The extremist occupation minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, submitted a proposal to the occupation prison authorities to build a new prison for Palestinian detainees surrounded by crocodiles.
Hebrew Channel 13 reported that the proposal was presented by Ben Gvir during an evaluation meeting conducted by the Prison Service.
According to the channel, the prison, under Ben Gvir’s proposal, would be built in the Hamat Gader area in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights. Crocodiles would be specially brought to the site, and a fenced enclosure would be constructed to house them in order to prevent prisoners from escaping.
The channel confirmed that Ben Gvir’s proposal was met with ridicule by a number of police officers. However, the Prison Service has begun studying the feasibility of establishing such a prison.
In this context, the Hebrew website Walla reported on 8 December of this year an unprecedented rise in the martyrdom of Palestinian detainees inside prisons since Ben Gvir assumed office.
Ben Gvir boasts of the brutal measures he has taken since taking up his position and of tightening conditions for detainees, amid a growing escalation of crimes against them and the denial of their rights.
Among these brutal measures are the banning of visits, the reduction of food and bathing opportunities in prison, and forcing detainees to sleep on iron beds without covers, according to Palestinian human rights organisations.
It is worth noting that Ben Gvir and his party, Otzma Yehudit, support a bill to execute Palestinian detainees, which the Knesset approved at first reading last November.
Ben Gvir’s ideas and the methods he employs to torture Palestinian detainees resemble the practices used by the Nazis in their prisons during the Second World War, in which Jews were among those subjected to torture, along with Roma communities and other groups considered enemies of Germany.
A review of Nazi torture methods shows that Ben Gvir and the occupation have replicated this brutality with precision. What follows is an overview of aspects of what took place in some of the most prominent Nazi prisons.
Although the Auschwitz camp was one of the most important Nazi camps and became known for what were described as gas chambers, torture was not limited to that. It extended to other brutal methods that are being practised against Palestinians today.
Detainees in Auschwitz were exposed to extreme cold, deprived of food and water for long periods, or given extremely small quantities, as is the case today with Palestinian detainees in all occupation prisons.
As for the Nazi Dachau camp, it was a model of torture and abuse of detainees. Prisoners there were exposed to cold air currents for long hours, similar to what Palestinian detainees have revealed about occupation forces operating air conditioning units at the lowest temperatures during harsh winter conditions to destroy their bodies.
According to testimonies from Dachau prison, severe beatings were carried out systematically inside the camp. Prisoners were gathered in a large yard or beaten during headcounts, with guards inflicting brutal beatings and torture that led to the deaths of many.
Before the extremist occupation minister Ben Gvir assumed responsibility for the prison system, beatings and abuse were already practised in occupation prisons. However, they intensified significantly after his arrival and his pledge to turn the lives of detainees into hell.
Among the torture methods in Dachau was the denial of medical care and medication, leaving skin diseases and other illnesses to ravage prisoners’ bodies, in addition to deprivation of food and the provision of undrinkable water. This is also practised today against Palestinian detainees, who lose tens of kilograms of weight within a short period inside occupation prisons.
The prisons of the Negev, Ofer, Ashkelon, Gilboa, and Sde Teiman resemble the Nazi concentration camp of Buchenwald, which was considered a centre for slow killing within the Nazi prison system.
In Buchenwald, prisoners were subjected to severe beatings with sticks and wires, and police dogs were unleashed on them, leading to the deaths of many.
The camp witnessed widespread outbreaks of skin diseases and the rotting of bodies due to deprivation of hygiene and medical care, which killed many. Psychological and physical torture methods were calculated and systematic, and experiments were conducted on prisoners to study the effects of these methods on them.
