Today, after eight years, we can only offer our salutation and support for the victims of torture and their families around the world, especially the thousands of Palestinian torture victims who faced and continue to face their tormentors at jails and detention camps.

The Palestinian people have lived under many forms of obnoxious occupation; the most recent being the occupation of Palestine at the hands of the Israeli colonial forces, which have worked over years of violence and occupation on destroying everything they could reach until this very day.

The occupation has systematically exercised violence that aims to ruin the political and economic fabric of the Palestinian society, and to destroy the mental and social structure of Palestinians – individuals as well as the society.

The Israeli occupation's oppressive measures have taken many shapes and forms to destroy the social and political contiguity; the most violent of which was the use of psychological and physical torture against the Palestinian people – a measure that has left serious mental and social impacts on those tortured.

Despite that torture is internationally prohibited and considered a crime punishable by law in accordance with International Humanitarian Law, as well as an outrageous violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Israeli occupation state has renounced these agreements and slammed them all against the wall, by legalizing the use of physical torture against Palestinians.

And as the Day in Support of Torture Victims comes up, 8200 Palestinian man, woman and children are still imprisoned in the different Israeli jails and detention camps; subjected to all forms of torture and deprivation, which affects them as well as their families in all aspects.

This day also coincides with what the Iraqi people is subjected to at the hands of the American occupation forces, and abuses reported on news channels across the world at Abu Ghraib Prison, which clearly demonstrate the horrible and broad use of torture by governments pretending to defend democracy and human rights.

At the same context, a democratic civil society cannot be discussed or raised while torture is still being uses against many individuals or nations around the world. Torture is a destructive force for any democratic movement, as it constitutes an obvious infringement of human rights and paralyzes the power of the individual and the community, sinking both into a swamp of fear and horror and gagging free will. Torture doesn't only affect the victims, it affects the entire surrounding.

So, as civil society institutions and official organizations, we demand to keep up implementing the anti-torture law, to coordinate efforts with the branches of the Palestinian National Authority to prevent torture, and to combat it at all levels, as well as prosecuting those who commit it.

In addition, the entire international community is also demanded to intensify efforts and show more support for the victims of torture around the world, especially in Palestine and Iraq, and to advocate the renunciation of torture and pressuring the Israeli occupation to cease its serious violations against the Palestinian prisoners and to abide by international code in dealing with them, mainly the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention.

Together, we can combat and abolish torture!

All national efforts should ally in support of victims of torture in the Palestinian society!

Association of Prisoners and Ex-Detainees (Hossam)