HaMoked receives many complaints from Palestinian detainees regarding detention proceedings and violence used against them during and after the detention. Some detainees have told HaMoked that while they were held in the temporary detention facilities operating in the Occupied Palestinian Territories – Etzion and Shomrom – they were asked questioned about their detention, and that during this interview, they complained about violence that had been used against them.
After the military passed
HaMoked’s communications about this issue from one official to the next, HaMoked finally
contacted the IDF Spokesperson on November 24, 2014, asking which officials conducted these interviews and what was done with detainees’ complaints about violence. HaMoked also asked to receive the protocol regulating these detention facility interviews, if such exists.
On December 9, 2014, the IDF Spokesperson provided HaMoked with the
“Temporary Detention Facility Detainee Reception Protocol”. According to the protocol new detainees must be asked if “everything was okay during the detention” (original phrasing). If a detainee has any issues with the detention process, the receiving official must ask the detainee a set of predetermined questions. According to the protocol, where there is concern that violence was used during the detention, a copy of the detainee reception report must be sent to the Military Police Investigations Unit (MPIU), along with photographs of physical signs of violence on the detainee’s body if such exist.
HaMoked now plans to contact the authorities to find out how many such complaints have been transferred to the MPIU and whether the temporary detention facilities comply with the protocol.
