GAZA, (Palestine Foundation Information Center), Amnesty International said the decision by the Israeli military prosecutor to drop charges against five Israeli soldiers accused of abusing and sexually assaulting Palestinian prisoners and detainees at the Sde Teiman military detention facility is disgraceful and entrenches a culture of impunity.
Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns, said the decision marks yet another unconscionable chapter in the Israeli legal system’s long-standing history of granting impunity to perpetrators of grave crimes against Palestinians.
She added that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s welcoming of the decision illustrates the Israeli system’s “unwillingness or inability” to prosecute crimes under international law, stressing the urgent need for international justice as the only remaining avenue for Palestinians.
Guevara-Rosas noted that the decision comes at a time when mounting evidence indicates widespread torture and ill-treatment, including sexual violence, against Palestinians held in Israeli detention facilities since the start of what the organization has described as Israel’s “genocide” against the population of the besieged Gaza Strip.
Amnesty International has previously documented how Palestinians detained at Sde Teiman have been held incommunicado and subjected to torture and other ill-treatment.
According to Israeli NGO HaMoked, there are currently 9,446 Palestinians held in custody in Israeli prisons.
Amnesty International has previously documented how Palestinians detained at Sde Teiman have been held incommunicado and subjected to torture and other ill-treatment.
