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The global community has effectively granted Israel a “license to torture Palestinians,” a United Nations expert stated on Monday, describing life in the occupied territories as a persistent cycle of both physical and mental anguish.
Francesca Albanese, serving as the UN’s special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, asserted that torture has essentially become an official policy of the Israeli state.
“Israel has been effectively granted permission to inflict torture on Palestinians, as many of your governments and ministers have permitted this to happen,” Albanese declared while presenting her latest findings to the UN Human Rights Council.
It’s important to note that special rapporteurs, while appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, operate as independent experts and do not officially represent the stance of the United Nations.
Albanese has encountered significant backlash, including allegations of antisemitism and calls for her removal from her position. This criticism stems from Israel and some of its allies, who are reacting to her continuous criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza, as well as her previous accusations of “genocide.”
“Francesca Albanese is not a promoter of human rights; she is an agent of chaos… and any document she produces is nothing but a politically-charged, activist rant,” Israel’s mission in Geneva said in a statement Monday.
Albanese “advocates dangerous extremist narratives to undermine the very existence of the State of Israel”, it said.
A United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry, which does not speak on behalf of the UN as a whole and has been sharply criticised by Israel, concluded in September that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
Israel is separately defending a genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which has ordered provisional measures but has yet to issue a final ruling.
Israel has repeatedly denied committing genocide in Gaza, saying it has the right to defend itself.
It “categorically” rejected the commission’s findings as “distorted and false”, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described the ICJ case as “outrageous” and said Israel has an “unwavering commitment” to international law.
Albanese’s report claimed Israel was systematically torturing Palestinians on a scale “that suggests collective vengeance and destructive intent”.
“Torture extends far beyond prison walls, in what can only be described as a torturous environment imposed by Israel across the entire occupied Palestinian territory,” she told the Human Rights Council.
She said torture destroys the conditions that make life meaningful, stripping away human dignity, leaving empty shells behind.
“The testimonies that I and many others are documenting are not only tragic stories of suffering; they are evidence of atrocity crimes targeting the totality of the Palestinian people, across the totality of the occupied land, through a totality of criminal conduct,” she said.
Albanese warned that the international response would be a test of countries’ collective legal and moral responsibility.
“Disregard for international law will not stop in Palestine. It is already unfolding from Lebanon to Iran, across the Gulf countries, and in Venezuela. And if left unchecked, it will spread far beyond,” she said.
Palestinian ambassador Ibrahim Khraishi told the council that the practices documented in Albanese’s report “are not just individual cases of torture but amount to collective and systematic torture.
“We renew our call to the international community to take urgent action to guarantee accountability, to stop impunity,” he said.
Pakistan, speaking for the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, added: “Impunity has been entrenched and safeguards eroded.
“These crimes are being committed with the intent to inflict individual and collective suffering on the people under occupation in order to erase them from their own native land.”
Venezuela asked: “Where is the international community? It is painful and despicable to see nations remain silent and even worse, finance this massacre.”
South Africa’s representative said: “Inaction in the face of Israel’s depravity is not neutrality: it is complicity.”