UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese: World Has Given Israel a ‘Licence to Torture’ Palestinians, Says Latest UN Report
A United Nations expert has strongly stated that the international community has effectively granted Israel a “licence to torture” Palestinians, describing life in the occupied Palestinian territory as “a continuum of physical and mental suffering”. Francesca Albanese , the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 , made these remarks while presenting her latest report titled “Torture and Genocide” to the UN Human Rights Council . In her address, Albanese declared: “Israel has effectively been given a licence to torture Palestinians, because most of your governments, your ministers, have allowed it.” She further added that torture “has effectively become state policy” in Israel, moving from hidden practices to open, organised humiliation, pain and degradation sanctioned at the highest political levels. According to the report, torture extends far beyond prison walls and includes mass displacement, siege, denial of aid a...