Connections Episode 109
Israel and Torture
Mouin Rabbani Interviews Lisa Hajjar and Miriam Azem
Tuesday 30 December 2025
2pm EST | 20:00 CET
Join us on Tuesday, 30 December for a conversation with Lisa Hajjar and Miriam Azem about the centrality of torture to Israel’s regime of repression. This episode of Connections will examine the recent report on Israel by the United Nations Committee Against Torture (UN CAT), its first since 2016, and the issues raised by its findings and recommendations. For background and reference, read the UN CAT’s December 2025 concluding observations as well as the October 2025 shadow report submitted to UN CAT by the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, HaMoked – Center for the Defence of the Individual, Parents Against Child Detention (PACD), and Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI).
Connections offers timely and informative interviews on current events and broader policy questions, as well as themes relevant to knowledge production. It combines journalism, analysis, and scholarship.
Guest
Lisa Hajjar is professor and chair of Sociology at the University of California - Santa Barbara. She is co-chair of the editorial committee of Middle East Report and a founding co-editor of Jadaliyya. Her work focuses on law and conflict, with a particular emphasis on torture, war crimes, international law, and human rights. Her most recent book is The War in Court: Inside the Long Fight against Torture (University of California Press, 2022). In 2025, she served as one of the torture experts for the Gaza People's Tribunal.
Miriam Azem is Adalah’s International Advocacy Coordinator, leading research, reporting, and documentation on human rights violations affecting Palestinians in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory. She has played a central role in Adalah’s work addressing the systemic torture of Palestinians in Israeli custody since October 2023, including representing Adalah before the UN Committee Against Torture during its periodic review of Israel. She holds an LLB in International and European Law from the University of Groningen.
Host
Mouin Rabbani is a researcher, analyst, and commentator specialising in Palestinian affairs, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the contemporary Middle East. He has among other positions previously served as Principal Political Affairs Officer with the Office of the UN Special Envoy for Syria, Head of Middle East with the Martti Ahtisaari Peace Foundation, and Senior Middle East Analyst and Special Advisor on Israel-Palestine with the International Crisis Group. Rabbani is Co-Editor of Jadaliyya, and a Contributing Editor of Middle East Report.