News

UN report finds Israel using torture as genocide — Australia’s silence is complicity

TMV Australia

24 Mar 2026 — 2 min read

The following information is based entirely on the statement and comments issued by the Australian Palestinian Advocacy Network (APAN).

The Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) is calling on the Australian Government to sanction Israel immediately, expel the Israeli Ambassador, and support international prosecution of those responsible for war crimes, following the release of a damning new United Nations report.

The report, “Torture and Genocide” by UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, is unequivocal: this is not a series of abuses, it is a deliberate state policy of torture, violence and dehumanisation aimed at destroying Palestinians as a people.

Drawing on more than 300 testimonies, the report documents widespread and escalating abuse of Palestinian detainees and civilians since October 2023. It concludes that these acts meet the threshold for genocide under international law. The report comes a week after the release of IDF reservists who raped a prisoner at Sde Teiman despite CCTV footage, and a day after news of 18-month-old Jawad Abu Nasser, detained and tortured at Maghazi refugee camp.

Palestinians in Israeli custody are subjected to systematic torture, including severe beatings, bone breaking, starvation, prolonged shackling, sleep deprivation and denial of medical care, alongside widespread sexual violence, including rape, against men, women and children. Thousands are detained without charge or trial, while thousands more have been forcibly disappeared, their fate deliberately concealed, as part of a coordinated system designed to break bodies and terrorise communities.

The report is unequivocal: torture is being used strategically to degrade, terrorise and dismantle Palestinian society.

This is not confined to detention centres. It is being inflicted on Palestinians right now, across Gaza and the West Bank, as Israel’s genocide continues to escalate.

In Gaza, the report describes a “torturous environment” where Palestinians are subjected to constant bombardment, displacement, starvation and the destruction of the conditions needed to survive. Homes, hospitals and essential infrastructure have been systematically destroyed, leaving millions without safety or care. In the West Bank, escalating raids, mass arrests, forced displacement and settler violence have created a constant climate of fear and psychological terror, extending this system of violence across all Palestinian life.

The report makes clear this is a coordinated system designed to break individuals, destroy communities and drive Palestinians from their land, authorised and sustained across Israel’s political, legal and military institutions, where torture is openly justified, normalised and carried out with impunity.

The findings impose clear obligations on all states, including Australia, to prevent and address these crimes. Australia, as a member state, must comply with its obligation not to participate in or be complicit in Israeli crimes, and to instead prevent and address serious breaches of international law, particularly as set out in the UN Charter and the Genocide Convention.

Yet the Australian Government has remained silent.

APAN Executive Office Katie Shammas said:

“This report documents acts that should shock the conscience of the world – torture, rape, starvation. Inflicted on anyone else, such acts would make headlines. Inflicted on Palestinians, they are a matter of policy.

This is not a failure of the system. This is the system.

And while this is happening, the Australian Government enables such acts through its silence on international law and its deepening relationship with Israel.”

APAN is calling on the Australian Government to:

Publicly condemn Israel’s systematic use of torture
Expel the Israeli Ambassador to Australia
Impose targeted sanctions on Israeli officials responsible for war crimes
Support international legal accountability, including through the International Criminal Court

ENDS