For decades, Israel has kept bodies of Palestinians, refusing to return them for burial.
Some are buried in numbered graves in sealed military zones; others are held in freezers.
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Among them are 100 Palestinians who died in custody, with no information on their deaths.
There are also the missing—those in Gaza detained but never recorded. HaMoked, an Israeli human rights organization, is tracing almost 2,000 people, calling these “enforced disappearances.”
The abuse has a psychological dimension: a continuous smothering of Palestinian autonomy. Detainees include journalists, doctors, and civil society members—those who form the network of a society.
Their targeting aims to shatter the idea of Palestine.
What is remarkable is how much of this happens in plain sight, documented by rights groups, posted by soldiers, and bragged about by politicians.
Yet it is rarely protested within Israel or moves Western allies to demand action.
In the UK, focus on settler violence and sanctions seems to locate the problem away from the Israeli state.
As Palestinian prisoners fade in dungeons, the world watches.
The Abu Ghraib scandal defined an era of unbridled power and cruelty because media and political classes pushed for accountability.
Where is that now?
The UK deputy permanent representative to the UN recently expressed concern about “documented sexual violence by Israeli forces against Palestinian detainees” and called for investigation.
But many suspect nothing will happen, because this is not an aberration but a norm blessed by Israeli politicians and society.
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Until that fact is confronted, Palestinians will continue to be detained, disappeared, tortured, and sexually abused, while abusers are asked politely to investigate themselves.
