Israelis Seek Court OK on Interrogations : Security: Use of ‘moderate physical pressure’ is defended in face of criticism by civil rights groups.

The Israeli government went to the country’s Supreme Court on Wednesday to preserve the much-criticized practice of its security police in using “moderate physical pressure” when interrogating Palestinian prisoners.

Although denounced by civil rights groups here and abroad as plain torture, the methods were defended as necessary to combat the intifada , the six-year Palestinian rebellion against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The head of Israel’s General Security Service argued in a brief given to the court that his agents need to apply “physical pressure” if they are to obtain confessions and other information from members of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, because “psychological pressure” frequently fails with suspects with strong convictions.

According to the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, Israeli interrogators “routinely use internationally unacceptable methods such as sleep deprivation, verbal insults and abuse, tying up in painful positions, ‘hooding,’ locking in extremely small cells . . . for prolonged periods and beatings” in questioning Palestinian suspects.

Amnesty International earlier this year again charged that Palestinian suspects are subjected to “systematic torture or ill treatment” by Israeli interrogators, and the New York-based Middle East Watch concluded that thousands of Palestinians, most detained without charge and never brought to trial, are regularly tortured while being questioned.

Dorit Beinish, state attorney, told the court Wednesday that rules governing use of “physical pressure” have been reviewed recently and stricter limits will be set but that the General Security Service will continue to use the techniques.

The head of the General Security Service, popularly known as Shin Bet or Shabak, said in his brief to the court that his agents have even greater need now to use “moderate physical pressure” because of the increase in terrorist attacks and his agency’s mission to prevent them.

In his statement, the Shin Bet chief said that the new guidelines would prohibit using physical force that would humiliate, injure or torture a suspect; they would also prohibit starving a detainee, preventing him from drinking, exposing him to extreme heat or cold or refusing access to a toilet. Complaints would be heard by a new office in the Justice Ministry.

Avigdor Feldman, a prominent civil rights lawyer representing the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel and a Palestinian man who said he was beaten 2 1/2 years ago, told the court that recent changes in the regulations do not make the practices acceptable.

Also Wednesday, in the occupied territories, Israeli soldiers shot dead four Palestinians, one of them a 12-year-old boy, Palestinian and military sources said.

It was the highest death toll for a single day in over a month and occurred on the second day of Mideast peace talks in Washington.