UN panel says Israel operating ‘de facto policy of torture’ by Imogen Foulkes

Palestinians, the evidence suggests, are regularly deprived of food and water, and subjected to severe beatings, attacks by dogs, electrocution, water boarding, and sexual violence. Some are allegedly permanently shackled, denied access to a toilet, and forced to wear diapers.

The committee pointed out that, according to the UN’s own commission of inquiry into the situation in the Occupied Territories, such treatment “amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity, and forms part of the actus reus of genocide”. Actus reus is a Latin term meaning “guilty act”, or one of the elements normally required to prove commission of a crime.