Israel to promote pro-abuse colonel

Tue Aug 16, 2011

The Israeli military plans to promote a colonel that has defended abusive measures against Palestinian detainees to the head commander of the infantry and paratrooper corps.

Colonel Itai Virov is to also become a brigadier-general as part of the promotion, Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reported on Tuesday.

Testifying at the 2009 trial of an Israeli lieutenant, who was convicted of assaulting Palestinians, Virov proclaimed that "a slap, sometimes a blow to the neck or chest, or sometimes choking to calm down [a suspect], is reasonable."

Under certain situations, he testified, "a blow…is an integral part of carrying out an assignment."

Nearly 9,000 Palestinians are held in detention by the Tel Aviv regime. Their relatives have for long been calling on human rights organizations and groups to intervene in efforts to secure the release of their loved ones -- many of whom have been incarcerated without charge, trial or sentencing.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Detainees, nearly 200 Palestinian inmates have so far died in Israeli confinement, either due to medical negligence or under torture.

Haim Erlich, director general of Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights group, said the decision to promote 'someone who justified the beating-up of innocent civilians,' showed that the military “has not come to terms with the importance of attitudes displayed toward a civilian Palestinian population."

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail/194143.html.