Op-ed in PA daily claims Israel summarily executes Palestinians for no reason, tortures them to death, steals organs
Op-ed by former Director of PLO Commission of Prisoners' Affairs and former PA Minister of Prisoners' Affairs Issa Karake
Headline: "The flame of the [morgue] refrigerator and the words of the bodies"
"If the human rights institutions would listen well, if they would approach the door of the burning hot [morgue] refrigerator (referring to a Palestinian claim that the morgue refrigerators are set at high temperatures to hasten the decomposition of the bodies –Ed.), they would hear the voice of the Martyrs. Then they would understand that the crime is double, that the crime continues, that the crime is planned and deliberate, and not as the Israelis claim – that the holding of the bodies is in order to exchange and negotiate [over them] … – but rather these humanitarian punishments and actions that are being carried out only in the State of Israel are the new Israeli fascism, racism, and barbarity…
In the burning hot [morgue] refrigerator the body said: 'They shot me in the head at point-blank range. I was wounded, lying on the ground. I did not constitute a danger to the soldiers' lives, as they claim. One of them approached and shot me in the head… I saw them celebrating my death, dancing and being happy. They gave the soldier who killed me a badge of honor as a national hero. They executed me in cold blood. They extinguished my sight because I saw them. They carried me in a black bag after they searched me and confirmed my death.’ …
In the burning hot [morgue] refrigerator the body said: ‘They killed me in prison, in the interrogation room at the Russian Compound (i.e., police station)… The investigators were real animals. They refused to give me any treatment, refused the visit of a lawyer or the Red Cross. There is a decision to kill me if I do not confess. I breathed my last breaths after midnight in this narrow isolation cell.’ …
In the burning hot [morgue] refrigerator the body said: ‘I am the youngest Martyr here. I am a small 16-year-old boy, one of the residents of Jerusalem. I played with Jerusalem and its streets as my playground, and the rock in my hand is a rock of divine Jerusalem. I stood with the men and women carrying out Ribat (i.e., religious conflict over land claimed to be Islamic) against the zealous and extremist settlers who broke into the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque. The Israeli police caught me. I was a handcuffed prisoner in their hands. One of the settlers approached and shot a bullet that penetrated my heart… They summarily executed me under the cover and with the support of the occupation police. They did not make do with killing me, but rather began to strike me with their shoes, hands, and rifles. I am bleeding profusely and my body is crushed.’ …
In the burning hot [morgue] refrigerator the body said: ‘At the Israeli Abu Kabir [Forensic] Institute where they autopsy the bodies, men armed with knives and syringes gathered around me, stole organs from my body, took my cornea, skin, heart, and kidney, emptied my body, and left. I became light – they robbed my body, tortured me a thousand times, tore me to pieces in this world and the Afterlife.’"