Israel’s “De Facto Policy of Torture”: The UN Report Every Government Is Ignoring
The UN's Committee Against Torture’s investigation reveals widespread, organized torture of Palestinians. Defending Israel now means defending documented crimes against humanity and genocide.
The United Nations Committee against Torture has recently released its official findings on Israel and the conclusion is staggering: Israel is operating a “de facto State policy” of organized torture. This is not rhetoric. This is the determination of the UN body responsible for investigating torture worldwide.
As a matter of public service and because these findings expose patterns of abuse that the world’s most powerful governments continue to ignore, deny, or justify, I’ve broken down the Committee’s conclusions into a clear, digestible format. Instead of a dense narrative, this summary uses bullet points so you can quickly understand the scale of what the UN documented. Save it for later, and share it with anyone who still doubts the reality of Israel’s genocidal apartheid system.
As you read through these war crimes and crimes against humanity, please keep in mind that according to the UN, over 85% of the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons are being held without even being charged with a crime.
Below are the UN’s Committee Against Torture Findings on Israel:
Committee condemned the attack on October 7th, 2023, however they highlighted Israel’s disproportionate response to these attacks which has “resulted in the massive loss of life and deep suffering of the Palestinian people”
Committee is “deeply troubled at reports indicating a de facto State policy of organized and widespread torture and ill-treatment that has gravely intensified since 7 October 2023, and amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity, and forms part of the actus reus of genocide”
Committee expressed “its deep concern over allegations of repeated severe beatings, dog attacks, electrocution, waterboarding, use of prolonged stress positions, sexual violence, threats against detainees and their family members, insults to personal dignity and humiliation such as being made to act like animals or being urinated on, systematic denial of medical care, excessive use of restraints, in some cases resulting in amputation, the performance of surgeries without anesthetic, exposure to extreme cold or heat, including boiling water, denial of adequate nutrition and water, deprivation of clothing, sleep and access to hygiene facilities and products, including feminine hygiene products, deprivation of light or darkness, use of loud music and noises, denial of the right to freely practice ones religion, and the forcible use of hallucinogenic medication, in a discriminatory manner, against Palestinians, and for purposes including the extraction of information or confessions and as a means of exacting punishment, including collective punishment”
There are widespread allegations of “sexual abuse of Palestinian detainees, both men and women, amounting to torture and ill-treatment, including allegations of rape, attempted rape, molestation, sexualized forms of torture, beatings administered while detainees were naked specifically targeting their genitals, electrocution of the genitals and anus, the use of repeated, unnecessary, degrading strip searches, prolonged forced nudity, including in front of members of the opposite sex, with the aim of degrading and humiliating victims in front of both soldiers and other detainees, the forcible removal of women’s veils, sexual harassment, the use of sexual slurs, threats of rape, production of sexually humiliating videos, and various other forms of physical and sexual violence. No charges have been lodged against Israeli security officials to date for such acts”
Autopsies of “some of the bodies of detainees who had died indicated signs of torture and ill-treatment, including denial of medical care and extreme malnutrition, and no state officials have been held responsible or accountable for such deaths”
Since October 2023, Israel has denied the Red Cross access to Palestinians in custody, which is in violation of international humanitarian law
Committee is gravely concerned by reports of “severe restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, resulting in emergency and catastrophic food insecurity, the indiscriminate targeting and destruction of civilians and civilian infrastructure in both the West Bank and Gaza resulting in forced displacement, the use of collective punishment against the civilian population, and the implementation of a comprehensive system of movement restrictions on civilians, including flying security checks and checkpoints, at which civilians are allegedly frequently subjected to degrading treatment and physical violence”
Committed noted “systemic discrimination based on, race, religion or ethnic origin, and that Israel’s legislation and measures impose and serve to maintain a near-complete separation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem between the settler and Palestinian communities, violating the prohibition of racial segregation and apartheid”
Human rights defenders and journalists are being detained, along with allegations of the deliberate targeting of journalists in Gaza, in violation of international humanitarian law
Israel has no specific crime called “torture” in its domestic law and has not criminalized torture as defined under international law (UNCAT, Article 1). The UN Convention against Torture requires countries to define torture in law in a specific, strict way. Israel has not done this.
Committee expressed concern over reports indicating that Palestinians do not receive all “fundamental legal safeguards”, such as “access to legal counsel, communication with family members, and presentation before a judge”
Committee expressed concern that “medical examinations upon deprivation of liberty are frequently cursory and that detainees have allegedly been requested to sign documents in Hebrew, despite not speaking the language”
Committee expressed concern that individuals may be “detained for up to six months at a time without charge”
Palestinians have allegedly been detained in groups including “older persons, persons with disabilities, persons with chronic diseases, pregnant women, children, and other members of vulnerable populations, on the basis of real or perceived group characteristics, without a concrete and individualized assessment on their status as alleged unlawful combatants being carried out”
Palestinians have been held “incommunicado and that Israeli authorities have refused to acknowledge their deprivation of liberty or provide information regarding their fate or whereabouts, placing them effectively outside of the protection of the law – a practice amounting to enforced disappearance”
Conditions in the prisons have “severely deteriorated as a result of what appears to be, in the light of high-level statements made by the Minister of National Security and others, a deliberate State policy of collective punishment”
Prisoners “lack access to meaningful educational, vocational and recreational activities, and do not have access to books, television, or other media”. Contact with family “has been severely restricted in Israeli prisons and all in-person visits are prohibited”. There are also heavy restrictions on prisoner phone calls
Israel has “not taken sufficient measures to ensure that all detainees have access to adequate nutrition”. Committee expressed “its concern over reports that many prisoners have lost excessive amounts of weight, which, in some cases, has contributed to their deaths in custody, and that prisoners are forced to share meals or are provided with inedible food”
Prisoners are “denied access to basic medical care, including access to medication and medical procedures”
Israeli prisons remain severely overcrowded
Committee expressed grave concern over “allegations of medical negligence”
Committee highlighted that “patient detainees are blindfolded at all times, shackled and handcuffed to beds, fed through a straw, and forced to wear incontinence garments due to their having been immobilized”
There are allegations that a “scabies epidemic has affected a large proportion of prisoners, due to inappropriate detention conditions and insufficient efforts to prevent and treat the disease”
Female prisoners are “denied adequate access to feminine hygiene products and access to appropriate gynecological care, mothers in detention have been separated from their babies, pregnant women have been denied access to maternal care and are not provided with sufficient food to meet their nutritional needs, and breastfeeding mothers have not been permitted to feed their children and have been denied access to breast pumps”
Prisoners with disabilities “suffer from medical neglect, have been left without mobility aids, and have been denied medication, prosthetic limbs, hearing aids, and oxygen therapy equipment”
Committee is seriously concerned over “allegations of solitary confinement for periods significantly longer than those permitted by international standards”
Palestinian children are “frequently arrested during raids on their homes at night, are blindfolded during their arrest, and are subjected to torture and ill-treatment prior to, during, and subsequent to their interrogation”
There is a high proportion of Palestinian children who are currently detained without charge
Children who are “classified as security prisoners have severe restrictions on family contact, may be held in solitary confinement, and do not have access to education, in violation of international standards”
There is a “low age of criminal responsibility under criminal and military law, which is set at 12 years of age, and allegations that children younger than 12 are also detained on occasion”
In 2024, Israel passed the Youth Law, “which lowers the age for imprisonment under Israeli law from 14 to 12 years old if a child is convicted of murder or attempted murder classified as a “terror act” or linked to a “terrorist organization”. The Committee is concerned that such legislation may be used to disproportionately target Palestinian children, and that, according to the law, a child of 12 years old may be subject to life imprisonment”
Children suspected of criminal offenses may be interrogated without the presence of a family member or legal counsel
At least “75 Palestinians have died in custody since 7 October 2023, a period which has coincided with a marked deterioration in detention conditions in Israeli Prisons. The Committee expresses its particular concern that the number of deaths in custody appears to be abnormally high and appears to have exclusively affected the Palestinian detainee population”
There has been an increase in acts of violence against Palestinians by settlers of Israel in Palestine. “At times, settlers are accompanied by members of the Israeli military when attacks are carried out, and that, on some occasions, Israeli military members are co-perpetrators”
Committee expressed concerned over “the distribution of military-grade equipment to Kitat Konanut civilian volunteer defense squads; members who have allegedly been involved in settler violence against Palestinians”
The UN Committee Against Torture is not an activist group, a protest movement, or a fringe NGO. It is the world’s highest body for monitoring and investigating torture. And its conclusion is unambiguous: Israel is carrying out a system of organized, widespread torture, enforced disappearance, sexual violence, racial segregation, apartheid, collective punishment, and genocide, all of which rise to the level of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Every government continuing to arm, fund, or defend Israel in the face of these findings is doing so with full knowledge of what this system is, and is complicit in a genocide, and this includes the United States of America.
What makes this report even more damning is that, despite its findings, there will still be governments, commentators, and ordinary citizens insisting that Israel is “defending itself,” that Palestinians are “lying,” or that torture on this scale is somehow justified. Anyone defending Israel now is defending a documented system of torture, collective punishment, racial segregation, and war crimes.
Share this. Save this. Speak about this. Challenge the people around you who have never seen these facts or insist that Israel is somehow the victim in this conflict. The world will not change unless ordinary people refuse to look away.
For anybody who wants to read the report in its entirety, click HERE.
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The political world is powerless against these evil actors. In fact this world promotes it.