‘Welcome to hell’ – inside Israel’s gulag archipelago

Muhammad Amin

“Welcome to hell.” That’s how soldiers greeted 45 year-old Fouad Hassan, a father of five from Nablus in the occupied West Bank, when he arrived Israel’s Megiddo Prison.
His words open a shocking expose from the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem of Israel’s rapid conversion of Megiddo and eleven other prisons into a network of “torture camps” following Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7 last year.
B’Tselem interviewed 55 prisoners who survived harrowing ordeals at the hands of their sadistic captor in the torture network, 30 from the West Bank, 21 from the Gaza Strip, and four Israeli citizens. Their searing testimonies are borne out by news articles land official reports, that paint a shocking mosaic of systemic neglect, abuse, torture, and murder intensifying inside the Israeli prison system after October 7th.
And it’s unfolded all under the direction of “Herr Gestapo”, Israel’s far-right minister of national security, Itamar Ben-Gvir.
The harrowing accounts have shocked even the most seasoned observers of Israel’s unrelenting genocide in Gaza and the West Bank. Israeli citizen Sari Huriyyah, a 53-year-old real estate lawyer, was arrested over a Facebook post on November 4th. He described what happened to Abd a-Rahman Mar’i, a 23-year-old man tortured continuously in an isolation cell next to him:
“He screamed in pain constantly, begging for a doctor. The guard would come now and then and swear: ‘Eat Shit! Shut up!’ In the morning, the guards came to count us. One said, ‘Get up, you animal. Get up, you dog.’ They checked him and the whole place went silent. Finally, the doctor said, ’There’s nothing to be done.’ One of the guards said to them, ‘My condolences,’ and they all started laughing. They put him in a black body bag, and carried him out like trash.”
Firas Hassan, a 50-year-old Palestinian Authority official, was beaten by prison guards and was told the attack was being live-streamed so Ben-Gvir could watch:
“We were ten Palestinians in the cell. The forces came in masked and beat us for 50 minutes. They laughed while they hit us, and livestreamed it all. I understand Hebrew and I heard one say, ‘We’re live streaming for Ben Gvir, directly to Ben Gvir.’ Then brought in police dogs, after they tied our hands behind our backs, and blindfolded us.”
Sarit Michaeli is B’Tselem’s international advocacy lead lawyer said the blame extended beyond Ben-Gvir:
“I think it’s certainly not the case that Minister Ben-Gvir is the only person responsible, absolutely Prime Minister Netanyahu, who gave him all of this authority, is absolutely responsible and culpable,” Michaeli said. “These are policies. They’re not the actions of rogue elements. They’re not the actions of individuals who are going against the grain. They’re dictated by the management of the Israeli prison system and by the government.”
Israel’s Channel 12, aired a video showing Israeli soldiers gang raping a prisoner, leaving him with serious injuries to his rectum and with broken ribs.
White House spokesperson Matthew Miller admitted seeing the video and acknowledged, “there ought to be zero tolerance for sexual abuse, rape of any detainee, period”. But of course there’s been plenty of tolerance in US president Joe Biden’s administration for rape and worse, 365 days of the year, and there are still no indications of any change.
Without US pressure on Israel, Michaeli explains, the abuse won’t change:
“We do not expect any Israeli investigations to fundamentally alter the situation. We’ve appealed to all nations and also to all relevant international institutions to look into the situation. Specifically, we’ve also appealed to the International Criminal Court, because these offenses that we list in our reports are war crimes. They also reach the magnitude of crimes against humanity. This is the responsibility of the international community, including the United States government.”
A UN report in April noted: “Reports of alleged torture and sexual violence in Israel’s Sde Teiman prison are grossly illegal and revolting, but they only represent the tip of the iceberg.”
Global revulsion is growing and US-Israel isolation is deepening into a permanent rift with the rest of the world.
Turkey this week joined South Africa’s genocide case against Israel in the International Court of Justice, while Palestine appealed to International Criminal Court to include finance minister Bezalel Smotrich in the arrest warrants it’s seeking against Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
Meanwhile, Palestinian activists are focusing on presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris, who stayed away from Netanyahu’s address to Congress but was adamant Thursday she’ll continue arming Israel. Activists disrupted her speech in Detroit on Wednesday, in the key swing state of Michigan, chanting, “Kamala, Kamala, you can’t hide. We won’t vote for genocide.” Harris replied, “You know what? If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that; otherwise, I’m speaking.”
With Palestinian solidarity actions planned both inside and outside the upcoming Democratic National Convention, all eyes are on Harris, as demands for a Gaza ceasefire continue.