I am imposing sanctions on Francesca Paola Albanese, the United Nations Human Rights Council “Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Occupied since 1967,” pursuant to President Trump’s Executive Order 14203, “Imposing Sanctions on the International Criminal Court.” Albanese has directly engaged with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in efforts to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute nationals of the United States or Israel, without the consent of those two countries. Neither the United States nor Israel is party to the Rome Statute, making this action a gross infringement on the sovereignty of both countries. The United States has repeatedly condemned and objected to the biased and malicious activities of Albanese that have long made her unfit for service as a Special Rapporteur. Albanese has spewed unabashed antisemitism, expressed support for terrorism, and open contempt for the United States, Israel, and the West. That bias has been apparent across the span of her career, including recommending that the ICC, without a legitimate basis, issue arrest warrants targeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. She has recently escalated this effort by writing threatening letters to dozens of entities worldwide, including major American companies across finance, technology, defense, energy, and hospitality, making extreme and unfounded accusations and recommending the ICC pursue investigations and prosecutions of these companies and their executives. We will not tolerate these campaigns of political and economic warfare, which threaten our national interests and sovereignty. The United States will continue to take whatever actions we deem necessary to respond to lawfare, to check and prevent illegitimate ICC overreach and abuse of power, and to protect our sovereignty and that of our allies. Albanese is being designated pursuant to Section 1(a)(ii)(A) of Executive Order (E.O.) 14203.

Sanctionner les poursuites judiciaires visant des ressortissants américains et israéliens Communiqué de presse Marco Rubio, secrétaire d'État 9 juillet 2025 Aujourd'hui, j'impose des sanctions à Francesca Paola Albanese, « Rapporteure spéciale sur la situation des droits de l'homme dans les territoires palestiniens occupés depuis 1967 » du Conseil des droits de l'homme des Nations unies, conformément au décret présidentiel 14203 de Donald Trump, « Imposition de sanctions à la Cour pénale internationale ». Mme Albanese a collaboré directement avec la Cour pénale internationale (CPI) dans le cadre d'efforts visant à enquêter, arrêter, détenir ou poursuivre des ressortissants des États-Unis ou d'Israël, sans le consentement de ces deux pays. Ni les États-Unis ni Israël ne sont parties au Statut de Rome, ce qui fait de cette action une violation flagrante de la souveraineté des deux pays. Les États-Unis ont condamné et contesté à plusieurs reprises les activités partiales et malveillantes d'Albanese, qui la rendent depuis longtemps inapte à exercer les fonctions de rapporteure spéciale. Albanese a proféré des propos antisémites sans vergogne, exprimé son soutien au terrorisme et manifesté ouvertement son mépris pour les États-Unis, Israël et l'Occident. Ce parti pris a été manifeste tout au long de sa carrière, notamment lorsqu'elle a recommandé à la CPI, sans fondement légitime, de délivrer des mandats d'arrêt à l'encontre du Premier ministre israélien Benjamin Netanyahou et de l'ancien ministre de la Défense Yoav Gallant. Elle a récemment intensifié ses efforts en écrivant des lettres de menace à des dizaines d'entités à travers le monde, notamment à de grandes entreprises américaines dans les domaines de la finance, de la technologie, de la défense, de l'énergie et de l'hôtellerie, en portant des accusations extrêmes et infondées et en recommandant à la CPI de mener des enquêtes et des poursuites contre ces entreprises et leurs dirigeants. Nous ne tolérerons pas ces campagnes de guerre politique et économique, qui menacent nos intérêts nationaux et notre souveraineté. Les États-Unis continueront à prendre toutes les mesures qu'ils jugent nécessaires pour répondre à ces manœuvres juridiques, pour contrôler et empêcher les abus de pouvoir et les dépassements illégitimes de la CPI, et pour protéger notre souveraineté et celle de nos alliés. Albanese est désignée conformément à la section 1(a)(ii)(A) du décret présidentiel (E.O.) 14203.

Sanciones contra la guerra jurídica dirigida contra ciudadanos usamericanos e israelíes Comunicado de prensa Marco Rubio, secretario de Estado 9 de julio de 2025 Hoy impongo sanciones a Francesca Paola Albanese, «Relatora Especial sobre la situación de los derechos humanos en los territorios palestinos ocupados desde 1967» del Consejo de Derechos Humanos de las Naciones Unidas, de conformidad con la Orden Ejecutiva 14203 del presidente Trump, «Imposición de sanciones a la Corte Penal Internacional». Albanese ha colaborado directamente con la Corte Penal Internacional (CPI) en los esfuerzos por investigar, arrestar, detener o enjuiciar a ciudadanos de Estados Unidos o Israel, sin el consentimiento de esos dos países. Ni Estados Unidos ni Israel hacen parte del Estatuto de Roma, lo que convierte esta acción en una grave violación de la soberanía de ambos países. Estados Unidos ha condenado y objetado repetidamente las actividades sesgadas y maliciosas de Albanese, que desde hace tiempo la hacen inapta  para el cargo de relatora especial. Albanese ha vertido un antisemitismo descarado, ha expresado su apoyo al terrorismo y ha mostrado un desprecio abierto hacia Estados Unidos, Israel y Occidente. Ese sesgo ha sido evidente a lo largo de toda su carrera, incluyendo la recomendación de que la CPI, sin base legítima, emitiera órdenes de arresto contra el primer ministro israelí, Benjyamin Netanyahu, y el exministro de Defensa, Yoav Gallant. Recientemente ha intensificado esta campaña enviando cartas amenazadoras a decenas de entidades de todo el mundo, incluidas importantes empresas usamericanas de los sectores financiero, tecnológico, de defensa, energético y hotelero, en las que formula acusaciones extremas e infundadas y recomienda a la CPI que investigue y procese a estas empresas y a sus ejecutivos. No toleraremos estas campañas de guerra política y económica, que amenazan nuestros intereses nacionales y nuestra soberanía. Estados Unidos seguirá tomando todas las medidas que considere necesarias para responder a la guerra jurídica, controlar y prevenir la extralimitación ilegítima y el abuso de poder de la CPI, y proteger nuestra soberanía y la de nuestros aliados. Albanese ha sido designada de conformidad con la sección 1(a)(ii)(A) de la Orden Ejecutiva (E.O.) 14203.

 

 

HAARETZArmed Gaza Militia Rivaling Hamas Hands Out Aid in Israeli-controlled Zone

Analysis of satellite images and videos shows the Abu Shabab militia operating near Rafah along Gaza's main north-south route. Its armed members man checkpoints and distribute aid amid allegations that Netanyahu's government is arming ISIS-affiliated militias

Nir Hasson Rawan Suleiman Avi Scharf Jonathan Lis
Haaretz, June 5, 2025

Satellite images and videos posted online in recent weeks show that a new armed Palestinian militia has expanded its presence in southern Gaza, operating inside an area under the direct control of the Israel Defense Forces.Last month, Haaretz revealed the activities of a group calling itself the "Anti-Terror Service," operating in eastern Rafah. The group is reportedly led by Yasser Abu Shabab, a Rafah resident from a Bedouin family, known locally for his involvement in criminal activity and the looting of humanitarian aid late last year.

Sources in Gaza claim the group consists of roughly 100 armed men who operate with the tacit approval of the IDF. When asked for comment last week, an IDF spokesperson declined to respond to these claims.

The Abu Shabab militia operates east of destroyed Rafah, between the Morag and Philadelphi routes.Credit: Photo: Planet Labs PBC

In recent weeks, Abu Shabab launched two Facebook pages where he publishes anti-Hamas and anti-Palestinian Authority messages while promoting his militia's efforts to provide security and distribute aid to civilians.

Videos shared on these pages show his fighters wearing new uniforms, helmets, and vests emblazoned with insignias that include the Palestinian flag. Abu Shabab also shared the original Haaretz report about his group.

Some videos show the militia stopping and inspecting convoys from the Red Cross and the UN, guarding the Salah al-Din road, Gaza's main north-south route, and conducting armed formation drills.

In mid-April, four militia members were killed by an explosive device planted by Hamas. Although Hamas initially claimed the attack targeted an undercover Israeli unit, it later emerged that the casualties were members of Abu Shabab's group.

Yasser Abu Shabab next to a truck carrying hundreds of sacks of flour distributed to local residents, in a video he posted on his Facebook account this week

In a video posted this week, Abu Shabab claimed the four were killed while clearing homes in Rafah in preparation for the return of displaced residents. The video also described the deceased as former security officers or Palestinian Authority employees.

On Tuesday, Abu Shabab released another video showing his forces setting up a tent camp and unloading food from a truck. The accompanying message stated that "the popular forces have returned to eastern Rafah under the umbrella of Palestinian legitimacy, led by commander Yasser Abu Shabab."

Displaced Palestinians were invited to join the camp to receive food, shelter, and protection. Phone numbers were provided for coordination. The video also showed the distribution of hundreds of sacks of flour and food packages.

One of the senior members of the Abu Shabab militia, holding a shortened M16 rifle, alongside Red Cross personnel east of Rafah, two weeks ago.

Haaretz identified the tent camp's location in satellite imagery from Planet Labs, showing 16 tents under construction in a zone long controlled directly by the IDF – between the east-west Morag and Philadelphi routes, about five kilometers northeast of the Kerem Shalom crossing.

Previous efforts by Palestinian journalists and online activists to geolocate Abu Shabab's militia videos confirmed that they were also filmed in this same area (marked in red on the attached map).

UN maps from late 2023 designated the zone as "hazardous" due to frequent looting of aid convoys. In a past interview with The Washington Post, Abu Shabab admitted to looting some of the aid in order to feed local families.

The IDF declined to comment on the militia's activity in Gaza and referred Haaretz to the Shin Bet, which also refused to respond.

On Wednesday, Israeli lawmaker Avigdor Lieberman, a former defense minister, claimed that Israel has supplied weapons to ISIS-affiliated Gazan criminal gangs.

In an interview with Kan Bet radio, Lieberman said, "Israel gave assault rifles and small arms to crime families in Gaza on Netanyahu's orders. I doubt it went through the Security Cabinet. No one can guarantee these weapons won't eventually be turned against Israel."

Since the start of the war, there have been several reports suggesting that Netanyahu and senior IDF officials have considered transferring local governance in Gaza to large clans or families as a counterweight to Hamas.

In response to Lieberman's allegations, Netanyahu's office said: "Israel is working to defeat Hamas through various means, as recommended by all heads of the security establishment."

The two pages of Yaser Abu Shabab, who describes himself as ‘Commander-in-Chief of the Popular Forces’, created on Facebook/Meta with a small dose of artificial intelligence.
The private one : 

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61575907420429

The official one:

https://www.facebook.com/Popularforces2024

GIDEON LEVYGermany’s Enslavement to Its Past Kept It Silent on Gaza for Far Too Long

Gideon Levy, Haaretz, 29/5/2025

Germany has betrayed the memory of the Holocaust and its lessons. A country that saw its highest task as not to forget has forgotten. A country that told itself that it would never remain silent is silent. A country that once said "Never Again," and now: "again," with arms, with funding, with silence. There is no country that should be better than Germany at "discerning nauseating processes." Every German knows much more about them than Yair Golan. Here in Israel they are in full swing, yet Germany has not yet recognized them for what they are. It was only recently that it woke up too late and to too little effect.

When Germany sees the Flag March in Jerusalem, it must see Kristallnacht. If it does not see the similarities, it is betraying the memory of the Holocaust. When it looks at Gaza, it must see the concentration camps and ghettos that it built. When it sees hungry Gazans, it must see the wretched survivors of the camps. When it hears the fascist talk of Israeli ministers and other public figures about killing and population transfer, about there being "no innocents" and about killing babies, it must hear the chilling voices from its past, who said the same in German.

It has no right to be silent. It must carry the flag of European resistance to what is happening in the Strip. Yet it continues to lag behind the rest of Europe, however uncomfortably, not only because of its past but also because of its indirect responsibility for the Nakba, which probably would not have happened without the Holocaust. Germany also owes a partial moral debt to the Palestinian people.

The Israeli occupation would not have happened without support from the United States and Germany. Throughout this period, Germany was considered Israel’s second-best friend. It was inclusive and unconditional. Now Germany will pay for its long years of severe self-censorship, during which it was forbidden to criticize Israel, the sacred sacrifice.

Any and all criticism of Israel was labeled antisemitism. The just struggle for Palestinian rights was criminalized. A country where a major media empire still requires its journalists to vow never to cast doubt on Israel’s right to exist as a condition for employment cannot claim to honor freedom of expression. And if Israel’s current policies endanger its existence, shouldn’t they be entitled to criticize it?

In Germany it is difficult, if not impossible, to criticize Israel, whatever it does. This is not friendship, this is enslavement to a past and it must end in the face of what is happening in Gaza. The "special relationship" cannot include a seal of approval for war crimes. Germany has no right to ignore the International Criminal Court, which was established in response to its crimes, by debating when to extend an invitation to an Israeli prime minister who is wanted for war crimes. It has no right to repeat the cliches of the past and place flowers in Yad Vashem, a 90-minute drive from Khan Yunis.

Inas Abu Maamar, 36, leans over the body of her niece Saly, 5. She was killed along with nine family members when an Israeli rocket struck their home in Khan Yunis. This image by Mohammed Salem for Reuters was awarded first prize in the 2024 World Press Photo competition.

Germany now faces its toughest moral test since the Holocaust. A few weeks after Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, Germany was the one to lead the sanctions drive against Russia. Twenty months after the invasion of Gaza, Germany has still not taken any steps against Israel, apart from paying the same lip service as other European countries.

Germany must change, not despite its past but because of it. It is not enough that Chancellor Friedrich Merz says it is no longer possible to justify bombing Gaza. He must take measures to help stop it. It is not enough that Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul says that Germany will not allow itself to be "put in a position where we have to show forced solidarity."

It is time for Germany to express solidarity with the victim, to free itself from the shackles of the past that alienate it from the lessons of the Holocaust. Germany cannot continue to sit idly by and make do with tepid condemnations. Given how terrible the situation is in Gaza, this is silence; Germany’s disgraceful silence.

JOE SACCO & ART SPIEGELMANNever Again and AgainA graphic conversation

Source: The New York Review, 27 Feb 2025

     

JONATHAN POLLAK“I saw that the floor was covered with blood. I felt fear run like electricity through my body. I knew exactly what was about to come”Testimonies from the Zionist gulag

Rape. Starvation. Fatal beatings. Mistreatment. Something fundamental has changed in Israeli prisons. None of my Palestinian friends who have recently been released are the same people they used to be

Jonathan Pollak, Haaretz  , 9/1/2025
Translated by Shofty Shmaha, Tlaxcala

Tlaxcala's Note: Haaretz finally translated this article from Hebrew into English, allaying our fears that they wouldn't. You can read their version here 

Jonathan Pollak (1982) was one of the founders of the Israeli group Anarchists Against the Wall in 2003. Wounded and imprisoned on several occasions, he contributes to the daily Haaretz. In particular, he refused to appear before a civilian court, demanding to be tried by a military tribunal, like a common Palestinian, which he was obviously refused.

 

Jonathan Pollak facing an Israeli soldier during a protest against the closure of the main road in the Palestinian village of Beit Dajan, near Nablus, occupied West Bank, Friday, March 9, 2012. (Anne Paq/Activestills)



Jonathan Pollak at the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court, arrested as part of an unprecedented legal campaign by the Zionist organization Ad Kan, January 15, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)



Activists hold up posters in support of Jonathan Pollak during the weekly demonstration in the Palestinian town of Beita, in the occupied West Bank, February 3, 2023. (Wahaj Banimoufleh)

Jonathan Pollak alongside his lawyer Riham Nasra at the Petah Tikva court during his trial for throwing stones during a demonstration against the Jewish settler outpost of Eviatar in Beita, occupied West Bank, September 28, 2023. (Oren Ziv)

When I returned to the territories [occupied since 1967] after a long detention following a demonstration in the village of Beita, the West Bank was very different from what I knew. Here too, Israel has lost its nerve. Murders of civilians, attacks by settlers acting with the army, mass arrests. Fear and terror around every corner. And this silence, a crushing silence. Even before my release, it was clear that something fundamental had changed. A few days after October 7, Ibrahim Alwadi, a friend from the village of Qusra, was killed along with his son Ahmad. They were shot as they accompanied four Palestinians who had been shot the day before - three by settlers who had invaded the village, the fourth by soldiers who were accompanying them.

After my release, I realized that something very bad was happening in the prisons. Over the past year, as I regained my freedom, thousands of Palestinians - including many friends and acquaintances - were arrested en masse by Israel. As they began to be released, their testimonies painted a systematic picture of torture. Fatal beatings are a recurring motif in every account. It happens in prisoner counts, during cell searches, at every movement from one place to another. The situation is so serious that some inmates ask their lawyers to hold hearings without their presence, because the path from the cell to the room where the camera is installed is a path of pain and humiliation.

I hesitated for a long time about how to share the testimonies I heard from my friends who had returned from detention. After all, I'm not revealing any new details here. Everything, down to the smallest detail, already fills volume upon volume in the reports of human rights organizations. But for me, these are not the stories of faraway people. These are people I have known and who have survived hell. None of them is the same person they once were. I seek to tell what I’ve heard from my friends, an experience shared by countless others, even while changing their names and obscuring identifiable details. After all, the fear of reprisals recurred in every conversation.

Blows and blood

I visited Malek a few days after his release. A yellow gate and guard tower blocked the path that once led to the village from the main road. Most of the other roads passing through the neighboring villages were all blocked. Only one winding road, near the Byzantine church that Israel blew up in 2002, remained open. For years, this village had been like a second home to me, and this is the first time I’ve been back there since my release. 

Malek was detained for 18 days. He was interrogated three times, and during all the interrogations, he was asked trivial questions. He was therefore convinced that he would be transferred to administrative detention - that is, without trial and without evidence, without being charged with anything, under a veneer of secret suspicion and with no time limit. This is indeed the fate of most Palestinian detainees now. 

After the first interrogation, he was taken to the Garden of Torment. During the day, the guards would remove mattresses and blankets from the cells and return them in the evening when they were barely dry, and sometimes still wet. Malek describes the cold of winter nights in Jerusalem as arrows penetrating flesh to the bones. He tells how they beat him and the other inmates at every opportunity. At every count, every search, every movement from one place to another, everything was an opportunity to hit and humiliate.

“Once, during the morning count,” he told me, ”we were all on our knees, our faces turned towards the beds. One of the guards grabbed me from behind, handcuffed my hands and feet, and said in Hebrew, 'Come on, move'. He lifted me up by the handcuffs, behind my back, and led me bent over across the courtyard next to the cells. To get out, there's a sort of small room you must go through, between two doors with a small window”. I know exactly which little room he’s talking about, I’ve passed through it dozens of times. It's a security passage where, at a given moment, only one of the doors can be opened. “So we got there,” Malek continues, “and they slammed me against the door, my face against the window. I looked inside and saw that the floor was covered in clotted blood. I felt fear run through my body like electricity. I knew exactly what was going to happen. They opened the door, one came in and stood by the window at the back, blocked it, and the other threw me inside onto the floor. They kicked me. I tried to protect my head, but my hands were handcuffed, so I didn’t really have any way of doing that. They were murderous blows. I really thought they might kill me. I don’t know how long it lasted. At some point, I remembered that the night before, someone had said to me, “When they hit you, scream at the top of your lungs. What do you care? It can’t get any worse, and maybe someone will hear and come.” So I started shouting really loud, and indeed, someone did come. I don't understand Hebrew, but there was some shouting between him and them. Then they left and he took me away. I had blood coming out of my mouth and nose”.

Khaled, one of my closest friends, also suffered from the violence of the guards. When he was released from prison after eight months’ administrative detention, his son didn’t recognize him from afar. He ran the distance between Ofer prison and his home in Beitunia. Later, he said that he hadn’t been told that the administrative detention was over, and he was afraid that there had been a mistake and that they would soon arrest him again. This had already happened to someone who was with him in the cell. In the photo his son sent me a few minutes after their meeting, he looks like a human shadow. All over his body - his shoulders, arms, back, face, legs - were signs of violence. When I came to visit him, he stood up to kiss me, but when I took him in my arms, he groaned in pain. A few days later, examinations showed edema around the spine and a rib that had healed.

In the Megiddo prison

Every action is an opportunity to hit and humiliate

Another testimony I heard from Nizar, who was already in administrative detention before October 7, and has since been transferred to several prisons, including Megiddo. One evening, the guards entered the cell next door and he could hear the blows and cries of pain from his cell. After a while, the guards picked up an inmate and threw him alone into the isolation cell. During the night and the following day, he moaned in pain and never stopped shouting “my belly” and calling for help. No one came. This continued the following night. Towards morning, the cries stopped. The next day, when a nurse came to take a look around the ward, they understood from the tumult and the screams of the guards that the inmate was dead. To this day, Nizar doesn't know who it was. It was forbidden to speak between cells, and he doesn't know what day it was. 

After his release, he realized that during the time he was detained, this detainee had not been the only one to die in Megiddo. Tawfik, who was released in winter from Gilboa prison, told me that during a check of the area by prison officers, one of the inmates complained that he wasn’t allowed out into the yard. In response, one of the officers said to him: “You want the yard? Say thank you for not being in the Hamas tunnels in Gaza”. Then, for two weeks, every day during the noon count, they took them out into the yard and ordered them to lie on the cold ground for two hours. Even in the rain. While they lay there, the guards walked around the yard with dogs. Sometimes the dogs would pass between them, and sometimes they’d actually step on the inmates lying down; they’d walk all over them.

According to Tawfik, every time an inmate met a lawyer, it came at a price. “I knew every time that the way back, between the visiting room and the ward, would add at least three more volleys of blows. But I never refused to go. You were in a five-star prison. You don’t understand what it’s like to be 12 people in a cell where even six are cramped. It’s like living in a closed circle. I didn’t mind at all what they were going to do to me. Just seeing someone else talking to you like a human being, maybe seeing something in the corridor on the way, that was worth everything to me”.

Munther Amira   - the only one here to appear under his real name - was released from prison by surprise before the end of his period of administrative detention. Even today, no one knows why. Unlike many others who have been warned and fear reprisals, Amira told the cameras about the catastrophe in the prisons, calling them cemeteries for the living. He told me that one night, a Kt’ar unit burst into their cell at Ofer prison, accompanied by two dogs. They ordered the inmates to strip down to their underwear and lie on the floor, then ordered the dogs to sniff their bodies and faces. Then they ordered the prisoners to get dressed, led them to the showers and rinsed them with cold water while clothed. On another occasion, he tried to call a nurse for help after an inmate attempted suicide. The punishment for calling for help was another raid by the Kt’ar unit. This time, they ordered the inmates to lie on top of each other and beat them with truncheons. At one point, one of the guards spread their legs and hit them in the testicles with a truncheon. 

 Hunger and disease

Munther lost 33 kilos during his detention. I don't know how many kilos Khaled lost, having always been a slim man, but in the photo sent to me, I saw a human skeleton. In the living room of his house, the light from the lamp then revealed two deep depressions where his cheeks used to be. His eyes were surrounded by a red outline, that of someone who hadn't slept in weeks. On his skinny arms hung loose skin that looked as if it had been artificially attached, like plastic wrap. Blood tests on both showed severe deficiencies. Everyone I spoke to, regardless of the prison they passed through, repeated almost exactly the same menu, which is sometimes updated, or rather reduced. The last version I heard, from Ofer prison, was: for breakfast, one and a half boxes of cheese for a cell of 12 people, three slices of bread per person, 2 or 3 vegetables, usually a cucumber or a tomato, for the whole cell. Once every four days, 250 grams of jam for the whole cell. For lunch, one disposable plastic cup with rice per person, two spoonfuls of lentils, a few vegetables, three slices of bread. At dinner, two spoonfuls (coffee, not soup spoons) of hummus and tahini per person, a few vegetables, three slices of bread per person. Sometimes another cup of rice, sometimes a falafel ball (just one!) or an egg, which is usually a bit spoiled, sometimes with red dots, sometimes blue. And that’s it. Nazar told me: “It’s not just the quantity. Even what's already been brought in isn’t edible. The rice is barely cooked, almost everything is spoiled. And you know, there are even real children there, the ones who have never been in prison. We've tried to take care of them, to give them our rotten food. But if you give a little of your food away, it's like committing suicide. In the prison there is now a famine (maja'a مَجَاعَة), and it's not a natural disaster, it’s the policy of the prison service.”

Recently, hunger has even increased. Because of the cramped conditions, the prison service is finding ways to make the cells even tighter. Public areas, canteens - every place has become an extra cell. The number of prisoners in the cells, which were already overcrowded before, has increased still further. There are sections where 50 extra prisoners have been added, but the amount of food has remained the same. Not surprisingly, prisoners are losing a third or more of their body weight in just a few months.

Food is not the only thing lacking in prison, and inmates are in fact not allowed to own anything other than a single set of clothes. A shirt, a pair of underwear, a pair of socks, a pair of pants, a sweatshirt. That's it. For the duration of their detention. I remember once, when Munther's lawyer Riham Nasra visited him, he came into the visiting room barefoot. It was winter and freezing cold in Ofer. When she asked him why, he simply said: “There aren't any”. A quarter of all Palestinian prisoners suffer from scabies, according to a statement by the prison service itself in court. Nizar was released when his skin was healing. The lesions on his skin no longer bled, but scabs still covered large parts of his body. “The smell in the cell was something you can't even describe. Like decomposition, we were there and we were decomposing, our skin, our flesh. We’re not human beings there, we’re decomposing flesh,” he says. “Now, how could we not be? Most of the time there's no water at all, often only an hour a day, and sometimes we had no hot water for days. There were whole weeks when I didn't have a shower. It took me over a month to get soap. And there we are, in the same clothes, because nobody has a change of clothes, and they’re full of blood and pus and there’s a stench, not of dirt, but of death. Our clothes were soaked with our decomposing bodies”.

Tawfik recounted that “there was only running water for an hour a day. Not just for showers, but in general, even for toilets. So, during that hour, 12 people in the cell had to do everything that required water, including natural needs. Obviously, this was unbearable. And also, because most of the food was spoiled, we all had digestive problems almost all the time. You can't imagine how bad our cell stank”.

In such conditions, the health of the prisoners obviously deteriorates. Such rapid weight loss, for example, forces the body to consume its own muscle tissue. When Munther was released, he told his wife Sana, who is a nurse, that he was so dirty that his sweat had dyed his clothes orange. She looked at him and asked, “What about the urine?” He replied, “Yes, I peed blood too.” “You idiot,” she yelled at him, ”that wasn't dirt, that was your body rejecting the muscles it had eaten”.

Blood tests on almost everyone I knew showed that they suffered from malnutrition and severe deficiencies of iron, essential minerals and vitamins. But even medical care is a luxury. We don't know what goes on in the prison infirmaries, but for the prisoners, they don’t exist. Regular treatment has simply ceased. From time to time, a nurse makes a tour of the cells, but no treatment is administered, and the “examination” amounts to a conversation through the cell door. The medical response, at best, is paracetamol and, more often, something along the lines of “drink some water”. Needless to say, there's not enough water in the cells, as there's no running water most of the time. Sometimes a week or more goes by without even the nurse visiting the block.

And if there’s little talk of rape, there’s no need to mention sexual humiliation - videos of prisoners being led around completely naked by the prison service have been posted on social networks. These acts could not have been documented other than by the guards themselves, who sought to brag about their actions. The use of the search as an opportunity for sexual assault, often by hitting the groin with the hand or metal detector, is an almost constant experience, regularly described by prisoners who have been in different prisons.

I didn’t hear about assaults on women first hand, obviously. What I have heard, and not once, is the lack of hygienic material during menstruation and its use to humiliate. After the first beating on the day of her arrest, Mounira was taken to Sharon prison. On entering the prison, everyone goes through a body search, but a strip search is not the norm and requires reasonable cause to suspect that the inmate is hiding a prohibited object. A strip search also requires the approval of the officer in charge. During the search, no officer was there for Mounira, and certainly no organized procedure to verify reasonable suspicion. Mounira was pushed by two female guards into a small search room, where they forced her to remove all her clothes, including her underwear and bra, and get down on her knees. After leaving her alone for a few minutes, one of the guards came back, hit her and left. In the end, her clothes were returned to her, and she was allowed to get dressed. The next day was the first day of her period. She was given a sanitary pad and had to make do with it for the whole of her period. And it was the same for all of them. By the time she was released, she was suffering from an infection and severe inflammation of the urinary tract.

Epilogue

Sde Teiman was the most terrible place of detention, and this is supposedly why they closed it down. Indeed, it’s hard to think of the descriptions of horror and atrocity that came out of this torture camp without thinking of the place as one of the circles of hell. But it was not without reason that the state agreed to transfer those held there to other locations - principally Nitzan and Ofer. Sde Teiman or not, Israel is holding thousands of people in torture camps, and at least 68 of them have lost their lives. Since the beginning of December alone, the deaths of four more detainees have been reported. One of them, Mahmad Walid Ali, 45, from the Nour Shams camp near Tulkarm, died just one week after his arrest. Torture in all its forms - hunger, humiliation, sexual assault, promiscuity, beatings and death - does not happen by chance. Together, they constitute Israeli policy. This is the reality.