In a damning report, Israeli rights group B’Tselem accumulated testimonies from scores of Palestinians that were unlawfully held in occupation prisons, and subject to severe torture and suffering. It offers an inside look into the genocidal regime’s brutal and inhumane treatment of innocent Palestinians, a criminal practice that deserves the strongest possible condemnation. “Given the severity of the acts, the extent to which the provisions of international law are being violated, and the fact that these violations are directed at the entire population of Palestinian prisoners daily and over time – the only possible conclusion is that in carrying out these acts, "Israel" is committing torture that amounts to a war crime and even a crime against humanity,” concluded the report.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) must take note: Palestinian blood, liberties, and survival will not be taken for granted. The damning revelations show a deliberate and consistent policy of torture focused specifically on Palestinians. By transforming Israeli prison facilities into torture camps, the occupation seeks to normalize the unbearable suffering of Palestinians. Moreover, the full force of all occupation machinery organs, including the judiciary, deserves to be called out. Conscious starvation, abandonment, health restrictions, overpopulation of prison cells, sexual assault, and striking acts of violence are the tip of the iceberg. Call these heinous acts what they really are: practices designed to induce death behind bars and underscore anti-Palestinian hatred. 

This is the glaring face of an occupation that has used such destructive tactics for years to consolidate its apartheid regime. It is high-time that the ICC built on these striking testimonies, and investigated all those behind this criminal scheme’s planning, execution and maintenance.  This includes war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu, who extended his full support for this prison torture policy, and racist occupation minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, the mind behind this status-quo of abuse and torture. 

Let’s be clear that the Israeli occupation was lying from the outset. Look to the aftermath of October 7: it claimed to set up dozens of so-called ‘prison’ camps, when their underlying goal was to zero-in on deliberate abuse. Glaring testimonies show that the occupation used physical and psychological trauma as weapons against Palestinians, a tactic that mirrors its genocidal atrocities in Gaza – 10 months and counting. The Israeli occupation deliberately lied about so-called “arrests” of Palestinians, using them as a cover to hold thousands of Palestinians without trial. These actions help enforce a climate of tolerance towards Palestinians’ dehumanization, suffering and mass torture. The B’Tselem report puts its gravity into perspective.

The sworn testimonies of 55 ex-Palestinian detainees are a telling reminder that collective abuse has been carried out for months. It is also linked to racist anti-Palestinian attitudes backed by occupation leadership. Rhetorical condemnation and empty warnings to "Israel" won’t cut it: real accountability should match the strength of suffering "Israel" inflicted on Palestinians. As a result, resisting this climate of hate, brutality and criminal treatment is absolutely imperative for justice. “Israel’s mass incarceration of Palestinians since October 7, their systematic abuse, the inhuman conditions to which they are subjected, including the widespread, systematic and prolonged commission of the crime of torture, are a gross violation of multiple norms and obligations under Israeli law, international human rights law, the rules of war and international humanitarian law,” states the report. 

Findings are also notable because they confirm that the “incarceration project” had its roots embedded in history. After all, the occupation has been using this criminal prison system to advance Jewish supremacy, effectively benefitting from Palestinian blood and shutting out critical scrutiny. Over 800,000 Palestinians have been forced into occupation prisons over the decades, feeding into a vicious cycle of mass Palestinian repression. These are all wake-up calls for hardcore denialists and occupation apologists who share no concerns over a dearth of reporting on Israeli crimes. This is the conscious policy of torture and abuse that the genocidal regime sponsors to this day.

"Israel" can try all it wants, but there will be no “respect” for the perpetrators and executors of mass atrocities against Palestinians. This was the brazen defense sought by extremist minister Bezalel Smotrich as the world stood witness to harrowing sexual abuse footage of a Gazan prisoner by occupation authorities. Revelations are triggering wider investigation calls into "Israel’s" practice of sexual assault against Palestinian detainees, cutting through occupation denial. Israeli detention facilities, such as the notorious Sde Teiman concentration camp, are also no longer out of public sight. 

In sum, the very basis for resisting occupation brutalities is clear for all to see, just like the cries, suffering and unmitigated pains endured by Palestinians for decades. "Israel’s" apartheid system is destined to capitulate because the entire occupation machinery is found complicit in the abuse and torture of Palestinians. Given the fact that all occupation “systems, including the judiciary, have been mobilized in support of these torture camps,” the same criminal system cannot be trusted for accountability. There is zero credibility to any such calls.

The report proves that sustaining the occupation means turning a blind eye to criminal injustice. Palestinian blood will not serve as the fuel that powers this genocidal regime.