Camp 1391
Encyclopedia
Camp 1391 is an Israel Defense Force prison camp for "high-risk" prisoners in northern Israel
, run by Unit 504 and less than an hour's drive from Tel Aviv. The existence of the prison was unknown to the public before 2003, and most information about it remains classified, though Israel's supreme court ordered the release of some information about the jail.
police buildings. On the map were 62 British police
compounds in Palestine
in the late 1930s and early 1940s where Arab
and Jewish
militants against the British occupation were interrogated. One camp, "Meretz", did not appear on any modern Israeli maps. In 2004, Kroizer published an article in an academic journal, mentioning the prison location in a footnote. Some days later he received a phone call from Israel's military censor asking why the article had not been submitted for inspection. According to The Guardian
, the facility "had been airbrushed from Israeli aerial photographs and purged from modern maps."
Camp 1391 is situated in a Tegart fort
on route 574 between kibbutz Barkai
and kibbutz Ma'anit
in northern Israel It is operated by the Israel Defense Force Intelligence Corps, rather than by Shin Bet. HaMoked
, a major Israeli human rights organization, has petitioned the High Court of Justice to close the facility down.
", the secret was kept in such a manner as to be even unknown to Prof. David Libai, Minister of Justice in Yitzhak Rabin
's government and member of the secret services related ministerial committee. According to Leah Tsemel, an Israeli lawyer who specialises in advising Palestinians, "Anyone entering the prison can be made to disappear
, potentially forever, it's no different from the jails run by tinpot South America
n dictator
s."
According to accounts of former captives, the detainees are led into the facility blindfolded, and kept in cells (most are 2 m × 2 m) with no natural light. Two smaller cells (1.25 m × 1.25 m) with heavy steel doors and black or red walls, and almost no light, are used for solitary confinement. Some of the cells do not have adequate toilet facilities and the guards control the running water. Mustafa Dirani
, an Amal commander who was captured by the Israelis in May 1994 and released in 2004 as part of a prisoner swap, has filed a suit in Tel Aviv
's district court claiming he was sexually abused in the prison. It has been acknowledged by the government of Israel that "within the framework of a military police investigation the suspicion arose that an interrogator who questioned the complainant threatened to perform a sexual act on the complainant".
Inmates are not allowed visits at the facility from the Red Cross
, nor is any other independent organization permitted to inspect the site. The prisoners are not told where they are, nor are their families or lawyers. In 2003, in response to a lawsuit, Israeli government lawyers said that while the location was secret, Palestinians who are incarcerated there have their rights safeguarded, and can meet with lawyers and Red Cross at an off-site location. In May 2009, the United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) questioned Israeli officials about the facility and expressed skepticism about this claim. The CAT stated that "Israeli security secretly detains and interrogates prisoners in an unknown location called 'Camp 1391' without granting access to the committee, the International Red Cross (ICRC), or the lawyers or relatives of the prisoners", questioned why interrogations at Camp 1391 were not recorded, and stated that "600 complaints of alleged ill-treatment or torture were brought between 2001 and 2006, but none had been followed up".
Israeli officials maintain that Camp 1391 "is no longer used since 2006 to detain or interrogate suspects", but several petitions filed to the Israeli Supreme Court by the CAT to examine the facility have been rejected. The Israeli Supreme Court also refused to allow an inquiry of the alleged abuses, declaring that Israeli authorities had acted reasonably in not conducting investigations into allegations of torture, ill-treatment and poor detention conditions of detainees. The Committee Against Torture responded to this by asserting that secret detention centers are per se
a breach of the United Nations Convention Against Torture
, concluding that the state "should ensure that no one is detained in any secret detention facility under its control in the future" and that Israel "should investigate and disclose the existence of any other such facility and the authority under which it has been established. It should ensure that all allegations of torture and ill-treatment by detainees in Facility 1391 be impartially investigated, the results made public, and any perpetrators responsible for breaches of the Convention be held accountable."
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, run by Unit 504 and less than an hour's drive from Tel Aviv. The existence of the prison was unknown to the public before 2003, and most information about it remains classified, though Israel's supreme court ordered the release of some information about the jail.
History
The location of the camp was accidentally discovered by Israeli historian Gad Kroizer, who found a 70-year old map drawn by a government architect while researching old BritishUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
police buildings. On the map were 62 British police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
compounds in Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
in the late 1930s and early 1940s where Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
and Jewish
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
militants against the British occupation were interrogated. One camp, "Meretz", did not appear on any modern Israeli maps. In 2004, Kroizer published an article in an academic journal, mentioning the prison location in a footnote. Some days later he received a phone call from Israel's military censor asking why the article had not been submitted for inspection. According to The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, the facility "had been airbrushed from Israeli aerial photographs and purged from modern maps."
Camp 1391 is situated in a Tegart fort
Tegart fort
A Tegart fort is a style of militarized police "fortress" constructed throughout Palestine during the British Mandatory period.The forts are named after British police officer and engineer Sir Charles Tegart, who designed them in 1938 based on his experiences in the Indian insurgency.Tens of the...
on route 574 between kibbutz Barkai
Barkai
Barkai is an Israeli kibbutz in the Menashe Regional Council on the western side of Wadi Ara. Its main industries include thermal and acoustic insulation, lamination and packaging: the Polyon Barkai factory; and agriculture: cattle, poultry, avocado and field crops.-External links:* *...
and kibbutz Ma'anit
Ma'anit
Ma'anit is a kibbutz located near the town of Pardes Hanna-Karkur in northern Israel. It falls under the jurisdiction of Menashe Regional Council.-History:...
in northern Israel It is operated by the Israel Defense Force Intelligence Corps, rather than by Shin Bet. HaMoked
Hamoked
HaMoked an Israel based human rights organization founded by Dr. Lotte Salzberger with the stated aim of assisting "Palestinians subjected to the Israeli occupation which causes severe and ongoing violation of their rights." HaMoked works for the enforcement of the standards and values of...
, a major Israeli human rights organization, has petitioned the High Court of Justice to close the facility down.
Criticism
Dubbed "the Israeli GuantanamoGuantanamo Bay detainment camp
The Guantanamo Bay detention camp is a detainment and interrogation facility of the United States located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. The facility was established in 2002 by the Bush Administration to hold detainees from the war in Afghanistan and later Iraq...
", the secret was kept in such a manner as to be even unknown to Prof. David Libai, Minister of Justice in Yitzhak Rabin
Yitzhak Rabin
' was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–77 and 1992 until his assassination in 1995....
's government and member of the secret services related ministerial committee. According to Leah Tsemel, an Israeli lawyer who specialises in advising Palestinians, "Anyone entering the prison can be made to disappear
Forced disappearance
In international human rights law, a forced disappearance occurs when a person is secretly abducted or imprisoned by a state or political organization or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organization, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the...
, potentially forever, it's no different from the jails run by tinpot South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
n dictator
Dictator
A dictator is a ruler who assumes sole and absolute power but without hereditary ascension such as an absolute monarch. When other states call the head of state of a particular state a dictator, that state is called a dictatorship...
s."
According to accounts of former captives, the detainees are led into the facility blindfolded, and kept in cells (most are 2 m × 2 m) with no natural light. Two smaller cells (1.25 m × 1.25 m) with heavy steel doors and black or red walls, and almost no light, are used for solitary confinement. Some of the cells do not have adequate toilet facilities and the guards control the running water. Mustafa Dirani
Mustafa Dirani
Mustafa Dirani was a member and held position of "the head of security" of the Amal movement, a Shi'a militia in Lebanon associated with Syria. In 1987 he started contacts with pro-Iran sources, and eventually he created contacts between them and the rest of the leadership of Amal...
, an Amal commander who was captured by the Israelis in May 1994 and released in 2004 as part of a prisoner swap, has filed a suit in Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
's district court claiming he was sexually abused in the prison. It has been acknowledged by the government of Israel that "within the framework of a military police investigation the suspicion arose that an interrogator who questioned the complainant threatened to perform a sexual act on the complainant".
Inmates are not allowed visits at the facility from the Red Cross
International Committee of the Red Cross
The International Committee of the Red Cross is a private humanitarian institution based in Geneva, Switzerland. States parties to the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 1977 and 2005, have given the ICRC a mandate to protect the victims of international and...
, nor is any other independent organization permitted to inspect the site. The prisoners are not told where they are, nor are their families or lawyers. In 2003, in response to a lawsuit, Israeli government lawyers said that while the location was secret, Palestinians who are incarcerated there have their rights safeguarded, and can meet with lawyers and Red Cross at an off-site location. In May 2009, the United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) questioned Israeli officials about the facility and expressed skepticism about this claim. The CAT stated that "Israeli security secretly detains and interrogates prisoners in an unknown location called 'Camp 1391' without granting access to the committee, the International Red Cross (ICRC), or the lawyers or relatives of the prisoners", questioned why interrogations at Camp 1391 were not recorded, and stated that "600 complaints of alleged ill-treatment or torture were brought between 2001 and 2006, but none had been followed up".
Israeli officials maintain that Camp 1391 "is no longer used since 2006 to detain or interrogate suspects", but several petitions filed to the Israeli Supreme Court by the CAT to examine the facility have been rejected. The Israeli Supreme Court also refused to allow an inquiry of the alleged abuses, declaring that Israeli authorities had acted reasonably in not conducting investigations into allegations of torture, ill-treatment and poor detention conditions of detainees. The Committee Against Torture responded to this by asserting that secret detention centers are per se
Illegal per se
The term illegal per se means that the act is inherently illegal. Thus, an act is illegal without extrinsic proof of any surrounding circumstances such as lack of scienter or other defenses...
a breach of the United Nations Convention Against Torture
United Nations Convention Against Torture
The United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment is an international human rights instrument, under the review of the United Nations, that aims to prevent torture around the world....
, concluding that the state "should ensure that no one is detained in any secret detention facility under its control in the future" and that Israel "should investigate and disclose the existence of any other such facility and the authority under which it has been established. It should ensure that all allegations of torture and ill-treatment by detainees in Facility 1391 be impartially investigated, the results made public, and any perpetrators responsible for breaches of the Convention be held accountable."