WASHINGTON, 14 June — The Foreign Service Journal’s June issue is publishing an article that condemns Israel’s use of torture against American citizens of Palestinian descent and criticizes the State Department’s 30-year “special relationship” with Israel.

The article describes a number of cases of torture against American citizens. It notes that Israeli and international human rights organizations have long documented Israeli interrogation that “routinely includes torture,” and adds that the Department of State Human Rights report has detailed these abuses for years.

The article is written and documented by Jerri Bird, president of Partners for Peace. The wife of retired Foreign Service officer Eugene Bird, she lived in Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, Egypt and Saudi Arabia and traveled throughout the Arab world.

Mrs. Bird first learned of the detention and torture of American citizens in 1998, when she heard of the case of Hashem Mufleh, an 18-year-old, a third-generation American born in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Mufleh attended high school in the West Bank village where his grandmother lives, but when he planned to return to the United States to attend university, he was detained at the Ben Gurion Airport, together with his mother and brother.

According to Mrs. Bird, Mufleh was “severely tortured” and jailed for more than a year before he was expelled from Israel. Her article describes a number of such cases of torture of American citizens.

In September 2000, CNN produced a 15-minute documentary about the experience of Anwar Mohamed, another Palestinian American who was also detained and tortured by the Israelis. It was aired worldwide. As a result, other cases were soon referred to Mrs. Bird, who to date has documented 13 such arrests, two of whom remain in prison.

The Foreign Service Journal is a magazine that focuses on foreign affairs. Published since 1924, the journal is the only magazine written specifically for members of the US Foreign Service. The Journal has a circulation of 13,000, including active and retired diplomats, congressmen and other foreign affairs professionals as its subscribers.

Partners for Peace is a Washington, D.C.-based NGO that focuses on educating people about the issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The article will soon be available online in the June Foreign Service Journal at: www.afsa.org/fsj/current.html or at www.partnersforpeace.org.