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For Immediate Release
American Arab Forum
AAF is concerned about
the false assessment Senator McCain has of Israel’s use of torture to extract
confessions.
Contact Aref Assaf
at 973-960-2673 or via email.
Paterson,
NJ, November 8, 2005: The American Arab Forum, AAF,
is
deeply concerned about inaccurate statements made By Senator John McCain,
(R-AZ) where he stated that Israel does not use torture to extract confessions
from the 10,000 Palestinians in its prisons. In two recent TV interviews
on Fox News and MSNBC respectively, Senator McCain described
Israel "as an example of a nation that successfully
combats terrorism without resorting to torture.” Senator McCain was commenting
on his push for inserting an amendment restricting all U.S.
government employees to interrogation techniques in the army manual, which
passed 90-9 last month.
John McCain, a victim
of Vietnam era torture himself, deserves kudos for successfully introducing
language into the military spending bill which clearly bans use of "cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" against anyone in United States
government custody.
While we laude the Senator's
efforts to ban torture by the US military, we believe his assessment of Israel's
torture policy is mistaken and defies well-documented reports by Israeli human
rights organizations, Unites States' annual human rights reports, Amnesty
International, Human Rights Watch and several United Nations’ resolutions. These
sources have exposed Israel's abuse of Palestinian prisoners, its violations of
The Geneva Protocols relating to prisoners and occupied areas and they have
even called for sanctions against Israel until its ceases its dehumanizing
treatment of prisoners.
Mr. Aref Assaf, President of AAF stated that "Senator McCain is obviously either
unaware of the systematic abuse of Palestinian prisoners at the hands of the
Israelis, or he somehow condones the ill-treatment to which these prisoners have
been subjugated.” He further stated that "Israel has mastered the art of
inhumane and repulsive interrogation methods at the cost of many Palestinian
prisoners facing death or permanent injuries to their bodies or psyche."
We call on Senator McCain to
explain his glowing commendations of Israeli torture policies and to recognize
the need to make known its maltreatment of Palestinian prisoners. Palestinians
are human too.
For further information on
Israeli torture polices, please vsit our website,
www.americanarabforum.org
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