Tell the government: Take action on Israel's torture of Palestinian prisoners

Posted: 23rd January 2026

This week the Guardian reported the testimony of Sami al-Saei, a Palestinian man detained by Israel without charge or trial between February 2024 and July 2025, who was subjected to horrific sexual abuse by prison guards. The terrible reality is that his case is not unique: more than 9,000 Palestinian political prisoners remain in Israeli detention, including 350 children, facing systematic torture, sexual violence and ill-treatment.

Write to the British government demanding it take immediate action to end Israel’s torture of Palestinian prisoners.

For decades, Israel has used imprisonment as a tool of political repression against Palestinians, as a part of its apartheid system. Over the past two years, Israel has escalated its use of mass arbitrary arrest and detention as a part of the genocide in Gaza, imprisoning thousands of Palestinians in torture camps. This is being done in plain sight of Israel’s international allies, including the British government.

To make matters worse, Israel has repeatedly targeted Palestinian human rights organisations who document Israel’s torture of prisoners, especially when they have done so in the form of submissions of evidence to the International Criminal Court (ICC). As a result of its work with the ICC, the United States government has issued sanctions against the Palestinian organisation Addameer, the primary Palestinian human rights NGO advocating against torture and for the rights of prisoners. These attacks have severely impacted its ability to work, just at the time when it is most needed.

It is utterly shameful to silence the vital work of human rights organisations like Addameer, in the midst of such vast evidence of Israel’s human rights abuses.

Join us in writing to the British government to demand it support Palestinian human rights organisations in their work to ensure that Palestinian victims of torture and other abuse can safely submit evidence to the ICC and other relevant bodies.

The British government has responsibilities as a signatory to the Convention against Genocide and Torture, as well as the Geneva Conventions. It has acknowledged Israel’s grave violations of international law, including with respect to prisoners, and yet has failed to take any meaningful action to stop Israel’s grave violations of international law. Write to the FCDO today demanding it take urgent action to fulfil its legal responsibilities to prevent torture.

In solidarity,  

Stella,
PSC Campaigns Officer