U.S. Report Cites Israeli Human Rights Abuses

The State Department’s annual report on human rights, released Wednesday, berates Israel for harsh police measures against Palestinians--at a time the Israelis are using similar measures to hunt Islamic terrorists.

However, the Clinton administration has tacitly agreed to Israel’s use of any steps necessary to end the carnage of the past two weeks, during which 61 people have died in suicide bombings.

Asked to reconcile the administration’s conflicting positions, Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs Timothy E. Wirth told reporters that the State Department wants to end harsh Israeli police practices in the “long term” but understands the need to deal with the terrorism immediately.

The explanation reflects the strain that the current Israel security crisis has placed on the human rights campaign that the United States has been pressing worldwide.

“We are not in any way changing our position on the long-term needs for human rights improvements with respect to those who are in no way engaged in these terrorist activities,” Wirth said.

Such practices as demolition of homes and restrictions in travel “clearly, over time, need to be eliminated,” he said.

But he added: “Certainly in this immediate period there is a great challenge . . . to do everything possible to end terrorism, consistent with the rights of all the people in the region.”

Among the Israeli human rights violations cited by the State Department report for 1995 were the demolition of the homes of families of suicide bombers, the detention of Palestinians without charging them, “widespread abuse, and in some cases torture, of Palestinian detainees” and the killing of suspected Palestinian terrorists by Israeli undercover agents.

The State Department noted that one Palestinian detainee, Abd Samad Hereizaat, had been shaken to death under torture.

“His interrogator had reportedly shaken Hereizaat violently by the shoulders, allowing his head to snap back and forth, causing injury to the brain,” the report said.

On the issue of house demolitions, which the Israelis have invoked against the families of the most recent suicide bombers, the State Department report said “many human rights groups maintain that the . . . demolishing of homes is a form of collective punishment because such acts target innocent families and children.”

The report noted that “the Israeli high court has stated that the goal of such demolitions is to deter terrorists.”

Ironically, the report was generally upbeat about the prospects for Middle East peace, and it said the incidence of human rights violations is declining.

“Israel’s main human rights problems have arisen from its policies and practices in the occupied territories,” the report said. “The redeployment of the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] from most major Palestinian population areas in the West Bank during the year and its previous withdrawal from Gaza are significantly reducing these problems.”

The report covered only the last year.

Secretary of State Warren Christopher hailed the report, required annually by Congress for the last 20 years, for shining “an impartial and balanced spotlight on the record, on the abuses that might otherwise be covered by a veil of indifference.”

Among the report’s conclusions:

* China--Despite its economic boom, China persists in “severe restrictions on freedom of speech, the press, assembly, association, religion, privacy, movement and worker rights.” Widespread human rights abuses include arbitrary and lengthy detentions, forced confessions, torture and mistreatment of prisoners.

* Mexico--The government generally respects human rights but was involved in killing 17 peasants protesting the failure to receive promised herbicides in Guerrero state. Corruption and human rights abuses are viewed as hallmarks of the Mexican police forces.

* Bosnia--The Bosnian Serb seizure of the United Nations “safe area” of Srebrenica in July “resulted in one of the worst single reported incidents of genocidal mass killings of members of an ethnic or religious group in Europe since World War II.”

* Saudi Arabia--”There is systematic discrimination against women and . . . suppression of the rights of workers and ethnic and religious minorities.” Abuses include arbitrary arrest, prolonged detention, maltreatment of prisoners and violence against women.