Palestinians, a Tortured People

Mar 30, 2026

This article is translated from the March 27 issue, #3008 of Lutte Ouvrière (Workers Struggle), the paper of the Trotskyist group of that name active in France.

A March 20 publication by United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, denounced the Israeli government’s “systematic torture of Palestinians.”

Titled “Torture and Genocide,” the report “examines Israel’s systematic use of torture against Palestinians from the occupied Palestinian territory” since October 7, 2023. Albanese was then accused of anti-Semitism and of having “an obsessive and hateful agenda aimed at delegitimizing the State of Israel”—like all who dare to condemn the murderous policies of the Israeli government. Albanese was careful to specify that she “unequivocally condemns torture and other forms of ill-treatment committed by all actors, including Palestinian armed groups,” but that her report “focuses on the conduct of Israel.”

The facts are overwhelming. Albanese is banned from entering Israel and the occupied territories, but relied on 300 testimonies from various organizations. She details the “mass arrests, by force, of elderly people, disabled people, pregnant women, children, everywhere, in Israel as well as throughout the occupied Palestinian territories.”

The report states that more than 18,500 Palestinians have been arrested, including at least 1,500 children. In February, 9,245 were still being held in various locations. This included 1,330 with convictions, 3,308 in pretrial detention, and 3,358 in arbitrary detention without trial. Thousands more have disappeared, been abducted, or were executed. All forms of violence are “permitted,” including torture, beatings, deprivation of food, hygiene, and medical care, as well as humiliation and sexual violence. In late February a kind of public viewing was organized for far-right settlers at Nitzan prison in Israel’s Central District, where detainees were displayed in degrading positions, lying on the floor and handcuffed, despite objections by media outlets.

Meanwhile, in the West Bank, attacks by far-right settlers intensified on March 21 and 22, following the death of a young settler struck by a car. Hundreds of armed annexation militants carried out parallel attacks in several villages near Nablus, Jenin, Ramallah, Jerusalem, and Bethlehem—ambushes, arson, and the destruction of homes and orchards. An army spokesperson who participated in these attacks called them simply “unrest.”

But, despite the support shown by a majority of Israelis for Netanyahu’s escalating war, the release of the report and the systematic abuses committed by settlers and the army are clearly raising questions in public opinion. Some voices were raised. A former minister and former generals published an open letter on March 16th denouncing the anti-Palestinian “pogroms” and this “Jewish terrorism.” This reminds older generations of the violence perpetrated by Jewish terrorist organizations in the late 1940s before and during the creation of the state of Israel—terrorism aimed at driving out the Palestinian population and silencing opponents.

This is the policy Netanyahu’s government supports. So does his Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who is in charge of settlements. Smotrich openly says he aims not only for the “collapse” of the Palestinian Authority, but the outright annexation of the West Bank.