What Can Feminist and Queer Theory Teach Us About Torture?

In its 1999 landmark Public Committee against Torture in Israel (PCATI) case, the Israeli Supreme Court deemed the use of violent means of interrogations illegal in Israel. Since then, the State of Israel does not torture. Or, more accurately, the State of Israel has been systematically deploying interrogation methods which would qualify as torture and ill treatment according to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Degrading of Inhuman Treatment or Punishment (CAT), while circumventing their labelling as torture. While the PCATI ruling, which was hailed at the time as a ground-breaking human rights victory, failed to prevent the use of torture by Israel Security Agency (ISA) in its treatment of Palestinian detainees, it has, nevertheless, transformed ISA’s interrogation methods. As defined by one of PCATI’s human rights defenders, and without implying equivalence, this transformation is structurally analogous to the difference between rape and sexual harassment. Much like sexual harassment, which lacks a coerced penetration clearly qualifying as rape, ISA’s interrogation techniques similarly lack a ‘smoking gun’ event which can then be categorically classified as torture. Rather, its interrogations are predicated instead on subjecting the interrogees to intimidation, psychological pain and physical distress, which can only be identified as torture when considered in their totality and from the perspective of their victims. Aligned with critical theory more generally, feminist and queer theory rarely put the investigation of torture at the focus of their analysis. Feminist and queer scholarly literature which does pertain to the use of torture primarily explore the involvement of women, either as victims or as perpetrators, the gendering of both torturers and interrogees, and the use of sexual violence in torture. This paper departs from such inquiries. Taking the reconfiguration of Israel’s interrogation techniques to be more akin with sexual harassment than with rape as its point of departure, this paper resorts to feminist and queer theories both as a mode of investigation, and as an analytic framework. It draws on the vast literature on sexual harassment to pick apart the bureaucratic structures and administrative procedures which are deployed by Israel to fend off torture allegations.