Sample Letter to the Editor about torture

Sample Letter to the Editor

As rabbis, we deplore the cruel and degrading treatment of detainees that has precipitated over 40 suicide attempts, an ongoing hunger strike and now three coordinated suicides in Guantanamo.

Detainees at Guantanamo are being held in subhuman conditions and interrogated with techniques crafted to shatter their very personhood. They can anticipate no due process or end to their misery. It is a grim day when the only avenue of protest against our government’s policies is suicide.

We view ourselves as religiously obligated to protect human life and dignity and prevent unnecessary harm and debasement to God’s creatures. The Israeli Supreme Court, in its categorical prohibition of torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, extends these tenets of Jewish teaching to the interrogation and detention of terror suspects.
Without due process, we cannot know whether individual detainees at Guantanamo are affiliates of terror networks or unfortunates rounded up “by mistake.” We do know that they are human beings created in the image of God.

We call on our government to live up to American, international, and Jewish law. The question isn’t whether or not to close Guantanamo. It is how we can return our country to the shared norms of humanity.