UN Rapporteur Warns Israel Has Been Given a ‘Licence to Torture Palestinians’

Geneva – The United Nations’ special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories has issued a scathing warning that the international community’s inaction has effectively granted Israel a “licence to torture Palestinians,” enabling what she describes as a state-sanctioned system of organized humiliation and collective punishment.

Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, presented her latest report, titled “Torture and Genocide,” to the UN Human Rights Council on Monday. In it, she argues that torture has moved from the shadows to become an official instrument of state policy.

“Israel has effectively been given a licence to torture Palestinians, because most governments and ministers have allowed it,” Albanese stated, condemning the international community’s failure to hold Israel accountable.

Her report asserts that the scope of torture extends far beyond physical abuse in detention centers. “What once operated in the shadows is now practiced openly — a regime of organised humiliation, pain, and degradation, sanctioned at the highest political levels,” Albanese wrote.

According to the report, this regime is sustained through a combination of tactics that together constitute a system of collective punishment. “Torture is not confined to cells and interrogation rooms,” the report states. “Through the cumulative impact of mass displacement, siege, denial of aid and food, unrestrained military and settler violence, and pervasive surveillance and terror, the occupied Palestinian territory has become a space of collective punishment.”

Albanese further argued that the systematic destruction of living conditions in Gaza has transformed genocidal violence into a form of collective torture, inflicting long-term physical and psychological trauma on the population.

The report cites stark casualty figures to underscore the scale of the ongoing military campaign. According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, Israeli attacks on the enclave have killed at least 72,263 people and injured 171,944 others since October 7, 2023. In the occupied West Bank, the report notes that Israeli authorities have arrested more than 18,500 Palestinians since October 2023, including at least 1,500 children as of February.

Israel Rejects Findings, Accuses Rapporteur of Antisemitism

Israel’s mission to the United Nations swiftly rejected Albanese’s findings, launching a personal attack on the rapporteur. In a statement, the mission denounced her as an “agent of chaos” and accused her of abusing her UN platform.

“Albanese abuses her UN platform to engage in virulent antisemitism, including promoting narratives that constitute Holocaust distortion and trivialisation,” the statement read. It further alleged that she “routinely makes statements supporting terrorist organisations and advances dangerous extremist narratives that undermine the very existence of the State of Israel.”

Albanese, a long-time critic of Israeli policy whose mandate has been repeatedly challenged by Israel and its allies, has previously dismissed such accusations as attempts to silence legitimate human rights oversight.

A Call to Uphold International Law

Concluding her presentation, Albanese issued an urgent appeal to UN member states to move beyond condemnation and take concrete action to “prevent and punish” acts of torture and genocide, insisting that upholding international law is non-negotiable.

She linked the practices outlined in her report to the broader context of the conflict, stating that “the increasing use of such practices as part of Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people makes this violation all the more grave and indefensible,” according to a UN press release.

Albanese concluded with a stark warning about the erosion of the global legal order, cautioning that continued international inaction would have far-reaching consequences. “If such acts are tolerated when inflicted on Palestinians, the law itself will be stripped of meaning,” she said.

UN Expert Alleges Israel Is Systematically Torturing Palestinians in Custody

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