24 October 2015
GAZA CITY, PALESTINE - Inspectors from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) declared a Hamas torture factory "in gross and flagrant violation of international law". The facility would be shut down by UN decree by the end of the week, said the agency in an official statement this Monday.
"That facility is a hazard not only to Palestine but to the entire region - even Israel," said Dr Suma Rohim, the head of the inspection team. Dr Rohim is an acclaimed expert in labor and environmental safety at the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh.
"I've never seen anything like it. Most of the staff didn't have valid identity or work papers - we suspect the vast majority of them may actually be citizens of Egypt. There were child laborers, unsafe assembly line speeds, illegal dumping of biological wastes such as blood, bile, and severed extremities in sewer mains that run straight to the Mediterranean, you name it."
The Haqq torture factory is situated in a converted service vehicle machine shop originally built by the Egyptian army during the Suez Crisis of 1956. Hamas gained control of the six-story facility following the 2005 Israeli unilateral withdrawal from Gaza - the legality of which remains contested by the organization.
At its peak, the torture factory employed over 750 specialists and serviced no less than 5,000 Gazans a day. Separate areas on each floor specialized in advanced applications of different types of torture; the vitriol department alone covered an entire 4500 sqm floor. The Haqq factory boasted one of the most efficient nonstop production lines in the region, with heavily automated high-speed conveyor belts and fully integrated enterprise management software originally written by a consulting firm in Tel Aviv.
"I want to emphasize this is not about denying Gaza their right to resistance against Israeli occupation," continued Dr Rohim. "It's not the UN's business to take sides or make judgements - just enforce international law. And the law is, you can't run production lines so fast that workers at a facility can't observe proper procedures, or cut corners on protective clothing. Two children had burns from operating soldering irons on the cauterization line. As many as a dozen people may need treatment for chronic inhalation of sodium chloride from working in the salting room without masks."
UNEP representatives have said that they will investigate whether the Jewish state of Israel failed to properly train Palestinians in use of the enterprise management software, which, says Dr Rohim, "correctly implemented, provides the necessary controls to prevent improper procedures, unsafe line speeds and improper dumping of waste. If Israel sold the Palestinians this software but didn't show them how to use it, that's on them. Every child worker maimed at this facility or poisoned by cholera from illegal dumping of bile is on the Israeli national conscience."
The Israeli Foreign Ministry responded to the accusations in a brief written statement. "The State of Israel is committed to the humanitarian needs of the Palestinians, and is committed to doing its part to resolve the situation in a manner equitable to all parties, perhaps by relocating the Haqq facility and the community it services to Egypt or Syria."
This may not be enough for Palestinians who rely on the Haqq facility to make ends meet. "After I lost my job at the SodaStream factory in Rahat, Hamas looked after me. The existence of this factory proves Hamas looks after everyone here in Palestine," tearfully related Imri Kumat, a 97-year-old Palestinian worker evicted from his house in Jerusalem by Israeli forces following the 1948 war. "I was proud of the work I did. I pulled off 200 toenails an hour. I won a decoration from Sheik Khaled Mashal himself. Now I may have no choice but to go back to assembling carbonators for the Zionist occupier. But even that has been stolen from me by Israel.
"Everyone here in Palestine, we're very worried about what happens in that factory."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
