Israel’s Sde Teiman is so like Guantánamo for a reason | Prison

In May, a shocking CNN report based on whistleblower testimony put the Israeli military base at Sde Teiman in the Negev desert into the global spotlight and led to it being compared to the notorious US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where I was imprisoned for over a year. decade.

Three Israelis who worked at the desert camp, which has also served as a detention center since the start of the Gaza war, told CNN they witnessed systemic physical and psychological abuse of Palestinian detainees at the facility.

They stated that the Palestinians imprisoned there, detained without charge or legal representation, are blindfolded, forced to assume tense positions, beaten, insulted and prevented from speaking for long periods. Prisoners at Sde Teiman, the complainants claimed, routinely have their limbs amputated due to injuries sustained from constant shackling.

CNN also published two photographs of the facility, showing rows of men in gray tracksuits sitting blindfolded in an outdoor area surrounded by barbed wire and lit by floodlights.

The report, supported by independent reporting from other media outlets, as well as testimonies from freed Palestinian prisoners, made my heart sink. It immediately transported me to that dark day in February 2002, when I was sent for the first time, blindfolded and handcuffed, to Guantánamo, where I would spend more than 14 years in arbitrary detention, without knowing when or if I would be released, or even why I was being detained.

At Guantánamo, my experience as a prisoner was indeed very similar to that described by the Israeli whistleblowers in the CNN report – an experience defined by a feeling of perpetual uncertainty and fear.

As appears to be the case at Sde Taiman, psychological abuse was rampant at Guantánamo. We were routinely isolated, exposed to extreme temperatures, and threatened with physical abuse. Humiliation through forced nudity and sexual assault were also common. Sensory overload and deprivation, through prolonged exposure to bright lights and loud noises, or being forced to sit in solitary confinement in complete darkness for hours, further undermined our sense of reality.

The similarities between Guantánamo and Sde Teiman are also not limited to the treatment of prisoners. The two installations also justify their existence and provide legal coverage for their excesses, using similar arguments and narratives.

The US government created Guantánamo Bay after 9/11 to detain and interrogate men suspected of having participated in those attacks, or other terrorist links, without being restricted by international humanitarian law and other treaties that prohibit the mistreatment of US prisoners. war. The U.S. government classified all prisoners at Guantanamo Bay as “illegal enemy combatants,” allowing us to detain them without charge, with limited legal representation, and in flagrant violation of international law for years. In the years following 9/11, the US “disappeared” countless innocent Muslim men and boys in this way. I was one of 779 men and boys sent to Guantánamo. But thousands more are believed to have been arrested and eventually disappeared in secret locations and similar military detention centers around the world.

For many years, Israel has justified the arbitrary arrest of Palestinians it considers a threat on similar national security grounds. Many Palestinians imprisoned in Israel have been detained under a quasi-judicial process known as “administrative detention.” Under this process, Palestinians are initially detained for six months, but their detentions can then be repeatedly extended for an indefinite period without charge or trial.

Since October 7, as the US did in the aftermath of 9/11, Israel has also relied on its Illegal Combatants Act to detain Palestinians indefinitely without legal scrutiny and without the opportunity to present a defense. The law allows Israel to detain individuals in facilities such as Sde Teiman without an arrest warrant for up to 45 days. This period often extends indefinitely, as detainees are transferred to Israel’s formal prison system without due process.

Another similarity between Guantánamo Bay and Sde Teiman is the lack of transparency. At Guantánamo, the US military has consistently, and with some success, rebuffed attempts by journalists to gain access to the camps, imposing strict restrictions and censorship under the guise of national security concerns. This lack of transparency has only intensified in recent years, with journalists encountering even greater barriers in their efforts to illuminate the realities of life inside Guantánamo. Israel is also working hard to keep the media and independent legal professionals out of its prisons and military detention centers like Sde Teiman. The situation of Palestinian prisoners in Gaza only managed to attract global attention due to the bravery of Israeli whistleblowers who took it upon themselves to expose the abuses taking place there.

Following the publication of CNN’s scathing report, Israel vowed to shut down Sde Teiman. Israel’s Supreme Court also sought answers about the condition of prisoners held there, in response to a petition filed on May 23 by several Israeli human rights organizations. The petition called for the closure of the facility due to inhumane conditions and serious mistreatment that violated Israeli and international law.

While these are promising developments, we must remain vigilant in demanding greater coverage and true accountability to ensure that prisoners and practices at Sde Teiman are not simply transferred to other, more secretive facilities. After all, the ongoing abuses and lawlessness at Guantanamo Bay have been exposed many times over the past two decades, but the infamous facility in Cuba is still operating and no one has been held accountable for violating international law in that country.

I talk about the parallels between Guantánamo and Sde Teiman to draw attention to the universal nature of the suffering caused by detention practices steeped in secrecy, illegality, and dehumanizing cruelty.

In those Palestinian men imprisoned by the Israeli military in Sde Teiman, I saw myself and hundreds of other men and boys imprisoned by the US in Guantánamo. Our trials are so similar because both Israel and the US believe they can operate outside the limitations of international law and do whatever they want to human beings they consider a threat in the name of “national security.”

The fact that the same abuses at Guantánamo were duplicated at Sde Teiman highlights the urgent need for accountability and reform. It is crucial that the international community recognizes and addresses human rights violations in detention centers – whether committed at a military camp in the Negev desert or at a US naval base on a Caribbean island.

There must be independent investigations and accountability of perpetrators. Policies must be implemented to prevent such abuses from recurring in the future. If we do not take action and seek to hold accountable the egregious abuses of human rights legislation in Israeli detention centers, we will soon come face to face with another heartbreaking report about an inhumane prison camp in another corner of the world.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.