Most of the international community seems to have given “license to torture them”, its special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, complained yesterday Monday in Geneva, Switzerland.
Life in the occupied Palestinian territories has turned into a “perpetual cycle of mental and physical suffering” and “torture has become de facto state policy” of Israel, Ms. Albanese stressed.
“Israel has effectively been given permission to torture Palestinians, as most of your governments, your ministers, have allowed it,” she insisted during a presentation of her most recent report to the UN human rights council.
In her report, the specialist underlines that the Israeli authorities systematically torture Palestinians on a scale that suggests “collective revenge” with a “destructive” purpose.
“My report also shows that torture extends far beyond prison walls, in that it can only be described as an environment of torture imposed by Israel throughout the occupied Palestinian territories,” Ms Albanese argued at the human rights council.
“Horrible crimes against the Palestinian people”
“The testimonies that we, myself and many others, have collected are not just tragic accounts of suffering: they are evidence of horrific crimes targeting the entire Palestinian people, throughout the occupied territories,” she added.
For Francesca Albanese, the international community’s reaction to this policy is a test of her legal and moral responsibility. “The disregard for international law will not stop in Palestine.
It is already manifesting itself from Lebanon to Iran, the Gulf countries and Venezuela. If nothing is done, it will spread even further,” he warned.
Albanese is the target of Israeli criticism
Ms. Albanese has been the target of fierce criticism, accusations of anti-Semitism and demands that she be removed from her position by the Israeli government and its allies over her frequent accusations of Israel’s “genocide” against Palestinians.
“Francesca Albanese is not a defender of human rights; she is an agent of chaos (…) and every document she writes is nothing more than politically charged, activist delusion,” countered the Israeli diplomatic mission to the United Nations services in Geneva.
Ms. Albanese “is spreading dangerous extremist discourse with the aim of undermining the very existence of the state of Israel,” he added.
Sources: APE-MPE, AFP, ertnews.gr
