Stereotypes, Distorting Images

and Changing Realities:

Palestinian-Israeli Conflict

Visual Bias

c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading

Treatment or Punishment• Laws, judicial decisions, and administrative regulations

prohibit the physical abuse of detainees. During the year, there continued to be allegations that security forces tortured Palestinian detainees from the occupied territories during interrogation. The Attorney General has the authority to accept a "necessity defense" in deciding whether to prosecute those accused of alleged abuses. There also were numerous allegations that security officers beat Palestinian detainees from the occupied territories during arrest and on the way to interrogation or detention facilities.

• The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) submitted approximately 80 complaints of alleged torture by the ISA to the State Prosecutor during the year. According to the PCATI, the Government did not respond to 27 complaints, and approximately 30 cases were still under investigation. The Government, according to PCATI, claimed that 3 detainees had since been released from detention, and 12 others either withdrew their complaints or refused to meet with the investigator. Human rights groups maintained that no ISA agent has been criminally charged with torture or other ill treatment for the past several years.

• NGOs and international organizations reported government use of sleep deprivation, prolonged shackling and tightening of shackles, enforced positioning, forcing the detainee to run blindfolded and then tripping him, threats of violence, humiliation, threats against detainees’ family members, and threats of house demolition against detainees held for interrogation. Human rights groups further complained that the investigators who did field work for the State Prosecutor’s office on such claims were ISA agents and, therefore, biased in favor of their colleagues.

MEMRIThe Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) explores the Middle East through the region's media. MEMRI bridges the language gap which exists between the West and the Middle East, providing timely translations of Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew media, as well as original analysis of political, ideological, intellectual, social, cultural, and religious trends in the Middle East.

Founded in February 1998 to inform the debate over U.S. policy in the Middle East, MEMRI is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit, 501 (c)3 organization. MEMRI's headquarters is located in Washington, DC with branch offices in Berlin, London, and Jerusalem, where MEMRI also maintains its Media Center. MEMRI research is translated to English, German, Hebrew, Italian, French, Spanish, Turkish, and Russian.

MEMRI Staff• Col. (Res.) Yigal Carmon is MEMRI’s President. He served in the IDF/Intelligence

Branch from 1968 to 1988. From 1977 to 1982 he was the Acting Head of Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria and the Advisor on Arab Affairs to the Civil Administration. Following Col. Carmon’s retirement from the IDF he was Advisor to Premiers Shamir and Rabin for Countering Terrorism from 1988 to 1993. In 1991 and 1992 he was a senior member of the Israeli Delegation to peace negotiations with Syria in Madrid and Washington.

• Dr. Meyrav Wurmser is MEMRI’s Executive Director. She received her Ph.D. from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. where she wrote on Jabotinsky and the Revisionist Movement. She has taught at John Hopkins University and the United States Naval Academy. She has written numerous articles about Israel, the Arab World, and Zionism. She is also a "Contributing Expert" for Ariel Center for Policy Research, an organization dedicated to "stimulating and informing the national and international debates concerning all aspects of security policy - notably those policies which are an outcome of the political process started in Oslo and subsequently called the Peace Process" and "help crystallize a strategic design for the State of Israel", and according to which "A peace which will force Israel to its pre-1967 borders... will not be but a recipe for war.").

• Yotam Feldner is MEMRI’s Director of Media Analysis. He was born in Kibbutz Gazit, Israel and served in the IDF in Military Intelligence where he acquired fluency in Arabic and familiarity with Arab media. He earned a BA in History and English Language and Literature from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

• Aluma Solnick is a Research Associate with MEMRI. She was born in Jerusalem and served in the IDF in Military Intelligence. She earned a BA in Arabic Language and the History of the Middle East from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She is presently completing her MA in Arab Language and Literature from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

• Dr. Nimrod Raphaeli, Chief Analyst, is an Iraqi-born Israeli and former World Bank employee. He is described by the Middle East Review of International Affairs (September 2003[24] (http://meria.idc.ac.il/journal/2003/issue3/raphaeli.pdf)) as:

– Nimrod Raphaeli received his Ph.D. in development planning from the University of Michigan. He has spent most of his professional career at the World Bank. Since his retirement from the bank, he has served as an occasional consultant to both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Dr. Raphaeli joined the Middle Media Research Institute (MEMRI) as a senior analyst in 2001.

• Aaron Mannes is MEMRI’s Director of Research. In 1997, he earned an MA in Liberal Arts from St. John’s College in Annapolis, MD. His undergraduate degree, earned in 1992 from Emerson College in Boston, is a BS in Speech. He has been a stand-up comedian, an Equal Employment Opportunity Investigator, and an Associate Writer for The Hotline.

• Prof. Menahem Milson (Academic Advisor[25] (http://wjc.org.il/publications/policy_forums/pub_forum27.html)), a professor at Hebrew University, is described by the World Jewish Congress as follows:

– Menahem Milson is a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and has been teaching Arabic literature there since 1963. He has also served as head of the Department of Arabic Language and Literature and as Dean of the Faculty of Humanities. Professor Milson is the academic adviser of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). He has published extensively on modern Egyptian writers. His book on Egypt's great humanist, Najib Mahfuz – Najib Mahfuz: The Novelist-Philosopher of Cairo – appeared in 1998.

Country Number of topics: 98-2003 Percentage

Egypt 155 19

Iran 48 6

Iraq 89 11

Israel 96 12

Jordan 14 2

Palestinian Authority 238 28

Persian Gulf 20 2

Saudi Arabia 69 8

Syria 102 12

Country Number of topics: 2003 Percentage

Egypt 33 2.75

Iran 16 1.3

Iraq 55 4.5

Israel 1 0.08

Jordan 0 0

Palestinian Authority 38 3.1

Persian Gulf 5 0.41

Saudi Arabia 32 2.6

Syria 26 2.16

Before & After

Before & After

Before & After

Before & After

Before & After

Before & After

Before & After

Neglected