The last three months have seen a sharp rise in reports of severe violence perpetrated by security forces against Palestinians in the West Bank, according to figures published today (March 25, 2009) by Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem.
Since the beginning of Operation “Cast Lead”, B'Tselem has documented 24 cases in which Palestinians reported being severely beaten by police officers and soldiers. As it is impossible for B'Tselem to document each and every case of violence by security forces in the West Bank, the above figures necessarily reflect only a portion of the violent incidents that actually occurred. B'Tselem referred all the documented cases to the law-enforcement authorities. Although some of the cases occurred more than two months ago, the authorities have yet to complete an investigation into a single case.
Although Israeli officials condemn beating and abuse of Palestinians, the law-enforcement authorities regularly refrain from carrying out serious investigations of reported incidents and from prosecuting the perpetrators, and rarely take any measures against them. Thus, for example, of 345 complaints regarding offenses of violence by security forces that B'Tselem forwarded to the authorities since September 2000, disciplinary or criminal proceedings were initiated against security forces in only 14 cases, to B'Tselem's knowledge. (Note that this figure refers only to complaints forwarded by B'Tselem to the authorities.) This policy conveys to security forces in the field a clear message of leniency toward violence against Palestinians, thus facilitating harm to Palestinians.
B'Tselem wrote to the commander of the IDF forces in the West Bank, calling attention to this grave situation and demanding that the defense establishment take immediate action to stop the phenomenon of violence by security forces. Toward this end, the organization called for swift, effective investigation of the documented cases and for measures to be taken against the persons found responsible.
