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Conditions of Palestinian detainees downplayed in global arena
Israel has detained thousands of Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank throughout the course of the war, but there is little international attention paid to the condition they are in when released, says Chris Doyle, the director of the London-based Council for Arab-British Understanding (CAABU).
“What strikes me is the way in the international arena that the focus is so much on the Israeli hostages, which is understandable, but there’s absolutely no coverage of these Palestinian prisoners and detainees, the condition in which they are released. Where were they held? The torture, even the accusations of sexual abuse, this is all very much downplayed,” Doyle told Al Jazeera.
“But of course, for Palestinians, it’s extremely real, very raw, and it just shows so much how the coverage and the political debate in the United States and Europe and in other countries, has gone that there is always this focus on what happens to Israelis and less so as to what happens to Palestinians.”
Doyle added that Trump’s 20-point ceasefire plan omits plans for accountability.
“There needs to be a mechanism to actually determine who is responsible for all of this, and that is completely absent in that 20-point plan deal, deliberately absent. There is no question the United States or Israel is going to want to allow any such judicial mechanism,” he said.
‘When I woke up, I realised I had lost my sight’: Released Palestinian detainee recounts torture
Mahmoud Abu Foul, 28, lost his leg in a 2015 Israeli bombing and was arrested late last year at Kamal Adwan Hospital.
He endured eight months of severe torture in Israeli custody, including with iron tools and electric shocks, which left him blind after a coma. Released recently, he remains without eye treatment and is now living in a tent in Gaza near ruins.
“During the first seven days, it felt like being held in a waiting zone – constant beatings, insults, and humiliation. We were handcuffed and blindfolded almost all the time – I spent around 280 hours shackled, maybe more,” Abu Foul said.
He said even eating was torture: “You had to lower your blindfold just enough to find your food.”
Later, Abu Foul was moved to the notorious Sde Teiman prison, which he said prisoners call “the prison that breaks men”. There he was repeatedly beaten and tortured until one day he was hit on the head so hard he lost consciousness, he says.
“When I woke up, I realised I had lost my sight,” said Abu Foul.
“I kept asking for medical treatment, but they only gave me one type of eye drops, which did nothing except reduce inflammation. My eyes kept tearing constantly, with discharge and pain – but no one cared.”
The young man tried to go on a hunger strike to demand treatment, but says no one cared about his plea inside the prison.
