ABSTRACT
In 1991, B’Tselem – the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories – published a report on the interrogation of Palestinians by the Israeli General Security Service (GSS). 1 The report, written by Stan Cohen and Daphna Golan-Agnon, should serve as a model for an NGO report on human rights violations. On the basis of careful and thorough research that included in-depth interviews with 41 former detainees, Cohen and Golan-Agnon were able to establish patterns in interrogation of detainees that revealed systematic use of force and other methods of physical and psychological pressure. They also revealed that in most cases in which these methods of interrogation were used the detainee was eventually released without charge, or was charged with minor offences. While Cohen and Golan-Agnon did not mince their words and stated plainly that the methods of interrogation being used, particularly when used together, amounted to torture, they were also careful not to overstate the case. 2
