From the Liveblog of
Monday, July 10, 2023
UN Palestinian rights official: Israel ‘challenging the very foundations of international legal order’
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleLazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter
The lawyer tasked with investigating Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians presents a scathing report accusing the Jewish state of collectively imprisoning the Palestinians, sexually abusing Palestinian women and “challenging the very foundations of the international legal order.”
In her “Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967,” Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese calls on UN member states to prosecute Israeli officials under universal jurisdiction, and calls on Palestinian Authority security forces to suspend cooperation with Israel “that may lead to violating fundamental rights and freedoms under international law.”
“A 10,700-word report cannot capture the scale and extent of the arbitrary deprivation of liberty in the occupied Palestinian territory,” she writes. “Nor can it convey the suffering of millions of Palestinians who have, directly or indirectly, been affected.”
Albanese accuses Israel of torture, mistreating Palestinians’ corpses, coercing gay Palestinians to provide information, and “invasive strip searches, sexual abuse and threats” toward women.
She also denounces Palestinian self-rule, saying it “has added a layer of repression to Palestinian life under occupation.”
“The security coordination between the Palestinian Authority and Israel has pioneered a direct connection between Palestinian and Israeli detention apparatuses,” she writes.
“Arbitrary arrests and detention carried out by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and the de facto authorities in the Gaza Strip have contributed to stifling Palestinians’ rights and freedoms,” she continues, not naming the Hamas terror organization throughout her report.
She accuses Israel of “settler-colonial apartheid” and refers to Israeli communities past the Green Line as “colonies.”
The Italian lawyer blasts Israel’s Supreme Court for approving its policies in the West Bank and Gaza.
Israel did not allow her to enter Palestinian areas for her report. In June, the US, on behalf of 27 countries, condemned the open-ended nature of the UN investigation Albanese heads.
The Times of Israel Community.