Francesca Albanese presented her latest report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva – Copyright AFP Fabrice COFFRINI<\/p>\n
The world has given Israel \u201ca licence to torture Palestinians\u201d, a UN expert said Monday, with life in the occupied territories \u201ca continuum of physical and mental suffering\u201d.<\/p>\n
Francesca Albanese, the UN\u2019s special rapporteur on the rights situation in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, said \u201ctorture has effectively become state policy\u201d in Israel.<\/p>\n
\u201cIsrael has effectively been given a licence to torture Palestinians, because most of your governments, your ministers, have allowed it,\u201d she said, as she presented her latest report to the UN Human Rights Council.<\/p>\n
Albanese has faced harsh criticism, allegations of anti-Semitism and demands for her removal, from Israel and some of its allies, over her relentless criticism and long-standing accusations of \u201cgenocide\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrancesca Albanese is not a promoter of human rights; she is an agent of chaos\u2026 and any document she produces is nothing but a politically-charged, activist rant,\u201d Israel\u2019s mission in Geneva said in a statement Monday.<\/p>\n
Albanese \u201cadvocates dangerous extremist narratives to undermine the very existence of the State of Israel\u201d, it said.<\/p>\n
Albanese\u2019s report claimed Israel was systematically torturing Palestinians on a scale \u201cthat suggests collective vengeance and destructive intent\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy report also shows that 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,\u201d she told the Human Rights Council.<\/p>\n
She said torture destroys the conditions that make life meaningful, stripping away human dignity, leaving empty shells behind.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 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,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Albanese warned that the international response would be a test of countries\u2019 collective legal and moral responsibility.<\/p>\n
\u201cDisregard 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,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Though appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, special rapporteurs are independent experts and do not speak on behalf of the United Nations itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Francesca Albanese presented her latest report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva – Copyright AFP Fabrice…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[3368,65,16411,1731,21963,19237,1700],"class_list":{"0":"post-37367","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-geneva","8":"tag-conflict","9":"tag-geneva","10":"tag-hide","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-palestinians","13":"tag-rights","14":"tag-un"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116280479052455101","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}