Morgan Welch

This is undoubtedly the most complete and authoritative report compiled on the systematic abuse and torture in Israeli prisons since Oct 7th: btselem.org/publications/202… The report is called "Welcome to Hell" and was written by B'Tselem, the main Israeli human rights organization, who spent months interviewing dozens of former Palestinian prisoners (those who survived the ordeal). The report's conclusion? Israeli prisons, "in which EVERY [Palestinian] inmate is intentionally condemned to severe, relentless pain and suffering, operate as de-facto torture camps... The abuse consistently described in the testimonies of dozens of individuals held in different facilities was so systemic, that there is no room to doubt an organized, declared policy of the Israeli prison authorities... As the testimonies reveal the new policy is applied across all prison facilities and to ALL Palestinian prisoners. Among its main tenets are unrelenting physical and psychological violence, denial of medical treatment, starvation, withholding of water, sleep depravation and confiscation of all personal belongings." They also note that "most" Palestinians are held without trials. They end their report with an "appeal to all nations and to all international institutions and bodies, including the International Criminal Court, to do everything in their power to put an immediate end to to the cruelties meted out on Palestinians by Israel's prison system, and to recognize the Israeli regime operating this system as an apartheid regime that must come to an end".