UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : OHCHR Special Procedures - Press conference: Special Rapporteur on oPt

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for this press conference with the Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Territories in Francesca Albanese.

We'll start with the opening remarks from the Special Rapporteur, who will present to us her report, her latest report to the Human Rights Council titled Torture and Genocide, and then we'll take questions from the from the journalists in the room and online.

Special Rapporteur, you have the floor.

Thank you very much.

Good morning, everyone.

The findings I presented to the Human Rights Council yesterday are harrowing and the urgency to act more pressing than ever.

I've documented how the use of psychological and physical torture by Israel against Palestinians is not exceptional.

It is not merely punitive, it is strategic, it is deliberate, and it is integral to Israel's genocide of the Palestinians.

What I focused on is the dialectic between torture and genocide, which is twofold.

Torture is part of genocide.

In the tension it operates to, the great bodies shutter psychological integrity and ultimately a Rd dignity and collective resilience.

Humanity, really even short term detention, has left deep, often irreversible scars on the Palestinians, not only as individuals but as part of families and communities.

Some of this them have returned limbless, amputated without anaesthesia after the injuries they had sustained.

Some of them lost their mind, their voice, their eyes.

Since October 2023, the violence that I already had already documented in 2023 by July 2023 has escalated dramatically.

In the past two years, more than 18,500 Palestinians have been arrested, including 1500 children.

Now around 9000 Palestinians remain under detention.

300 of them are children and half of the the the the detained population is without charge or trial, if charge or trial meant something.

Because Israel has no legal authority to arrest and detain Palestinians in the land that it are lawfully occupied, thousands have been forcibly disappeared.

This is something that didn't belong to the to the panoply of abuses that Israel has historically committed against the Palestinians.

And now it is.

And what we are witnessing is not just mass attention, is the normalisation of the abuse within it.

Documented practises include severe beatings, intentional bone breaking, prolonged shackling and blindfolding, Sleep deprivation, starvation, denial of medical care, sexual abuse, rape and rape has been inflicted on men, women and children.

An unprecedented number of detainees have died in custody.

The other part of it is that genocidal acts do represent a form of torture for the group targeted as such beyond prison walls.

The evidence shows that torture has become a defining feature of Israel's conduct across the all occupied Palestinian territory, creating what can only be described as a torturous environment, an environment designed not only to punish but to break individuals, to fracture communities and ultimately to force a people of its land.

So in Palestine, in the occupied Palestinian territory today, nowhere is safe.

The entire civilian population has it has become a target, a military target target, an ethnic cleansing target.

The destruction of infrastructure, mass displacement, starvation and the killing of entire families starting but not limiting itself to Gaza created conditions of unprecedented human suffering in the West Bank and in Jerusalem, pervasive surveillance, settler terror emboldened by state support, military raids and enforced displacement have created a permanent state of psychological terror.

You know, when viewed in isolation, each of these acts are alarming.

When viewed together, they reveal something far more disturbing.

It's a system, a system in which physical and psychological suffering, as I said, is not incidental.

It's engineered.

So this is a torturous environment by design, and this system doesn't operate in a vacuum.

It's enabled and sustained across multiple levels in Israel.

Executive decisions, legislative changes that expand detention powers, judicial practises and public rhetoric that normalise the humanizations of the Palestinian torture in this context becomes a collective enterprise, politically defended, socially produced and publicly absorbed.

And This is why the reporter reach reaches a stark conclusion.

Genocide has become the ultimate form of torture for the Palestinians.

It targets the totality of the people across the totality of the land through a totality of brutal methods aimed at raising not only lives but the very possibility of the Palestinian people and their future existence, self determination in the land that remains.

Legally, the report finds that these acts constitute an infliction of both torture and acts of genocide.

But beyond legal definitions, there is a moral clarity that cannot be ignored and require our governments to act.

It's not just about accountability for past and ongoing crimes.

It's about whether the international system retains any meaning when confronted with its most serious abuses and perpetrators among them.

It is whether a system built to prevent atrocities and avoid another world conflict can act when faced with them, with their threats.

The harrowing testimonies are collected through this report.

The horrors to many have to endure, require, require action, and this can wait no longer.

Ultimately, it's about whether the suffering, the humanization of an entire people will continue to be normalised or finally addressed.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you, Miss Albanese.

[Other language spoken]

Please remember to state your name and organisation before asking a question.

[Other language spoken]

Yes, Alexandra, AFP, thank you for the for this press conference.

[Other language spoken]

First, yesterday, Israeli mission in Geneva issued a statement saying that Francis Galbenez is not a promoter of human rights, she's an agent of chaos.

And any document you're producing, according to them, is nothing but a political, politically charged activist rent.

What would be your reaction to that?

And the second question is what do you think about the reaction of the lack of reaction of the international community in front of the these acts from Israel towards the Palestinian community?

Israel can say what he wants.

It still needs to be held accountable, its leaders deserve to be in The Hague and it will be also thanked to the rounds of all activists around the world and human rights experts that this will happen.

It's just a matter of time and nothing else.

To say the what the international community is doing, it's appalling.

It's really appalling because it's not that they don't know.

Frankly, through this report I've realised that there are reports of rape of Palestinians from 1967.

[Other language spoken]

There are reports of rape of children from 1948.

[Other language spoken]

The Tantura massacre or the Yider Yasin massacre have been documented, including by Israeli historians.

So the question is why?

Why Member States including in the face of what I have reported over the past three years, what Israel has committed, what Israeli historians, Palestinians, human rights organisations from from everywhere have documented while they continue to condemn, condemn, condemn, while continue to arming to arm Israel, provide political shelter, justifications, delays.

It's because of what I said that upset very much the the the French Minister of Foreign Affairs.

It's because there is a system of complicity where member states have actually less and therefore citizens, including in democratic countries have less power of those who are profiting today from the slaughter of Palestinian children.

And again, Palestinian children today epitomise what happens if you come from, if you belong to a population that is considered an encumbrance.

So those who do not control weapons, those who do not control the algorithms, those who could not control huge financial capitals are all sooner or later going to be an encumbrance, especially if they complain.

This is the system.

So I, as I again, I yesterday, I had the distinctive feeling listening to member States and their questions that the UN looks really like a sinking ship.

It feels like a Titanic and I feel like one of the members of the orchestra on the Titanic.

So I mean, it's really a matter of of time, but I also think that the world is changing and the human rights says, I mean, the human rights values are more alive than ever are are spoken globally, claimed in the street.

So it's just a matter of time for this chaos to generate a new a New Balance, a new equilibrium.

May I my wish is that it will be more just than what we have right now.

[Other language spoken]

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[Other language spoken]

This is what it boils down to.

[Other language spoken]

We'll take a couple of questions online.

[Other language spoken]

And then I see Emma.

Yeah, if, if Jeremy isn't audible, I'll I'll go ahead.

So I, I had a question, please on access to Gaza, this perennial question, because there are some signs that things have actually gotten worse in some ways since the ceasefire and also since the Middle East conflict, since the war in Iran.

I'm wondering if you're seeing any signs of this and what your concerns are, including around sort of medicines to get into Gaza.

[Other language spoken]

Of course the situation gets worse because if it's not, I mean the, the misery, the starvation, the, the, the, the, the whole destruction that has been, that has been brought about, the havoc that has been brought upon the Palestinians.

Of course it requires a massive, massive intervention.

And this is deliberately prevented.

650 I mean, I'm sure there are more because I keep on seeing Palestinians being killed, Israeli killing Palestinians in Gaza every day.

Clearly they're not in the 100, they are in the in the tents, but still they're killed.

And The thing is that up to the point I counted them since the beginning of the ceasefire, Israel has killed 650 Palestinians in Gaza.

But This is why I would like you to understand that the reason, the reason the situation is has become so bad is not a coincidence.

It's because we keep on looking at the symptoms.

Of course, it's getting worse, of course, and this is intentional.

The question is why it continues to be so.

Why, if the International Court of Justice says that the occupation is unlawful and member states have an obligation not to aid and assist the obligations, the member states have an obligation not to transfer weapons to a state that that is committing war crimes without even bothering the Genocide convention.

How come the member states continue to engage with Israel?

This is what you people should look at because of course, of course, you really need to understand the system we are part of and need to explain to your audience and to your readers, because Gaza is just the beginning of this new escalatory phase of erasure of Palestinians from what remains of Palestine.

And, and it, it, you see the, it, it does already become a doctrine, the full destruction of homes, hospitals, schools.

I was, I weren't the international community when I presented my Anatomy of genocide report.

If Israel is not stopped, this will become a modus operandi.

And six months later Israel was practising in Lebanon what it had done to Gaza.

And now it continues in Lebanon, in the in Iran and and it will not stay there.

So I have no hope whatsoever that the Palestinians in Gaza will be saved if there is no massive intervention to stop Israel.

And the most peaceful way to stop Israel is to cut ties, economic ties, military ties and financial ties with Israel.

[Other language spoken]

We can try to go back to Jeremy again.

Otherwise, I have his question.

Can you hear me this time or not?

[Other language spoken]

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[Other language spoken]

Thank you, Miss Albanese.

We have another question online.

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The investigation.

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[Other language spoken]

Thank you, special rapporteur.

Do we have another question in the room?

Do you have a few other remarks?

[Other language spoken]

Sorry, we have a hand up.

Actually, Nick, you have the floor.

[Other language spoken]

I'd like to come back to the issue of Jeff's in custody.

When we had a Committee against Torture hearing last year, they were talking about at least 75 deaths in custody.

I think in your presentation to the council yesterday, you were talking about close to 100.

I'm wondering if you can confirm that the deaths in custody are continuing, that there have been more, for example, this year?

And secondly, you referred specifically to the case of some doctors, including Doctor Adam and Albert, who died in custody.

I'm wondering if you've received any information that sheds more light on the circumstances of their deaths and who should be held accountable for them?

[Other language spoken]

The information I provided in the report is of course I couldn't go and do the death count myself, but I, I relied on on information provided by, by the, by, by Palestinian and Israeli lawyers and, and, and others.

These are the deaths that are confirmed.

I mean, I, I do suspect that among the, the thousands of those for thousands of those missing this, those disappeared, there might be other deaths.

The point is that there is a need, there is a need to, just as I said, the priority is to stop Israel deaths will continue for sure.

I mean, Israel is, is planning to pass and to reintroduce the death penalty, the death penalty.

So to officialise, to institutionalise ways to kill Palestinians even faster.

How brutal it is.

So of of course, of course I'm scared.

[Other language spoken]

I do have good reasons to say that certain OK, while all Palestinians have become a target, certain categories have have proven to be treated with more vindictiveness and medical personnel and and journalists are among them.

So I think that this is an intentional, this is an intention to punish, to punish people and like doctors and make sure that the those who remain are depleted forever of those services.

Because you can rebuild a hospital even fairly quickly.

But how do you reconstruct that tissue of, of knowledge, of expertise that is needed?

And it must emanate.

You cannot ship doctors from abroad.

It, it emanates from, from, from from the place.

And this has been destroyed.

I prefer not not sharing more than I know that I've more than I've said about Doctor Albush out of respect for the the will of the family.

But this is brutal and and there are again, we this is not one isolated incident and we shall not fixate ourselves or of one name that has become famous.

There is Doctor Abu Safia, who's still in detention and many others.

[Other language spoken]

They are hostages, hostages to an unlawful occupation.

They must be released without further delay, because this is what this is what is absolutely urgent now.

[Other language spoken]

We have another question in the room.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you, Special Rapporteur.

Any other questions?

[Other language spoken]

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Thank you We also have Emma online with a follow up question.

[Other language spoken]

Just to follow up on next question and what you were saying about the vindictiveness against medical staff, How many do you know, how many are actually still in Israeli custody, how many Palestinian doctors and medics from Gaza?

Because that will obviously affect the ability to rebuild the health system.

[Other language spoken]

Yes, I do, but I need, sorry, bear with me here.

Every mistake counts a lot.

So no, sorry, I'm, yeah, around 150 doctors and medical personnel are still in prison.

[Other language spoken]

I, if I, my memory does not fail me, over 1000 medical personnel have been killed.

So it's clearly clear that there is, there is a targeting of of medical personnel together with journalists, 300 journalists have been killed.

So in yeah, I think it speaks for itself.

The health system has been destroyed.

And you know, the risk, the the reason why I say we need to address the problem at its roots is that we have this tendency of focusing on the symptoms.

I've been part of it.

I've been working in the occupied Palestinian territory, and I've been part of that in humanitarian industry, focusing on, oh, let's ask Israel.

We need to make sure that Israel respects the rights of the Palestinian children in military courts.

No, this is shameful.

We need to make sure that Israel stops arresting and detaining Palestinians, especially children, and trying them in military courts.

We need to make sure that Israel withdraws its troops, dismantle the colonies and stop tormenting the Palestinians.

This is this is the the thing.

So Israel has decimated the health system from the very beginning.

This is part of the intention.

Because apart from those who are killed by bombs and snipers, there are all those who die.

And this cannot be count, surely not today Die because of infections that couldn't be treated because of lack of medications or because of they had chronicle chronic illnesses and could not be cured.

And look at the sadism.

Israel wants everyone to leave, but they want to leave them to leave a mass in a disorderly fashion because even those applying for medical evacuation cannot leave.

How brutal it is.

[Other language spoken]

Seriously, every, every question you ask me, I, I would, I could spend hours to tell you more and more, but how?

What else needs to be seen in order to stop Israel?

Why Israel is granted this enormous exception and licence to kill, to rape, to torture a population.

[Other language spoken]

No, sorry, sorry.

1722 health workers were killed, so 1000 were upped was up to last year.

So it's all nearly double what I just said.

Thank you, Special Rapporteur.

We will now have to close this press conference because the dialogue is continuing.

So I want to thank you all for joining us today and thank you to the Special Rapporteur for being with us.

Thank you very much.

Thank you all.