Torture in Israeli prisons is institutionalised and normalised: Albanese

[0:00] We can now speak to UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, who's joining us now live from Tunis. [0:05] Thank you very much for being with us here on Al Jazeera. [0:07] You've released a report recently about just this sort of thing, the use of torture in Israeli prisons against Palestinians, [0:13] and I want to ask you about that further. [0:15] But first, when you look at Marwan's case here, he has a lawyer. [0:19] He's a very prominent figure. [0:21] If this is something that his lawyer is saying is happening to him in prison, [0:26] what happens to those in detention that do not have any spotlight on them? [0:32] No, exactly. [0:33] This is the case of Marwan Marguti is a revealing of a system of profound moral and legal decay. [0:43] Look, I've investigated torture in Israeli prisons for quite a while now, [0:50] and this is why I decided to write a report about that. [0:54] But last year, both the Commission Against Torture reported that torture was becoming a state practice, [1:03] and also the Commission of Inquiry of the UN on Israel and Palestine concluded that Israel was committed acts [1:10] that would amount both to torture and acts of genocide against the detainees and inmates. [1:15] What I found through interviews and reports I received from survivors and their lawyers is that torture is absolutely institutionalized, [1:27] enabled by law, shielded by courts, normalized in public discourse. [1:32] And there are two aspects that I would like to highlight. [1:35] But on the one hand, in prisons, there is repeated beatings, punitive transfers, prolonged isolation, [1:42] starvation, medical neglect, psychological torture, and a lot, a lot of sexual abuse and rape. [1:49] All this is to break the spirit of the prisoners as human beings. [1:55] And what I found extremely disturbing is the gamification of sexual abuse and rape. [2:01] Rape by people, by soldiers, through metal objects, through trained dogs. [2:08] And this has been done over countless prisoners. [2:11] Now there are 10,000, but over around 20,000 Palestinians have been imprisoned over the past two years. [2:20] And the thing is that also beyond the prison walls, there is an entire torturous environment that is imposed on the Palestinian people. [2:29] The homes reduced to rubble, hunger used as a weapon. [2:33] So Israel is really torturing the Palestinians as part of the genocide that is inflicting on an entire, on entire people. [2:42] And it's extremely worrisome. [2:45] So, Francesca, you put a report together like this with all of this detail. [2:49] You're putting it on the record. [2:52] But what happens after that? [2:53] What should happen is that member states take a serious, a serious look at these documentations that come not only from me and others in the United Nations, [3:09] but from Palestinians and Israeli human rights organizations. [3:13] The documentation is countless. [3:17] And because torture is absolutely provided, there is state and criminal individual responsibilities for that. [3:26] So, at a minimum, at a minimum, member states should impose sanctions on individual members of the government. [3:36] And should the International Criminal Court should investigate and prosecute those who are already identifiable as at the top chain of command. [3:48] Like I've identified Ministers Motrik and Minister Bengavir as two of the Israeli senior political figures that must be seriously investigated and indicted. [4:00] And, but of course, there is, for torture, there is, is one of those crimes in, for which there is the possibility to activate domestic courts in many countries. [4:13] So, I do hope that the survivors and their families will, will take legal actions against the state of Israel, [4:22] against those who have provided the tools to Israel to commit this, this, this, this, this violence, [4:30] especially there are European countries which are transferring, are selling trained dogs, [4:36] like military dogs that are being used for abuse, including rape against Palestinian inmates. [4:43] This is really shocking. [4:45] Do you think that any of that is likely to happen? [4:50] It must, it must happen. [4:52] It's going to happen if there is enough pressure that comes from the people. [4:58] Clearly, we are at the moment of extreme darkness and sense of powerless among the people, [5:05] because those in power, especially in so-called liberal democracies, seems to be otherwise occupied. [5:13] Gulf countries, Arab countries are trapped in a spiral of fear and confusion because of the war that is ravaging the region. [5:21] And everyone seems to be caught up with their own problems. [5:24] But again, Palestine is not going to, it's going to haunt us forever. [5:30] We need to stop this. [5:31] So, I call upon everyone to take responsibility and, and make pressure on governments to stop this. [5:39] In Europe, there are signals that this can happen. [5:41] In the U.S. as well. [5:43] More and more needs to be done, of course. [5:45] UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, thank you for being with us on Al Jazeera. [5:49] UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, thank you for being with us on Al Jazeera.