Alex Burrett

I practice as an Immigration Barrister with an emphasis on Public law, Refugee, Human Rights and Equality issues. Still believe in LFC #YNWA

[Fahad Ansari 🇵🇸 (Stop the Gaza genocide) @fahadansari]

Please consider supporting my legal challenge to the police’s decision to detain me under terrorism powers, seize my work phone containing confidential and privileged data, and interrogate me about Palestine Action and my clients.

https://t.co/Q9Ca0V7koS

[Alex Burrett @alexburrett]

Not an easy read, but the research here is compelling https://t.co/beTJPKsj7k via @volkskrant

[Alon Mizrahi @alon_mizrahi]

A terrible read here, but an important truth. I don't think you ever read anything like it.

The following text was not written by me. It is a machine translation (with a few light edits for understandability) of a piece published in Haaretz
https://t.co/xkfyIEIvkG

It was written by an IDF reservist and published anonymously. It details some of the horrors of the Israeli death/torture camp Sde Teiman, and the active role Israeli media plays in concealing them.

The immediate context is the airing of an investigative report about Sde Teiman as part of a fairly well-known Israeli TV program ("Real Time").
-
'I was nervous this week, ahead of the airing of a "Real Time" investigation on Sde Teiman, where I was drafted as a reservist during the war. I wondered what would happen when the entire country heard about the systematic abuse of detainees there, with the knowledge of all the senior officials. This is also the reason I interviewed for the program: I felt that all of Israeli society must know about it. But that's not what was on the broadcast.
In the end, I wasn't in it either.

"True Time" did not present the public with the truth, only with parts of the truth. A filtered truth, which is perhaps even worse than a lie. The investigation focused mainly on the question of whether "Power 100" did indeed push something up the detainee's buttocks and the way in which the event turned, with the help of cynical politicians, into a near-armed rebellion against the rule of law.

I understand why they chose to focus on this event, which was a turning point in the military's perception of ,. Voices like those of the interviewees who said that "our soldiers should not be punished" are the basis for the dissolution of a society, which, without preserving humanity will be emptied of morality, and without upholding the law, will turn into chaos. But the discussion that took place on the program was shameful, because while it focused on the specific case, it deliberately – and knowingly – ignored the context in which it occurred. The overall morbid picture that is Sde Teiman.

Sde Teiman, as everyone who was there knows, is a sadistic torture camp. Dozens of prisoners entered it alive and left in bags. There are testimonies from guards, doctors, and prisoners. None of this was mentioned in the investigation. As if all the hell we created there was summed up in the question of whether or not an object was inserted into a prisoner's buttocks. But I saw this hell.

I saw a detainee die before my eyes – he was sitting next to other detainees, with a flannelette over his face, and at some point we just realized that the man was dead. I saw the commander of the facility gather everyone and try to calm down the daily routine of abuse, the psychological use of force, and the barbaric conditions in which the prisoners are held. I heard him explain that “they tell me from above that they call Sde Teiman a cemetery,” and that “this needs to stop.”

I saw people enter this facility with war injuries, then starve for weeks without any medical care. I saw them peeing and shitting on themselves because they weren't allowed to go to the bathroom. I remember the smell to this day. Many of them weren't even Hamas terrorists, just Gazans who were detained pending interrogation and released to their homes after severe abuse, when it turned out they were innocent. It's no wonder people died there. The wonder is that people survived.

The "Real Time" investigators were shocked when I told them this, but there was no mention of it in the program. What was it? The person in charge of the investigation at the MPI is dumbfounded that "until that moment" - that is, until the report of one prisoner, wounded and bleeding - "we had no warning signs." Really? After all, there were reports and testimonies of abuse, inhumane conditions, and poor medical care. It was enough to listen, or just count the detainees who entered alive and did not make it out. You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes [to fill in the blanks, A.M.].

Everyone who was in Sde Teiman knows. They know about torture, about surgeries without anesthesia, about shocking sanitary conditions. But none of this was broadcast. As if an army torture camp, which exists with the knowledge of all the senior commanders, is less interesting than a story about one specific abuse, which can be refuted or verified. This is an entire program about Sde Teiman, without talking about the Sde Teiman.

What happened in Sde Teiman is no secret, but most Israelis know nothing about it, even now, because the Israeli media has almost completely ignored it. That's also why I chose to be interviewed. Because Palestinians continue to come out of our detention facilities in droves, and most people around me haven't heard about it.

But more than revealing to the public the truth about the reality in Sde Teiman, the broadcast made it clear how it might continue.

The reason is that journalists in Israel, who are well aware of the facts, prefer to hide them and instead sell a specific, isolated story about 'bad seeds'. Sde Teiman is not this one incident, but a clear story of policy, and it is carried out and maintained with the kind assistance of the Israeli media.'

[Riverway to the Sea @riverwaylaw]

Daniel Grütters speaks on Islam21c’s podcast about the dangers of mass criminalisation, highlighting how designating the Islamic Resistance Movement in its entirety as a terrorist organisation risks labelling ordinary civil servants in Gaza like teachers, doctors, and street cleaners as terrorists.

Daniel explains how this approach ignores the context of Hamas’s election by the people in Gaza and civil governance, raising serious concerns about its disproportionate impact on over two million people.

[Farrukh @implausibleblog]

Gary Lineker, "What's going on there (Gaza), the mass murder of thousands of children is something we should have an opinion on"

Amol Rajan, "The BBC needs to be impartial about it"

Gary Linekar, "Why? It needs to be factual"

Amol Rajan, "It needs to be impartial about conflict doesn't it?"

Gary Linekar, "It wasn't impartial about Ukraine and Russia"

Amol Rajan, "The Israeli position is that what's happening in Gaza is a response to the slaughter and capture of innocent Israelis on October 7th"

Gary Linekar, "Which was truly awful"

Amol Rajan, "The context needs to be there"

Gary Linekar, "That's not the full context, it started way before October 7th, doesn't it"

[Zillur Rahman @ZillRah7]

🧵 The fact that @fahadansari, @FranckMagennis & Daniel Grütters are being subjected to threats for doing their job, is unacceptable. The fair administration of justice is a fundamental public interest that can only be safeguarded when lawyers are free to act professionally [1/6]

[Alex Burrett @alexburrett]

Bonkers restriction, many spouses highly skilled and Its not as if Malaysia has an abundance of such manpower https://t.co/MMJIN8dna5

[Alex Burrett @alexburrett]

UNHCR commend Turkmenistan on resolving all known cases of statelessness https://t.co/i1s0F8xhCm

[Alex Burrett @alexburrett]

huge delays by #UNHCR in granting refugee status to Myanmar nationals in Malaysia with many waiting for over a decade for status https://t.co/lwlulr3Hdg

[Alex Burrett @alexburrett]

Government finally drops opposition to case of 64 people in Diego Garcia, including 16 children, who fled persecution in Sri Lanka being grated entry to UK
https://t.co/kRQvCLjPqy

[Alex Burrett @alexburrett]

The entire Palestinian population in north Gaza is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine and violence https://t.co/hU6DPLavOZ

[Alex Burrett @alexburrett]

come on Middlesex FA you can do better that this https://t.co/590EESGd33

[Alex Burrett @alexburrett]

Good to know that racism no longer tolerated by Judges in the immigration tribunal but sad to see that the tribunal has lost the benefit of the highly experienced and knowledgable Francis Fitzgibbon KC https://t.co/fVyY7Clwvi

[Middle East Eye @MiddleEastEye]

Doctor Victoria Rose, a British consultant plastic surgeon who worked in Gaza, described the frustration and disbelief felt by Palestinian doctors over how the “world can just stand and watch” as children in Gaza are bombed and the suffering continues.

[Zoe Gardner @ZoeJardiniere]

Here the UK Supreme Court Judge explains refugee rights are protected by more than the ECHR.

Leave what next? The Convention Against Torture?

Like what Brexit was meant to fix but broke instead.
How many more of our rights will we throw away in the name of punishing migrants?

[Alex Burrett @alexburrett]

was a close run thing showing power of sport washing https://t.co/QDoWvbsmDR

[Alex Burrett @alexburrett]

Thai Court Grants Request for Extradition of Montagnard Activist to Vietnam @Diplomat_APAC https://t.co/QQ1GYo5SBo

[Alex Burrett @alexburrett]

Chin Refugees Protest Outside UNHCR Malaysia Office. Startling to think that out of 190,000 Lum applicants 160,000 are from Myanmar! https://t.co/Zu73vt3gQT

[Alex Burrett @alexburrett]

Thailand becomes first country in SE Asia to recognise same sex unions https://t.co/JAZhWWao5g