UN report concludes Israel maintains 'de facto state policy of organized torture'
Sid Shniad
UN report concludes Israel maintains 'de facto state policy of organized torture'
Sexual assault, electric shocks, sleep deprivation, and other forms of severe torture against Palestinians have become the norm in Israeli prisons
(Photo credit: Flash90)The UN Committee Against Torture has released a new report accusing Israel of employing a “de facto state policy” of torture in an “organized and widespread” manner.
The report highlights how Israel does not have any legislation criminalizing torture, adding that Israeli law protects officials from culpability.
“The committee was deeply concerned about reports indicating a de facto state policy of organized and widespread torture and ill-treatment during the reporting period, which had gravely intensified since 7 October 2023,” the UN report said.
“It also expressed its concern that a range of policies adopted by Israel in the course of its continued unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, if implemented in the manner alleged, would amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading living conditions for the Palestinian population,” it added.
Palestinian families often find out that a relative has been detained months later, amounting to “enforced disappearance,” the report went on to say.
Torture, mistreatment, and medical negligence toward Palestinian prisoners have long been the norm in the Israeli prison system. After Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took power in late 2022 and made Itamar Ben Gvir Minister of National Security, these conditions have worsened significantly.
Ben Gvir, who is in charge of Israel’s police and prison system, openly boasts about ordering the mistreatment of Palestinian prisoners – who he refers to as “terrorists.”
The UN report comes as shocking testimonies from Palestinians detained by Israel continue to emerge, highlighting a trend of rape and sexual assault against prisoners by Israeli jailers.
A Palestinian journalist recently testified that Israeli forces subjected him to rape, sexual torture, and severe abuse at the Sde Teiman detention center, leaving him with lasting psychological trauma, according to the Palestinian Center for Journalists’ Protection.
After being abducted on 18 March 2024 during an Israeli raid on Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital, while wearing his press vest, he spent 20 months in detention, including three at Sde Teiman and one at Ofer, and suffered a mental collapse for more than two months.
He reported group sexual assaults, physical and psychological torture, electric shocks, starvation, religious discrimination, sleep deprivation, and harsh interrogations, alongside inhuman detention conditions marked by overcrowding, poor hygiene, lack of food and water, and witnessing unexplained deaths in custody.
A new report by the Palestinian Prisoners’ Affairs Commission and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, citing testimonies, has also revealed that electric shocks have become a “primary” torture method in Israel’s Gilad Prison, which is a part of the Ofer detention complex.
The report revealed Palestinians in Gilad Prison are also forced to sleep on “bar-beds” – metal frames made of iron bars or barbed wire topped with thin mattresses.
Last year, footage was leaked showing Israeli soldiers at Sde Teiman taking aside a detainee who had been lying face down on the floor. The soldiers then surrounded him with riot shields to block visibility while they beat and rape him.
After the video was leaked, five reserve soldiers were briefly arrested for the abuse, prompting extremist illegal settlers to riot in their defense and storm the bases where they were being held.
According to the indictment filed against the soldiers, the detainee suffered severe injuries, including broken ribs and an internal tear in his rectum.
The high-profile investigation into the abuse caused outrage among coalition politicians, government ministers, and right-wing Jewish activists.
Top military officials were recently arrested in Israel in connection with the video’s leak.
The soldiers who raped the Palestinian prisoners have become celebrities in Israel and are regularly featured on television programs.
On 11 November, the accused soldiers were met with cheers and chants of “heroes” inside Israel’s Supreme Court.
Ben Gvir and other officials have defended the soldiers.