Justice David Mintz of the Israeli High Court of Justice, in a decision from today: "torture is prohibited, apart from in very exceptional cases..."
The decision, HCJ 9018/17 Tbeish v Attorney General, is probably the most permissive as of yet in terms of accepting physical abuse as a legitimate method of interrogation in national security cases.
The High Court rejects @stoptorture_il's claim that a "necessity defense" can only be granted after criminal investigation of interrogators who have exerted physical pressure; it further rejects that such a defense requires a "particular and certain danger to human life"
Instead, the standard is flexible. As I understand it, anyone who is (1) part of a designated terrorist organization (such as Hamas); and (2) is involved in armed activity, may be subject to "special methods" if (3) no other way to obtain crucial information is available.
I cannot say I'm particularly surprised. The dynamic that led to this was more or less clear almost a decade ago, when Omer Shatz and I did work that led to this article: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…
Yet the judgement is still a very bitter read. It is as if the court is telling us that it is cute that we thought there was a firm prohibition on torture, but that we should have known: that was never the case.
If there is any future for the fight against torture in Israel-Palestine, it can only be tied to the much broader goal of civic equality between Palestinians and Jews living under direct Israeli control. In other words -
It will be a fight for eliminating the difference in procedural rights granted to defendants in courts in Israel and the West Bank; it will be led by basic demands such as allowing suspects to meet their lawyers; and full information on interrogations, including written and video
Ultimately, we will need to become much stronger in the demand to close down the military justice system in awful facilities such as "Ofer" -- this is an apartheid system that cannot be salvaged. Torture is only one of its aspects.
For Hebrew readers, here is the judgement: supremedecisions.court.gov.il/Home/Download?…
Familiar comments on the transnational influence of the targeted killing case -- will likely apply here (as they have previously done in the interrogation context too) 
