Israel questioned at UN over torture allegations

Israel was questioned at the United Nations yesterday and today over multiple reports alleging the torture of Palestinian detainees, in particular since the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023.

Israel is undergoing its periodic review before the UN Committee against Torture.

“The committee has been deeply appalled by the description we have received, in a large number of alternative reports, of what appears to be systematic and widespread torture and ill-treatment of Palestinians, including children,” the body’s rapporteur Peter Vedel Kessing said.

“It is claimed that torture has become a deliberate and widespread tool of state policy… from arrest to interrogation to imprisonment.”

The Committee against Torture comprises 10 independent experts who monitor the implementation of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment by member countries.

Citing reports before the committee, Kessing said that since the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which sparked the war in Gaza, torture and ill-treatment has escalated, reaching “unprecedented levels” and carried out with impunity. Those reports, he said, came from various UN bodies, Israeli, Palestinian and international non-governmental organizations, and other sources.

“Many of those detained and subsequently released have reportedly been subject to torture and other ill-treatment,” said Kessing. “Severe beatings, including on the genitals; electric shocks; being forced to remain in stress positions in prolonged periods; deliberate inhuman conditions and starvation; waterboarding; and widespread sexual insults and threats of rape,” he said, giving examples.

Israel’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Daniel Meron, rejected the allegations, branding them “disinformation,” particularly, he said, on the part of the UN-mandated Commission of Inquiry, and Francesca Albanese, the UN’s independent special rapporteur on rights in the Palestinian territories, known for her strong positions against Israel and sometimes accused of antisemitism.

Meron said Israel was “committed to upholding its obligations in line with our moral values and principles, even in the face of the challenges posed by a terrorist organisation.”

Kessing said, “the fact that one of the parties to the armed conflict violates and disregards obligations under these rules cannot be used as an excuse for the other party” to do likewise.