On Thursday, the UN added Israel to its blacklist for sexual crimes committed during conflict. According to Middle East Eye, the blacklist forms part of the annex to the UN secretary-general’s annual report on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence (CRSV). It identifies parties credibly suspected of committing patterns of rape or other forms of sexual violence during armed conflict.
Israel’s UN ambassador Dany Danon denounced the decision as “political” and “detached from the facts and from reality” and declared that his country was “done” with Mr Guterres. The Israeli mission to the UN said it would have “no contact” with the Secretary General’s office as long as Mr. Guterres leads it.
The addition of Israel to the UN blacklist follows multiple reports by human rights organizations and media outlets—including Middle East Eye—documenting allegations of rape and other forms of sexual violence by Israeli forces against Palestinians since October 2023. This is includes widely reported abuses against Palestinians in Israeli prisons where at least 100 prisoners have reportedly died in custody under these conditions.
Last year, a United Nations inquiry accused Israel of using sexualized torture and rape as “a method of war… to destabilize, dominate, oppress and destroy the Palestinian people.”
The Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem has described the Israeli prison system as a “network of torture camps” within which prisoners were subjected to “repeated use of sexual violence” including “gang sexual violence and assault committed by a group of prison guards or soldiers.”
At UN headquarters in New York, Pramila Patten, the special representative on sexual violence in conflict, defended the decision to include Israeli forces on the list. “Israeli forces were listed on the basis of credible information indicating continued patterns of rape and other forms of sexual violence, with an increase in the number of verified cases this year,” Patten said at a press conference, reported The National News. “This is part of a pattern of sexual violence against Palestinians, including as a form of torture.”
Patten also said that while Israeli authorities had provided information about laws, policies and training programmes, they had not submitted evidence demonstrating accountability for alleged violations.
“I mentioned the Sde Teiman [a military detention camp] case. This is an emblematic case which shows the total lack of accountability,” she said. “The evidence was solid. The Commission of Inquiry made it very clear that there was solid evidence of sexual violence. The Palestinian detainee suffered life-threatening injuries.”
Ms. Patten noted that 10 soldiers were initially arrested in connection with the case but that charges were ultimately dropped. “The case was initially investigated as sexual violence, the indictment did not contain charges of sexual violence, it was on physical assault, and even those charges were dropped,” she said. “So, where is the accountability?”
