Former Presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump are mentioned in newly unsealed Jeffrey Epstein-related court documents, but they are not accused of any wrongdoing involving the disgraced sex trafficking financier.
Clinton, who sometimes flew aboard Epstein's private plane, is listed repeatedly in the documents. He was the topic of an argument over the credibility of a witness who said she saw the former president when he was a guest of Epstein.
Trump's name appears in a document in which Epstein is quoted as saying he would invite the then-real estate mogul to join him at a casino. In another document, a witness said she was never asked to engage in sexual relations with Trump.
The deposition transcripts include references to several prominent names, as has been previously reported, including Andrew as well as Bill Clinton, the former US president.
Sjoberg recalled in her 2016 deposition that Epstein spoke to her about Bill Clinton.
“He said one time that Clinton likes them young, referring to girls,” she said.
When asked if Clinton was a friend of Epstein’s, she said she understood Epstein had “dealings” with Clinton.
A spokesman for Clinton confirmed in 2019 that the former president had flown on Epstein’s private plane but said Clinton knew nothing of the financier’s “terrible crimes.”
A Clinton spokesman on Wednesday reiterated that 2019 denial and told CNN that it has now “been nearly 20 years since President Clinton last had contact with Epstein.” Clinton has not been accused of any crimes or wrongdoing related to Epstein.
I do not know whether to believe the denial or not. I do know that Mr. Epstein spoke of Mr. Clinton's lust for "young" women. I do not that the fraudulent marriage of Bill and Hillary Clinton stands indicted. Can you imagine her as president? Can you imagine the country being dragged through their tawdry lives yet again?
This is not minor. He could not keep it in his pants. That is fine if you want to say you have an open marriage. Pretending otherwise? You are a threat to the country, you are a national security risk.
This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for today:
The “voluntary” resettlement of Palestinians from Gaza is slowly becoming a key official policy of the government, with a senior official saying that Israel has held talks with several countries for their potential absorption.
Zman Israel, The Times of Israel’s Hebrew sister site, has learned that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition is conducting secret contacts for accepting thousands of immigrants from Gaza with Congo, in addition to other nations.
“Congo will be willing to take in migrants, and we’re in talks with others,” a senior source in the security cabinet said.
The United States rejects recent statements from Israeli Ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir advocating for the resettlement of Palestinians outside of Gaza. This rhetoric is inflammatory and irresponsible. We have been told repeatedly and consistently by the Government of Israel, including by the Prime Minister, that such statements do not reflect the policy of the Israeli government. They should stop immediately.
We have been clear, consistent, and unequivocal that Gaza is Palestinian land and will remain Palestinian land, with Hamas no longer in control of its future and with no terror groups able to threaten Israel. That is the future we seek, in the interests of Israelis and Palestinians, the surrounding region, and the world.
"I deeply appreciate the United States of America, but with all due respect, we are not just another star on the American flag," he added.
Gaza remains under assault. Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion. The ongoing campaign in Gaza by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction. But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge for the propaganda outlets: How to justify it? Fortunately for Israel, the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence." CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund." ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them." NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll. The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza." The slaughter continues. It has displaced over 1 million people per the US Congressional Research Service. Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) points out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide." The death toll of Palestinians in Gaza is now well over 20,000. NBC NEWS notes, "The vast majority of its 2.2 million people are displaced, and an estimated half face starvation amid an unfolding humanitarian crisis." THE GUARDIAN notes, "A total of 22,313 Palestinians have been killed and 57,296 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement." In addition to the dead and the injured, there are the missing. AP notes, "About 4,000 people are reported missing." And the area itself? Isabele Debre (AP) reveals, "Israel’s military offensive has turned much of northern Gaza into an uninhabitable moonscape. Whole neighborhoods have been erased. Homes, schools and hospitals have been blasted by airstrikes and scorched by tank fire. Some buildings are still standing, but most are battered shells." Kieron Monks (I NEWS) reports, "More than 40 per cent of the buildings in northern Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, according to a new study of satellite imagery by US researchers Jamon Van Den Hoek from Oregon State University and Corey Scher at the City University of New York. The UN gave a figure of 45 per cent of housing destroyed or damaged across the strip in less than six weeks. The rate of destruction is among the highest of any conflict since the Second World War." Max Butterworth (NBC NEWS) adds, "Satellite images captured by Maxar Technologies on Sunday reveal three of the main hospitals in Gaza from above, surrounded by the rubble of destroyed buildings after weeks of intense bombing in the region by Israeli forces."
Yesterday, Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez (DEMOCRACY NOW!) spoke with Francis Boyle about a new development.
AMY GOODMAN: As the death toll from Israel’s bombardment of Gaza since the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel now exceeds 22,000, South Africa has filed a case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague accusing Israel of genocide and trying to, quote, “destroy Palestinians in Gaza.” This comes as the separate International Criminal Court is already investigating alleged war crimes committed by both Israel and Hamas.
In its filing to the ICJ, the main judicial body for the United Nations, South Africa says, quote, “The acts and omissions by Israel complained of by South Africa are genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group,” unquote. South Africa accused Israel of violating the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which Israel has signed on to.
Israel responded by calling the charge, quote, “without legal merit.” The Israeli Foreign Ministry accused South Africa of, quote, “collaborating with a terrorist group that calls for Israel’s annihilation,” unquote.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has compared Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories to racist system of apartheid in his own country which ended in 1994 after nearly half a century. In November, Ramaphosa responded to Israel’s assault on Gaza by recalling South Africa’s diplomats from Israel.
PRESIDENT CYRIL RAMAPHOSA: The collective punishment of Palestinian civilians through the unlawful use of force by Israel is a war crime. The deliberate denial of medicine, fuel, food and water to the residents of Gaza is tantamount to genocide.
AMY GOODMAN: Meanwhile, in October, South African lawmaker and the grandson of Nelson Mandela, Nkosi Mandela, joined a Palestinian solidarity protest in Cape Town.
NKOSI ZWELIVELILE MANDELA: Palestinians are counting on each and every one of us to stand and be counted, like they stood side by side with us in the trenches when we fought to liberate our country.
AMY GOODMAN: For more, we’re joined by Francis Boyle, professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law. He previously applied the Genocide Convention for Bosnia and won two requests for provisional protection from the ICJ against Yugoslavia, and thinks the same could apply here. His books include The Bosnian People Charge Genocide, as well as Palestine, Palestinians, and International Law and World Politics, Human Rights, and International Law.
Professor Boyle, welcome back to Democracy Now! It’s good to have you with us in this new year, but under very serious circumstances. If you can explain why it’s South Africa that’s bringing this charge, and what exactly is the International Court of Justice, where it fits into the world justice system? And talk about the charge of genocide.
FRANCIS BOYLE: Well, thank you very much for having me on, Amy. My best to your listening audience.
Not to toot my own horn here, but I was the first lawyers to win anything under the Genocide Convention from the International Court of Justice, that goes back to 1921. I single-handedly won two World Court orders for the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina against Yugoslavia to cease and desist from committing all acts of genocide.
And based on my careful review of all the documents so far submitted by the Republic of South Africa, I believe South Africa will win an order against Israel to cease and desist from committing all acts of genocide against the Palestinians. And then we will have an official determination by the International Court of Justice itself, the highest legal authority in the United Nations system, that genocide is going on. And under Article I of the Genocide Convention, all contracting parties, 153 states, will then be obliged, quote, “to prevent,” unquote, the genocide by Israel against the Palestinians.
Second, when the World Court gives this cease-and-desist order against Israel, the Biden administration will stand condemned under Article III, paragraph (e), of the Genocide Convention, that criminalizes complicity in genocide. And clearly we know that the Biden administration has been aiding and abetting Israeli genocide against the Palestinians here for quite some time. This has also been raised by my friends in the Center for Constitutional Rights and in the National Lawyers Guild in a lawsuit against Biden, Blinken and Austin.
So, I believe we will be able to use the World Court order. Right now my sources tell me the hearing will be January 11, January 12. Based on my experience with the Bosnians, we can expect an order within a week.
I would also say, with respect to the Biden administration, they are currently in violation of the Genocide Convention Implementation Act, that makes genocide a crime under United States law. And again, once we — South Africa wins this order, the Biden administration also will stand in violation of the Genocide Convention Implementation Act.
So, I believe this is where we will be going between now, I would say, and the end of this month. And it is up to all of us, as American citizens, to figure out and support what South Africa is doing at the International Court of Justice here.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Francis Boyle, what’s the difference between the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, which is already considering allegations of war crimes by both Israel as well as the Palestinian militant groups?
FRANCIS BOYLE: Right, Juan. The International Court of Justice was originally established back in 1921, its predecessor, legal predecessor, in law. And that is where I filed the genocide case. I was the first lawyer ever to win two orders in one such case since the World Court was founded in 1921, and it was on the basis of the Genocide Convention. The International Criminal Court is a separate international organization, set up in 2000.
The problem, Juan, is this. Back in 2009, after Operation Cast Lead, I advised Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to accept the jurisdiction of the International Court — of the International Criminal Court for Palestine, which he did. I regret to report that the International Criminal Court has not done one darn thing to help the Palestinians since 2009. The International Criminal Court has all the blood of the Palestinian people on its hands since 2009. And, Juan, that is why we set up a campaign to find a state willing to file a lawsuit at the International Court of Justice, the World Court.
The ICC basically operates at the behest of its funders and founders and masters, which is the U.S., the NATO states, the European states, etc. Until their expedited indictment of President Putin as U.S.-NATO lawfare against Russia, the International Criminal Court had not indicted one American, one European, one Brit, one NATO citizen and one Israeli, and one white person.
So, we’ve gone — we have a campaign now to support the Republic of South Africa at the International Court of Justice. And we are asking — we’re starting this campaign today. I’m part of a coalition. We’re starting this campaign today to get members of the Genocide Convention to file declarations of intervention at the World Court in support and solidarity with South Africa against Israel and in support of the Palestinians. That material hopefully will go out today.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Francis, I wanted to ask you, though — Joan Donoghue is the president of the International Court of Justice. She previously worked in the U.S. State Department. How do you think she will approach South Africa’s application? What power does she have to shape the proceedings?
FRANCIS BOYLE: That’s a good question, Juan. Yes, Donoghue is a lifelong, careerlong U.S. State Department legal apparatchik, which is how she got the job. And I am sure she’s in contact right now today with the U.S. State Department, giving them a heads-up on everything going on over there at The Hague behind the scenes. She will toe the State Department party line in these proceedings. I regret to report the president does have a lot of power there to shape these proceedings. I suspect she will use that power to shape the proceedings in favor of Israel.
However, I have also been advised that the Republic of South Africa is, as of now, nominating a judge ad hoc. That is their right under the statute of the International Court of Justice. I don’t have a name yet, but I would hope the South African judge ad hoc will do his or her best to try to keep Donoghue straight.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to go back to South Africa, who has done this genocide filing. In 2008, I had the opportunity to speak with the South African anti-apartheid icon, the Nobel Peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu. I caught up with him at the South African vice consul’s apartment in New York right before Archbishop Tutu received the Global Citizens Circle award. I asked him about Palestine.
AMY GOODMAN: Would you compare the occupation of Gaza and the West Bank to apartheid South Africa?
ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU: I have to speak about what I know. I mean, most people — a Jew will usually speak about their experiences and maybe compare whatever it is that is happening with what happened in the days of the Holocaust. For me, coming from South Africa and going — I mean, and looking at the checkpoints and the arrogance of those young soldiers, probably scared, maybe covering up their apprehension, there’s no way in which I couldn’t say — of course, that is a truth. It reminds me — it reminds me of the kind of experiences that we underwent.
AMY GOODMAN: So, that was Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Francis Boyle, talk about the significance of it being South Africa and what it means for one state to bring a charge against another state. Who are signatories here? And how binding is this? Explain what happened, for example, in Bosnia.
FRANCIS BOYLE: Sure. Well, first, the connection there with the late, great Archbishop Tutu, the current lead counsel now in the lawsuit for South Africa is professor John Dugard, a longtime friend of mine. Professor Dugard was one of the very few courageous white professors of international law who internationally opposed the criminal apartheid system in South Africa, at risk to his life. Second, later on, Professor Dugard became U.N. special rapporteur for Palestine. I read all of his reports. They are excellent. Professor Dugard’s heart and head are in the right place with the Palestinians, and he is one of the top professors of international law in the world.
So, there is a direct comparison between the Israeli apartheid system on all the Palestinians, including Palestinian citizens of Israel, and what happened in apartheid South Africa. Indeed, Professor Dugard has written that the Israeli system of apartheid against the Palestinians is worse than the apartheid that the Afrikaners applied to the Black people in South Africa.
I was involved in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, and that is my assessment, too. Indeed, the parallels here then led me, in November 2000, to call for the establishment, in a speech — the establishment of the divestment/disinvestment campaign against Israel, for the exact same reasons we had a divestment/disinvestment campaign against the criminal apartheid regime in South Africa. And then, in 2005, Palestinian civil society contacted me to go in with them on establishing the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel, against apartheid Israel, for the exact same reason we had a BDS campaign against the criminal apartheid regime in South Africa.
So, Tutu, Dugard, I and, I would — Ramaphosa, the foreign minister in South Africa, who’s made very compelling speeches, they all understand what’s going on here and what’s at stake.
AMY GOODMAN: And the issue of genocide in Bosnia, if you could explain, for people who are not familiar with what happened? And then what came of the charges at the International Court of Justice?
FRANCIS BOYLE: Yes. Well, Yugoslavia exterminated about 200,000 Bosnians, raped about 40,000 Bosnian women. I was the lawyer for all of them, arguing their case at the International Court of Justice. And I won these two orders on 8 April, 1993, and 13 September, 1993. Until I won that order, 8 April, 1993, everyone was denying that genocide was going on. And once I won that order, that was massive and overwhelming in favor of the Bosnians, no one could deny anymore that genocide was going on.
As for the effectiveness, when I walked out of the World Court on 8 April, 1993, and won that order, I walked into the foyer there outside the grand courtroom. The whole world news media were there. And I said at the time, “The World Court has just determined that genocide is going on in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Under Article I, every state party to the Genocide Convention has an obligation to prevent genocide in Bosnia. And I hereby request direct military intervention by the United States and the NATO states to save the Bosnians from genocide.” Later that day, the United States and NATO announced that they were instituting a no-fly zone, enforcing a no-fly zone over Bosnia. So these orders by the World Court can have consequences.
And it will be up to us here in the United States to devise the strategy for consequences for the Biden administration, because we have to pressure the Biden administration to order Israel to stop the genocide. They will do what we Americans tell them to do. In Operation Cast Lead, that had been going on for a period of time under President Bush Jr., Obama — the Obama people were coming into power. Obama was about to be inaugurated. And in order not to spoil Obama’s inauguration, the United States government told Israel to stop Operation Cast Lead. So we have to understand we here in the United States of America have the power to stop this. But we have to figure out how to use the order that South Africa will win here in the United States of America.
This is exactly what happened in Nicaragua. You’ll remember, Amy, I was involved in advising almost every peace NGO and lawyer here in the United States on the legal issues with respect to Reagan’s war against Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala. My teacher, mentor and friend, the late, great Abe Chayes at Harvard Law School, won a World Court order against the Reagan administration in 1984, and then also a final judgment on the merits in 1986. We here in the United States used that World Court order and the final judgment to stop Reagan’s war against Nicaragua. Regretfully, 16,000 —
AMY GOODMAN: We have 20 seconds.
FRANCIS BOYLE: Regretfully, 16,000 Nicaraguans were killed, including U.S. citizen Ben Linder, but we did stop that. And I believe that with this World Court order that South Africa will win, we can stop what Israel is doing to the Palestinians.
AMY GOODMAN: Francis Boyle, professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law. His books include The Bosnian People Charge Genocide, Palestine, Palestinians, and International Law, as well as World Politics, Human Rights, and International Law.
When we come back, as this pivotal election year gets underway, we speak with Ryan Grim about how the powerful lobby group AIPAC is set to spend more than $100 million against progressive congressmembers who are critical of Israeli human rights violations in Palestine. His new book, The Squad. Stay with us.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: “EZLN… Para tod@s, todo,” “For everyone, everything,” by Manu Chao. This week marks the 30th anniversary of the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas.
Regional and global leaders warned against escalating violence after the killing of a top Hamas official, Saleh Arouri, in Beirut, amid fears that tensions could boil over on the Israel-Lebanese border and across the region.
- In France, President Emmanuel Macron told Israeli Minister Benny Gantz that it was “essential to avoid any escalatory attitude, particularly in Lebanon,” according to a readout of a call Tuesday provided by French officials, AFP reported. Macron also reportedly offered for France to play an intermediary role to keep lines of communication open between all parties.
The director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, condemned strikes on the Palestine Red Crescent Society headquarters in Khan Younis in a statement on Tuesday.
“I deplore today’s strikes on the @PalestineRCS-run Al-Amal hospital in the southern #Gaza city of Khan Younis, which severely damaged the Palestine Red Crescent Society training centre located within the hospital complex,” he said.
Calling the bombardment “unconscionable,” Ghebreyesus said hospitals, ambulances, health workers and people seeking care must be protected under international humanitarian law and added that WHO’s movements, as well as those of its partner organizations like the Red Crescent, had been severely impeded by the ongoing violence across Gaza.
Ghebreyesus reiterated his call for an immediate ceasefire to ensure “the accelerated and unimpeded flow of food, medical supplies, water and other essential items to millions of civilians forced to live in unspeakable conditions.”
Pointing to “widespread deaths, suffering and decimation of homes, roads and other infrastructure,” the WHO chief wrote “If the conditions for a cease-fire in hostilities have not been met by now, I do not know what it will take.”
Israeli authorities held thousands of workers from Gaza in incommunicado detention for several weeks following the October 7 attacks, subjecting at least some of them to inhumane and degrading conditions, Human Rights Watch said. Thousands more remain stranded in the occupied West Bank without valid legal status and vulnerable to arrest.
Those detained after October 7 were held by Israeli authorities in Israel and the West Bank, some of whom were reportedly interrogated on alleged links to, or knowledge of, the attacks. On November 3, over 3,000 Palestinian workers were released from detention and transferred to Gaza. Israeli authorities have yet to state the total numbers of workers from Gaza in Israel on October 7, or the number of workers who were detained or remain detained. Israeli authorities have not disclosed if any workers from Gaza were charged with any crime.
“Israeli authorities detained thousands of workers for weeks without charge in incommunicado detention, subjecting at least some to humiliating ill-treatment,” said Michelle Randhawa, senior refugee and migrant rights officer at Human Rights Watch. “The search for perpetrators and abettors of the October 7 attacks does not justify abusing workers who had been granted permits to work in Israel.”
The October 7 Hamas-led attacks killed an estimated 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli authorities. More than 21,600 Palestinians have been killed, including more than 8,500 children, during the hostilities, according to Gaza authorities.
An estimated 18,500 workers from Gaza had permits to work in Israel on October 7, though it is unclear how many were in Israel that day. To get permits, applicants from Gaza underwent stringent security evaluations.
On December 19 and 21, Human Rights Watch wrote to the Israeli military and Israel Prison Service with its findings asking for comment, but received no response, as of writing.
Human Rights Watch spoke to four workers from Gaza detained by Israeli authorities after October 7. Three workers were part of a small group released to the West Bank before November 3, and one was released on November 3 to Gaza.
One man attempted to go to the West Bank after he realized his work permit was cancelled and deleted from Al Munasiq, the phone app where work permits are stored. He said he was stopped at a checkpoint on the way to the West Bank, blindfolded, hands tightly bound with zip ties, and taken first to Ofer prison, and then to an unknown second location. There, he said, “They [forced me to take] off all my clothes…and they took pictures of me.…They beat me intensely, I was naked during this, it was humiliating. The worst part was when the dogs were attacking [me]. I was blindfolded and cuffed with metal shackles, I didn’t know if the dogs were controlled by someone or just left to attack me, I was terrified.”
He was interrogated and asked to identify his home on an aerial map of Gaza and was also asked about specific people. He was then released on November 3 at the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
Another man said Israeli police in Rahat, a city in southern Israel, arrested him and other workers from Gaza after the October 7 attacks and took them to an army base in Ofakim, Israel.
[The Israeli forces] “made us undress,” he said. “[We were] completely naked. They handed us Pampers to wear and thin white overalls…. We stayed blindfolded and cuffed [with zip ties on our hands and feet] for 10 days... We kept asking why we are detained. We never got an answer, only verbal assaults and death threats.”
He said he was beaten for hours, then dragged on gravel face down and attached to a wall or fence by his cuffed hands, and then beaten again: “Every time I fell on the ground I was forced to stand up, and again more beatings and I fell on the ground. With every beating and fall the plastic zip ties on my hands became tighter and more painful.”
He was then transferred to Ofer prison where he spent another four or five days until he was released into the West Bank.
Another man who worked in Rahat said he and other workers were arrested and taken to the Rahat police station on or around October 9. While blindfolded with their hands zip-tied behind their backs, “Israeli forces constantly cursed at us…and threatened to kill us.... We were held for 12 hours. We were not allowed water or [to use] the bathroom.”
Israeli forces also transferred him to Ofer prison, where he said he was interrogated about Hamas in Gaza. On October 22, Israeli authorities released him to Palestinian Red Crescent paramedics, who took him by ambulance to the Ramallah Public Hospital, where staff treated his zip tie wounds. Human Rights Watch saw the scars on his wrists.
The Israeli military spokesperson confirmed to Haaretz two Gaza workers, one with cancer, one with diabetes, died in Israeli custody, saying, “The two died due to […]complex medical condition[s] contracted before they arrived at the facilities. An investigation is being conducted into the circumstances of their death.” Both men were arrested after October 7. One of the men Human Rights Watch interviewed said there was a cancer patient with him in Ofer who died after a few days in pain.
The Israeli human rights groups Gisha and HaMoked told Human Rights Watch that families in Gaza contacted them after October 7 when they stopped hearing from relatives with work permits in Israel. Both organizations requested permission to visit the detainees, speak to them by phone, and receive information on their judicial status, yet to no avail.
“We had no contact with the Gaza workers while they were detained,” said Nadya Daqqah, a lawyer from HaMoked. “It can’t get any more incommunicado than this.”
On October 23, six human rights organizations in Israel filed an urgent petition with Israel’s High Court, which stated Israeli authorities had refused to provide any information about where workers were being detained, under what law, and for how long.
On November 2, Gisha and HaMoked submitted a second urgent petition to Israel’s High Court stating that “the detainees were being held…without access to legal representation” and allegedly subjected to “physical violence and psychological abuse, as well as…inhumane conditions.”
On November 2, the Israeli cabinet voted to return “Gaza workers who were in Israel on the day the war broke out” to Gaza. The next day, Israeli authorities released 3,026 Palestinian workers to Gaza via the Kerem Shalom crossing. On November 13, the Court rejected the petition, given the release of workers on November 3.
The released Palestinian workers gave media interviews, describing abuses and degrading conditions in detention, including being subjected to electric shocks, urinated on, attacked by dogs, as well as held for several days without food or water. Human Rights Watch was not able to verify these accounts. Gisha interviewed two brothers who had similar accounts of being blindfolded, beaten, and held without any communication with either their families or lawyers.
On November 9, the Israeli government published an emergency regulation on the “detention and deportation of unlawful residents of [Gaza].” The regulation states that Gaza workers no longer have a legal basis for being in Israel – since Israeli authorities canceled their work permits – and will be held in custody until removal. While the regulation sets time limits on detention, it also allows for extensions based on security needs.
The situation of the thousands of workers from Gaza who fled or were released to the West Bank remains unclear. Many are living in temporary shelters provided by the Palestinian Authority and nongovernmental organizations. There are reports from late November that Israeli Defense Forces have arrested workers from Gaza who had been sheltering in private homes.
On November 10, Israel, in coordination with the Palestinian Authority, transferred another group of 982 workers from Gaza who had been sheltering in the West Bank to Gaza via the Kerem Shalom crossing.
On November 28, Israeli authorities released 300 Palestinian workers to Gaza via the Kerem Shalom crossing. According to Osnat Cohen-Lifshitz, the head of Gisha’s legal department, these workers were released from the Anatot military base.
“Israeli authorities should disclose how many workers from Gaza were in Israel on October 7, how many were detained, whether any remain in detention and the basis for their detention,” Randhawa said. “They should investigate reports of abuse in detention and ensure the humane treatment of all detainees.”
