From Israel, reports of torture of Palestinian prisoners and liberticidal laws

In August 2024, Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, head of the Israeli Military Advocacy, delivers a video to a Channel 12 journalist. It shows a group of IDF (Israeli Army) reservists attacking a young Palestinian prisoner, who will suffer serious internal injuries, as confirmed by medical reports and the heavy surgery he will later undergo. The attack, filmed by a surveillance camera, takes place in the Sde Teiman base, in the Negev desert, where after October 7, 2023, a prison has been set up for those arrested from nearby Gaza. But there is no shortage of complaints and testimonies regarding other detention centers (more impenetrable to journalists than what happens inside the infamous Guantanamo base, established in Cuba by the USA).

Some soldiers are under formal investigation and are in detention. But before the video was released, in addition to earning the vigorous defense of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, the attackers were cheered on by fringes of protesters, who, led by parliamentarians from Otzma Yehudit (Ben-Gvir's party), even attempted to storm Sde Teiman to free them.

Despite the evidence of torture and responsibility, Prime Minister Netanyahu continues to demonstrate his support for the suspects, while the most ferocious personal attacks (following accusations of abuse of office, fraud, obstruction of justice and dissemination of classified material) have always been directed against the Army Advocate , who resigned after her recent arrest and is now in hospital, following a probable suicide attempt.

Meanwhile, Minister Ben-Gvir promises to "swiftly" advance the bill that would impose the death penalty on terrorists who kill an Israeli, approved by Israel's National Security Committee (with the support of Netanyahu and Gal Hirschel, hostage coordinator). Specifically, Ben-Gvir adds that any compassionate judges will be barred from any discretion. In this regard, it should be remembered that, although the Israeli penal code provides for the death penalty for certain crimes, it has not been applied since 1962 , when Nazi German SS officer Adolf Eichmann was executed.

Furthermore, if the Knesset votes in favor twice more despite the opposition of legal advisors, the Israeli government will soon be able to shut down any foreign media outlet without court intervention, thus aiming to transform the so-called "Al-Jazeera Law"—an exceptional measure that has expired—into ordinary law, the application of which could severely limit freedom of information.