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Defamatory Campaign Against Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories

UN expert slams Canada’s complicity in Gaza assault
The Breach
Nov 13, 2024 TORONTO

Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, sits down with Desmond Cole to discuss Canada’s ‘crystal clear’ complicity in the Israeli destruction of Gaza and the ‘hope that remains in this darkness.’



Transcript

0:00
Francesca Albanese, thank you so much for joining me today
0:03
for a conversation.
0:04
I really appreciate it.
0:05
Thank you so much. It's my pleasure.
0:08
You are the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the
0:12
occupied Palestinian territories, but you mentioned
0:15
yesterday that you're not actually
0:18
an employee of the United Nations.
0:20
Can you explain how that works?
0:22
Yeah, no, people are surprised.
0:24
Yeah, indeed, because this, these roles are normally given
0:29
voluntary honorary positions.
0:31
They're very prestigious, but they come as an extra
0:38
responsibility that normally academics or people who have
0:43
already a job take.
0:44
I've been working as a lawyer for with an Arab think
0:48
tank, and then I've been teaching.
0:51
This is what I was doing.
0:52
I had to reduce my job significantly since I took on the
0:57
functions of Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian
0:59
territories, but then I had to go on a sabbatical since
1:05
October last year, and it has been like that since.
1:08
I don't know I need to go back to work.
1:10
But yeah, with the devastation that is occurring in the
1:15
occupied Palestinian territories. What else?
1:19
I want to talk about that, of course, today.
1:22
But I also want to talk about Canada.
1:24
I want to talk about where we are right now, and the work
1:28
that you've been trying to do in this country while you've
1:32
been here.
1:32
Since 2011, this country has voted no, Canada has voted no,
1:37
more than 150 times at the United Nations on resolutions
1:42
regarding Palestinian rights, right?
1:44
And that's including calling for Israel to withdraw from
1:47
Palestinian occupied territories.
1:49
That includes reaffirming Israeli settlements are illegal
1:53
and an obstacle to peace.
1:55
And so Canada has been one of Israel's largest backers,
1:59
after the United States.
2:01
What do you make of this pattern of our voting at the United
2:04
Nations?
2:05
Let me put you this in context first, and then we will
2:09
analyze what I see happening in Canada.
2:14
If you look at voting patterns of Western countries,
2:19
primarily the former—I mean the settler-colonial states:
2:24
the US, Canada, New Zealand, with some differences, and
2:27
Australia and increasingly so European states have been
2:34
voting in a way that protects Israel, that shelters Israel
2:39
from full accountability.
2:41
Even when they don't, even when there is agreement that the
2:45
colonies are illegal and must be dismantled.
2:48
Still in this one, we move to the next step.
2:52
Still, countries like Canada continue business as usual.
2:57
Their dealings with Israel as it has maintained for 57
3:02
years, an unlawful occupation with continuous annexation of
3:08
Palestinian land.
3:10
Expropriation, exploitation of Palestinian natural
3:13
resources.
3:16
Not only maintaining its free trade agreement, not
3:21
only—really not stopping to aid and assist to cooperate with
3:30
this government.
3:30
Because what you do is with a state that commits serious
3:34
violations of international law, like the continuous assault
3:37
on Gaza, the forced displacement of Palestinians, on top of
3:41
the colonies, the mass arrest and the tension of
3:44
Palestinians, including children as young as 12.
3:46
I mean, the Palestinians have been under military rule for
3:50
57 years.
3:52
In the face of all this, not only Canada doesn't cut its
3:56
relations with Israel, doesn't impose sanctions, doesn't
3:59
work to impose sanctions.
4:02
It also allows its citizens to live in the occupied
4:08
Palestinian territories.
4:09
So being part of an unlawful endeavor.
4:11
The thing that shocked me the most is that I learned that
4:14
there are Canadians and Canadians organizations who sell
4:19
Palestinian properties in the occupied Palestinian
4:22
territories.
4:24
Property that has been expropriated to the Palestinians from
4:28
Toronto, from Montreal.
4:30
I learned that the pension funds or [Caisse de dépôt et
4:32
placement du Québec] has billions of dollars invested in
4:36
illegal businesses.
4:37
I learned that Canadian charities are basically used for,
4:43
according to a report that was issued yesterday by primarily
4:48
independent Jewish voices, as money laundering system for
4:52
the apartheid regime that Israel maintains.
4:56
You see?
4:57
On the one hand, there is this, and then on the other hand,
5:00
this country, no different from what happens in the rest of
5:04
the West.
5:04
They repress solidarity with Palestine.
5:08
And doesn't matter who's involved, Muslim, Christian, Jews,
5:10
it's all the same.
5:13
You know, you mentioned some of the organizing that's
5:19
happening here, independent Jewish voices and others that
5:21
are uncovering these kind of relationships.
5:26
The movement in general, in this country has been able to,
5:30
for example, force the Liberal government here to freeze new
5:35
permits for weapons, right to Israel.
5:38
And to suspend some of the permits that had previously been
5:40
issued.
5:40
But we're still allowing 90 per cent of those exports to go
5:45
ahead.
5:45
And more importantly, there is a big loophole for allowing
5:51
unreported and unregulated export of weapons via the United
5:56
States to Israel.
5:58
So there are dozens of companies, you know, companies, for
6:02
example, that provide essential components for the F-35
6:05
fighter jets that Israel is using right now.
6:09
Those are some of the companies included in these loopholes.
6:13
And I wonder, what does international law say about these
6:17
kinds of weapon transfers?
6:19
It's crystal clear.
6:20
Because, you know, we are not in normal times, as of January
6:24
this year.
6:25
Let aside my two reports, which have concluded that Israel
6:29
has committed acts of genocide in Gaza.
6:32
Let alone the assessment of other independent experts of the
6:36
United Nations who have come to the same conclusions.
6:40
Let alone the fact that eminent legal scholars, genocide
6:43
scholars, both from legal and history paths, including
6:49
Israelis, have concluded that Israel is committing genocide.
6:52
Let this alone.
6:53
There is the International Court of Justice, the world
6:57
court, the highest judicial order of the United Nations,
7:00
which, in January this year, has concluded that, without
7:03
even going into the merits, that there is a plausible risk
7:07
that Israel is committing acts of genocide.
7:10
Therefore, it had to take a number of measures.
7:13
Now there are two proceedings for genocide before the
7:16
International Court of Justice.
7:17
One against Israel, initiated by South Africa, and one
7:19
initiated by Nicaragua, versus Germany.
7:22
And in the latter, the court reminds member states of their
7:27
obligations not to aid and assist a country which is
7:30
plausibly committing genocide.
7:33
Including by stopping in its entirety, the arms
7:38
transfer.
7:39
And arms transfer, again, it's direct and it's indirect.
7:44
And it concerns any materials, including fuels, including
7:49
any strategic service, even intelligence, that can be used
7:54
for military purposes, direct and indirect.
7:59
So I hear the concern of many responsible Canadian citizens
8:06
who do not who do not want to be part of this, who do not
8:09
want to see their taxes funding genocide.

[Desmond Cole] 8:18
You had a meeting scheduled with the Prime Minister's
8:21
Office, and then it was canceled, as I understand.

[Francesca Albanese]
8:23
Not with the Prime Minister. With the Foreign Ministry.

[Desmond Cole] 8:27
With the Foreign Ministry, Mélanie Joly's office.

[Francesca Albanese] 8:29
No, she had no responded with the with the head of the Human
8:37
Rights and MENA section.
8:38
Which is not normal, let me say. Because when a Special
8:41
Rapporteur goes to our independent experts of the United
8:44
Nations, goes to a country, he or she is received either by
8:49
the foreign minister or by the vice foreign minister.
8:55
There have been cases where I've been received by the
8:58
president of the state.
9:01
There are cases like here, where there has been a lot of
9:04
pressure on the government not to receive me.
9:08
In that case, you have—not the minister himself, you might
9:14
have a lower level staff meeting the Special Rapporteur.
9:20
I decided to go ahead knowing none of the less, because for
9:23
me it was important to
9:24
have this opening from the government.
9:25
And still, after accepting the visit eagerly at the
9:31
beginning of October, after three weeks, the section
9:37
withdrew the invitation to meet me.

[Desmond Cole] 9:39
Has something like this happened to you before?

[Francesca Albanese] 9:41
No, no, it does not.

[Desmond Cole] 9:44
I was surprised.
9:45
I thought you were going to tell me that in other countries,
9:47
maybe there's been a reluctance to engage with you and with
9:50
your work, but nothing like this?

[Francesca Albanese] 9:53
Look, I cannot name countries because I do not want to
9:56
expose anyone.
9:57
But even countries who do not have a relationship with this
10:01
mandate, there are officials who have reached out to me, who
10:05
have met me, and off the record, there has been a frank
10:08
discussion.
10:09
This country has been special.
10:12
But also, what I find really appalling, and this is
10:16
something that I will not forget, is that there has been a
10:21
defamatory campaign against me mounted by the usual here.
10:28
And I mean, I keep on saying there is an army of genocidal
10:34
minions working to shelter Israel from responsibility, to
10:38
create an alternative reality, hiding what is happening.
10:42
The fact that Israel has killed 45,000 people, 70 per cent
10:47
of whom have sadly been women and children.
10:50
Now, the fact that people do not react to these numbers is
10:54
because there is a racial bias.
10:57
Palestinian life is less worthy.
11:00
Palestinian life counts less.
11:02
But 17,000 people is a monstrosity.
11:06
It's something that is staining our conscience forever.
11:09
And in the face of this, there has been a defamatory
11:13
campaign against me, as usual, accusations.
11:17
I don't even want to get in there.
11:19
However, never to engage with the substance of my reports.
11:23
And following this, the government has backtracked.
11:26
But before doing that, there is a permanent mission of
11:30
Canada in Geneva
11:32
who issued a defamatory statement against me. And
11:35
together with France, Germany, the US, and,
11:39
of course, the other states who are frankly supporting
11:42
the genocide, Israel, as it's committing genocide.
11:47
And this needs to be retracted.
11:49
What do you make of the recent announcement by the IDF that
11:55
they will not allow anyone to return to northern Gaza?
12:00
After everything else that we have witnessed.
12:05
My answer is, I told you!
12:09
On the 14th of October, 2023, I issued a statement when
12:18
Israel issued a mass evacuation order, which is a
12:21
monstrosity in and of itself, it cannot be legal under any
12:25
circumstances.
12:26
Because you need to ensure safety, shelter, food, access to
12:32
medical assistance to people you evacuate.
12:35
It is to be for a purpose, for military necessity, for a
12:38
short period of time.
12:39
What Israel has done has kicked out 1.1 million people out
12:43
of their homes, including elderly, persons with
12:47
disabilities, pregnant women, while they were being bombed.
12:51
And they've been sent to places which were being bombed.
12:55
This is all documented, not just by me, but forensic
12:59
experts, the United Nations, Israeli lawyers themselves.
13:04
And 22 hospitals have been part of this evacuation.
13:08
Now whomever didn't leave was considered a terrorist
13:12
affiliate or associate.
13:15
So, but I said, one or two days after, I said, this is going
13:21
to be the largest mass evacuation
13:24
of Palestinians since the Nakba.
13:26
And so it was.
13:28
Because I'm a scholar, my scholarship has been on forced
13:30
displacement of the Palestinians.
13:32
So I know that Israel, under the fog of war, takes the
13:36
opportunity to forcibly displace the Palestinians in order
13:40
to take the land.
13:41
And they've said it and they've done it.
13:46
Of course, journalists are not allowed to be inside of Gaza.
13:50
How do you receive and vet up to date information?
13:56
What are the sources that you trust and that others should
14:00
be trusting to receive the most accurate information about
14:03
what's happening?
14:04
Yeah, look, humanitarian organizations still have their
14:10
personnel on the ground.
14:14
Me, my predecessor, Professor Michael Lynk, and others have
14:19
been working with these organizations for decades.
14:22
They are reliable sources.
14:24
They are investigators and monitors.
14:27
There are other international organizations, and I won't
14:30
name anyone because they are in danger, and they are there,
14:34
and they do confirm, validate, I do receive information on a
14:39
regular basis.
14:40
Sometimes I learn things from the media, first and foremost,
14:44
and it takes hours before anyone can confirm or not.
14:47
And in general, they confirm.
14:49
And in general, it turns out to be worse than the first
14:53
notice.
14:56
People are not lying.
14:57
People are are trying to tell us, we are dying.
15:03
They are dying, and they keep on sending out these messages
15:08
like, 'see us, please don't forget us.'
15:13
But look, the the very sad thing is that Indigenous people
15:23
recognize this, suffer so much for what's happening to the
15:28
Palestinians, because in a way, even if it's different, is
15:32
what they have suffered.
15:34
The killing, the blaming, the smear, telling that they are
15:40
terrorists.
15:40
This is all seen, that the taking of the land is at the end
15:44
of any settler-colonial project.
15:46
And Israel is no different.
15:48
And it's appalling that our country, which claims to be
15:51
reckoning with the past, which many in this country say that
15:55
it's not really happening.
15:58
I mean in in true honesty and coherence.
16:03
But let this aside.
16:06
A country like this is taking the side, is providing support
16:13
to the country, which is committing the first genocide of
16:18
this century, and hopefully the last one.
16:21
My last question is, what are you taking away from your time
16:24
in this country?
16:26
I loved it.
16:28
Oh, I was received with such warmth.
16:31
I know that people tend to focus on the few officials in
16:33
Ottawa who didn't have the time to meet with me, that's
16:39
okay.
16:40
I think that the backlash has been so felt across the
16:48
country, because people were saying, 'why are you not
16:50
listening to her?'
16:51
The point is that there's also been a lot of media coverage.
16:56
There have been many public encounters where the rooms were
17:02
packed in these places where places where we have grieved
17:09
together, while also talking of how things should be if we
17:14
lived in a just world where international law is not just
17:18
something that you learn on books, but something that you
17:21
can practice.
17:22
What has what has really uplifted me is to see how much
17:31
people are ready to pick up the message and run with it.
17:39
My very visit to this country is there's testament to the
17:45
bridges that must be built.
17:47
I've seen people from Muslim communities working
17:51
hand-in-hand with the Independent Jewish Voices and other
17:54
Jewish groups who have so much wanted my visit.
17:58
And and then, as I was saying, Indigenous people coming in
18:05
and really embracing me and and others who have been part of
18:09
this journey.
18:10
But also students coming together with workers, and workers
18:15
coming together with scholars.
18:17
It's beautiful.
18:19
We have this momentum to change the course of history.
18:25
And we have a little hope that this is the only thing that
18:30
remains in this darkness, and we need to follow it, hoping
18:33
that we can make a difference.
18:35
We don't know if we will succeed, probably not, but we have
18:39
to try.
18:39
We must try for the Palestinians, for the Israelis, for us.
18:45
I want to thank you for taking the time to speak with me
18:47
today.
18:48
Thank you, Desmond.
18:50
It's a pleasure.
18:51
Thank you.

A/79/384: Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese - Genocide as colonial erasure
by Francesca Albanese
Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967
01 October 2024
https://reliefweb.int/attachments/ffa62 ... 427968.pdf

Summary

In the present report, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese, examines the unfolding horrors in the occupied Palestinian territory. While the wholesale destruction of Gaza continues unabated, other parts of the land have not been spared. The violence that Israel has unleashed against the Palestinians post-7 October is not happening in a vacuum, but is part of a long-term intentional, systematic, State- organized forced displacement and replacement of the Palestinians. This trajectory risks causing irreparable prejudice to the very existence of the Palestinian people in Palestine. Member States must intervene now to prevent new atrocities that will further scar human history.

******

A/79/384
United Nations
General Assembly

Distr.: General
1 October 2024
Original: English

Seventy-ninth session
Item 71 (c) of the provisional agenda*
Promotion and protection of human rights: human rights situations and reports of special rapporteurs and representatives

Situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967**

Note by the Secretary-General

The Secretary-General has the honour to transmit to the General Assembly the report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese, in accordance with Human Rights Council resolution 5/1.

Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese

Genocide as colonial erasure

Summary

In the present report, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese, examines the unfolding horrors in the occupied Palestinian territory. While the wholesale destruction of Gaza continues unabated, other parts of the land have not been spared. The violence that Israel has unleashed against the Palestinians post-7 October is not happening in a vacuum, but is part of a long-term intentional, systematic, State-organized forced displacement and replacement of the Palestinians. This trajectory risks causing irreparable prejudice to the very existence of the Palestinian people in Palestine. Member States must intervene now to prevent new atrocities that will further scar human history.

I. Introduction

1. In March 2024, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese, concluded that there were reasonable grounds to believe that Israel had committed acts of genocide in Gaza.1 In the present report, the Special Rapporteur expands the analysis of the post-7 October 2023 violence against Gaza, which has spread to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. She focuses on genocidal intent, contextualising the situation within a decades-long process of territorial expansion and ethnic cleansing aimed at liquidating the Palestinian presence in Palestine. She suggests that genocide should be seen as integral and instrumental to the aim of full Israeli colonization of Palestinian land while removing as many Palestinians as possible.

2. The present report is based on legal research and analysis, interviews with victims and witnesses, including in Jordan and Egypt, open-source information and input from experts and civil-society organizations. The Special Rapporteur, still refused access to the occupied Palestinian territory, stresses that Israel has no authority to bar fact-finding mechanisms from the territory that it illegally occupies. The persistent denial of access to United Nations mechanisms and investigators of the International Criminal Court (ICC) may constitute obstruction of justice, in defiance of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) order that Israel allow international investigators to enter Gaza and take measures to ensure the preservation of evidence.2

3. While the scale and nature of the ongoing Israeli assault against the Palestinians vary by area, the totality of the Israeli acts of destruction directed against the totality of the Palestinian people, with the aim of conquering the totality of the land of Palestine, is clearly identifiable. Patterns of violence against the group as a whole warrant the application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention) in order to cease, prevent and punish genocide in the whole of the occupied Palestinian territory.

II. Legal framework and developments

4. In the present report, the Special Rapporteur relies on the legal framework considered in previous reports,3 including international humanitarian law, international human rights law, international criminal law and customary international law, in particular the Genocide Convention and the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid, together with relevant legal developments and jurisprudence.

5. Two important legal developments informed the present report. First, in its Advisory Opinion of July 2024, ICJ declared the prolonged presence of Israel in the whole of the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including its colony regime,4 as unlawful5 and aimed at annexation.6 It stated that Israeli annexation was designed to be permanent, creating “irreversible effects on the ground”,7 “undermin[ing] the integrity of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory”8 and seeking to “acquire sovereignty over an occupied territory”.9

6. The Court recognized the violation of non-derogable norms prohibiting territorial acquisition by force,10 racial segregation and apartheid,11 and protecting the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people,12 concluding that the occupation constitutes an act of aggression, in all but name, deriving in part from its settler-colonial nature.13 It stressed the obligation to rapidly end the occupation, dismantle and evacuate the colonies, provide full reparation to Palestinian victims and allow the return of Palestinians displaced since 1967.14

7. Expanding on the Wall opinion,15 the Court rejected arguments that Israeli “security concerns” justify the occupation.16 The declared unlawfulness of the occupation vitiates claims of purported self-defence; the only lawful recourse available to Israel is its unconditional withdrawal from the whole of that territory.

8. Second, in South Africa v. Israel, the Court ordered provisional measures to prevent and/or stop acts of genocide.17 After recognizing, in January 2024, the existence of a “real and imminent risk [of] irreparable prejudice” to the rights of the Palestinians in Gaza under the Genocide Convention, the Court instructed Israel to “prevent the commission of all acts” outlined in the Convention.18 In March, the Court took notice of the worsening humanitarian crisis,19 and in May, recognizing an “exceptionally grave” risk in Rafah, it ordered Israel to “immediately halt its military offensive”.20 Despite this, Israel, and most other States, continue to disregard such orders,21 with arms continuing to flow to Israel.22

III. The unfolding genocide as a “means to an end”

9. On 14 October 2023, after Israel ordered 1.1 million Palestinians to move south from northern Gaza in 24 hours – “one of the fastest mass displacements in history”23 – the Special Rapporteur warned of the risk of deliberate mass ethnic cleansing.24 This proved prescient. At least 90 per cent of Palestinians in Gaza have now been forcibly displaced – many more than 10 times25 – amid calls from Israeli officials and others for Palestinians to leave and Israelis to “return to Gaza” and rebuild the colonies dismantled in 2005.26

10. Meanwhile, violence has spread beyond Gaza, with Israeli forces and violent settlers having escalated patterns of ethnic cleansing and apartheid in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.27

11. High-ranking Israeli officials, ministers and religious leaders continue to encourage erasure and dispossession of Palestinians, setting new thresholds for acceptable violence against civilians. The Nakba, which has been ongoing since 1948, has been deliberately accelerated.28

12. In the following sections, the Special Rapporteur examines critical developments on the ground, highlighting patterns of conduct that evidence an intent to employ genocidal acts as a means to ethnically cleanse all or parts of the occupied Palestinian territory.

A. Failure to cease and punish genocide in Gaza

13. Since the previous report of the Special Rapporteur (A/78/545), and despite the ICJ interventions, genocidal acts have proliferated. Nearly a year of scorched-earth assault has led to the calculated destruction of Gaza: the human, material and environmental cost is unquantifiable.29

14. Since March 2024, Israel has killed 10,037 Palestinians and injured 21,767, with more than 93 massacres, bringing the reported totals to nearly 42,000 and 96,000 respectively, although figures from reliable sources are incomplete and may understate the magnitude of the casualties.30 Aid distribution sites,31 tents,32 hospitals,33 schools34 and markets35 have been repeatedly attacked through the indiscriminate use of aerial and sniper fire. At least 13,000 children, including more than 700 babies,36 have been killed, many shot in the head and chest.37 Approximately 22,500 Palestinians have sustained life-changing injuries.38 By May, a further 10,000 people were estimated to be buried under the rubble,39 including 4,000 children;40 the voices of those trapped and dying are often audible. An uncertain number are forcibly disappeared by Israeli forces.41

15. The magnitude of destruction in Gaza has prompted allegations of domicide,42 urbicide,43 scholasticide,44 medicide,45 cultural genocide46 and ecocide.47 Nearly 40 million tons of debris, including unexploded ordnance and human remains,48 contaminate the ecosystem.49 More than 140 temporary waste sites50 and 340,000 tons of waste,51 untreated wastewater and sewage overflow52 contribute to the spread of diseases such as hepatitis A,53 respiratory infections,54 diarrhoea and skin diseases.55 As Israeli leaders promised, Gaza has been made unfit for human life.56

16. Continued bombardment of evacuees in purportedly designated “safe zones”57 has continued to create hardship, terror and death.58 Displaced people have been systematically chased down and targeted in shelters, including in United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) schools, 70 per cent of which Israel has repeatedly attacked.59 The Rafah offensive in May caused more than 3,500 direct deaths60 and new displacement of almost 1 million Palestinians to uninhabitable wastelands of rubble, sewage and decomposing bodies.61

17. According to satellite imagery and other sources, Israeli soldiers have built roads and military bases in more than 26 per cent of Gaza, suggesting the aim of a permanent presence.62 The Israeli military expanded the “buffer zone” along the Gaza perimeter to 16 per cent of the territory, flattening homes, apartment blocks and agricultural farms.63 By August 2024, repeated evacuation orders over approximately 84 per cent of Gaza64 had corralled the majority of the population into a shrinking, unsafe “humanitarian zone” covering 12.6 per cent65 of a territory now reconfigured in preparation for annexation.66 In early September, two ministers of the Government of Israel openly called for the conquest and annexation of significant areas of Gaza.67

18. Israel has continued to use “medical shielding” arguments to target healthcare facilities.68 According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in 300 days, 32 out of 36 hospitals were damaged, with 20 hospitals and 70 out of 119 primary healthcare centres incapacitated.69 By 20 August, Israel had attacked healthcare facilities 492 times.70 From 18 March to 1 April, Israeli forces again laid siege to Al-Shifa Hospital, killing more than 400 and detaining 300 people, including doctors, patients, displaced persons and civil servants.71 On 26 August, following mass expulsion orders in Deir al-Balah, where 1 million Palestinians were sheltering, Israeli forces compelled the evacuation of all but 100 of 650 patients in Al-Aqsa hospital.72 On 30 August, Israeli forces bombed a humanitarian truck bound for the Emirati hospital in Rafah, killing several aid workers.73

19. On 16 July 2024, WHO detected the first presence of poliovirus in 25 years – a direct consequence of the destruction of water and sewage systems, obstruction of aid and shelter overcrowding.74 By late August, a 10-month-old baby was partially paralysed by the disease.75 Despite the looming outbreak, Israel delayed vaccinations76 and attacked vaccination areas77 and a United Nations vaccination convoy.78 While humanitarian organizations called for a ceasefire, Israel issued the highest number of evacuation orders since 13 October 2023, targeting areas with the highest concentration of displaced Palestinians,79 forcing the United Nations to suspend humanitarian operations.80

20. Systematic attacks on Gaza food sovereignty indicate an intent to destroy its population through starvation.81 Israel has destroyed agricultural land82 and reservoirs83 and attacked distribution centres, coordination teams and aid convoys.84 Hungry crowds waiting for food have been massacred.85 Following constant evacuation orders and the Israeli takeover of the Rafah crossing,86 distribution of daily meals fell by 35 per cent from July to August 2024.87 In August, entry permits for humanitarian organizations nearly halved.88 Access to water has been restricted to a quarter of pre-7 October levels.89 Approximately 93 per cent of the agricultural, forestry and fishing economies has been destroyed;90 95 per cent of Palestinians face high levels of acute food insecurity,91 and deprivation for decades to come.92

21. In August 2024, the Finance Minister of Israel, Bezalel Smotrich, stated that starving the entire Gaza population was “justified and moral”, even if 2 million people consequently died.93 In recent months, 83 per cent of food aid was prevented from entering Gaza,94 and the civilian police in Rafah were repeatedly targeted, impairing distribution.95 At least 34 deaths from malnutrition were recorded by 14 September 2024.96 At the time of writing, the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was evaluating a plan to block all food supplies to northern Gaza97 proposed by adviser Giora Eiland,98 who previously endorsed introducing epidemics as a military tactic.99 The killing of civilian police and clan leadership providing security for food distribution further compounded the crisis across Gaza.100 Starvation and deprivation tactics in the north have been particularly egregious.101

22. Palestinians have been systematically abused in a network of Israeli torture camps.102 Thousands have disappeared, many after being detained in appalling conditions, often bound to beds, blindfolded and in diapers, deprived of medical treatment and subjected to unsanitary conditions, starvation, torturous cuffing, severe beatings, electrocution and sexual assault by both humans and animals.103 At least 48 detainees have died in custody.104

23. Even when conservatively considered, these multiple torments constitute precisely the irreparable harm that ICJ has warned against since January 2024, and which Israel has intentionally inflicted on the Palestinians as a group.

B. Risk of genocide in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem

24. The devastation inflicted on Gaza is now metastasizing to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. In December 2023, the Defence Minister of Israel, Yoav Gallant, predicted that “when what the IDF did in Gaza becomes clear, that will also be projected on Judea and Samaria [West Bank]”.105

25. From 7 October 2023 to the end of September 2024, Israeli forces carried out more than 5,505 raids.106 Violent settlers, supported by Israeli forces and officials,107 conducted 1,084 attacks,108 killing more than 692 Palestinians – 10 times the previous 14 years’ annual average of 69 fatalities – and injuring 5,199.109

26. The pattern of targeting children is shocking. Since 7 October, 169 Palestinian children have been killed,110 nearly 80 per cent of whom were shot in the head or torso.111 This represents a 250 per cent increase on the previous nine months,112 totalling more than 20 per cent of children killed in the West Bank since 2000.113

27. Echoing the brutality that swept Gaza, Palestinians in the West Bank have been subjected to appalling detention practices,114 following orders by the National Security Minister of Israel, Itamar Ben-Gvir.115 A mass arrest campaign116 led to the detention of tens of thousands, with 9,400 currently detained.117 As in Gaza, many are academics, students, lawyers, journalists and human rights defenders,118 designated as “terrorists” or “national security threats”.119 Leaked videos and interviews with prison officials revealed intentional and systemic abuse and brutality, degradation, torture and even rape.120 At least 12 detainees from the West Bank died as a result of torture and denial of medical care.121

28. In November 2023, Bezalel Smotrich, “Governor of Judea and Samaria” and staunch advocate of colonization and mass expulsion,122 claimed that there are “2 million Nazis” in the West Bank.123 He then promised to turn several areas of the West Bank into a “pile of rubble like … [Gaza]”.124 On 18 August, the Foreign Minister of Israel, Israel Katz, called for the West Bank to receive the same treatment as Gaza.125

29. The northern West Bank has been the subject of particularly severe military violence.126 Protracted sieges,127 relentless raids128 and a major escalation since August 2024, including aerial bombardment,129 have wrought devastation.130 Forty-six drone and air strike operations131 killed 77 Palestinians, including 14 children.132 In Jenin camp approximately 180 homes were levelled and 3,800 structures damaged,133 destroying or damaging power supplies, public services and amenities,134 displacing thousands of families and causing widespread disruption.135 More than 181,000 Palestinians have been affected, many multiple times.136

30. On 27 August 2024, Israeli forces launched operation “Summer Camps” against Jenin, Nablus, Qalqilya, Tubas and Tulkarem, fulfilling the promise to treat the West Bank like Gaza.137 For days on end, thousands were placed under curfew, without food or water.138 Israeli forces targeted ambulances, blocked entrances to hospitals and laid siege to Jenin Hospital.139 Bulldozers destroyed streets and electricity and public health infrastructure.140 Hundreds lost their homes and property;141 more than 1,000 families in Jenin were displaced. 142 Thirty-six were killed, including eight children.143

31. Targeted attacks on the health sector have been replicated in the West Bank. Medical workers and infrastructure were attacked 538 times, killing 23 people and injuring 100 and damaging 54 medical facilities, 20 mobile clinics and 374 ambulances,144 while critical medical care was impeded.145 Permits for Palestinians to access medical care outside the West Bank sharply declined.146

32. On 29 May 2024, governance of the West Bank was officially transferred from military to civilian authorities – furthering de jure annexation – and placed under Bezalel Smotrich, a committed Eretz Yisrael politician.147 The largest single land appropriation in 30 years was then approved.148 Since 7 October, Israel has demolished, confiscated or ordered the demolition of more than 1,416 Palestinian structures, displacing more than 3,200 Palestinians, including approximately 1,400 children.149 At least 18 communities were depopulated under the threat of lethal force,150 effectively enabling the colonization of large tracts of Area C.151 This constitutes an escalation of unlawful conduct already found to be “aimed at dispersing the [Palestinian] population and undermining its integrity as a people”.152

33. The crippling of the economy is another existential threat. Amid extreme insecurity and fear, the suspension of financial transfers to the Palestinian Authority,153 the revocation of 148,000 work permits154 and severe movement restrictions, the gross domestic product (GDP) of the West Bank contracted by 22.7 per cent,155 nearly 30 per cent of businesses have closed, and 292,000 jobs have been lost.156

34. Genocidal conduct in Gaza set an ominous precedent for the West Bank. The deliberate strategy of Israel to render Palestinian life unsustainable has markedly intensified everywhere in the occupied Palestinian territory, with devastating consequences for Palestinian survival.

IV. Understanding the legal complexity and scope of genocidal intent

35. Following the harrowing experience of recent genocides in Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia and, plausibly, Myanmar,157 what constitutes genocide in law – the destruction of a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, in whole or in part, as such – has become better established.158 However, preventing and punishing genocide in practice, in particular proving genocidal intent, is still developing.159

36. The stigma attached to and the consequences of the crime of genocide often deter perpetrators from recording policies, plans and other indications of intent to carry it out (e.g. in writing).160 When direct evidence of intent is unavailable, inferring intent requires a complex assessment of facts, statements and circumstances.161 These factors should be borne in mind:

(a) While recognizing the possible composite nature of genocide is critical to its identification and prevention, the compartmentalization of the conduct into its disparate acts without recourse to broader context can obscure the requisite genocidal intent;

(b) Aside from the five acts that may constitute genocidal conduct, other acts can be indicative of genocidal intent;162

(c) The existing jurisprudence has arisen primarily from the criminal prosecution of individuals;163 this can limit the early recognition of broader State responsibility for genocide, which is crucial to its prevention.

37. Understanding how the intent to destroy manifests – its relationship to the prescribed genocidal acts and the nature and scale of atrocities – is key when identifying conduct that could constitute evidence of genocidal intent as the only reasonable inference.

38. In the following sections, the Special Rapporteur briefly outlines how relevant jurisprudence, analysed in abstracto, is fully capable of capturing genocidal intent in State conduct when a comprehensive interpretative approach is adopted.

A. Considering the plurality of facts, circumstances and conduct

39. The magnitude and complexity of the crime of genocide require close analysis of the genocidal conduct as a whole,164 properly situated in its broader context.165 Due consideration should be given to:

• The destruction caused by the nature and scale of atrocities166

• The fog of war167

• Claims to retribution or alternative motives168

• The opportunity to commit genocide169

40. In international practice, the same facts can form the basis of multiple charges (and constitute a war crime or crime against humanity and an act of genocide).170 When determining genocidal intent, it is critical to assess “whether all of the evidence, taken together, demonstrate[s] a genocidal mental state”.171

41. As observed by Judge Trindade in Croatia v. Serbia, an “onslaught of civilians” is not merely a “plurality of common crimes”, but rather a “plurality of atrocities, which, in itself, by its extreme violence and devastation, can disclose the intent to destroy”.172 The focus should be on whether all the acts – e.g. starvation, torture, killing, forced displacement, extermination – considered together in their totality form a pattern of conduct indicative of genocidal intent.173

B. Singularity of intent: destroying “a group” “as such”

42. In proving intent to destroy the group, all relevant factors must be examined holistically. Jurisprudence on genocidal intent is typically focused on “physical or biological destruction” of the group.174 The fact that the Genocide Convention was drafted when colonialism still played a significant role in international relations, and the vivid horror of the Holocaust’s industrial-scale extermination, may account for the focus on physical and biological destruction over social and cultural factors.175 However, genocide is not a crime only of mass killing, as specified in the Convention itself.176 The genocidal act of “forcibly transferring children of the group to another group”, for example, entails no killing at all.177

43. Genocide is more structurally complex and insidious, and therefore more difficult to ascertain than crimes such as mass killing or extermination. A wider lens is required to identify the intent to destroy a group in whole or in part as such. International jurisprudence provides that acts other than the five listed in the Convention may be relevant evidence of genocidal intent.178 Accordingly, the historical and sociopolitical context in which genocide occurs is key to identifying how intent forms, and then materializes also through these other acts.

44. Jurisprudence has been broadly focused on determining intent through acts targeting “the very foundation of the group”,179 including the imposition of living conditions leading to “slow death”180 and “the destruction of the spirit, of the will to live, and of life itself”.181 In other words, intent to destroy is assessed holistically and in totality.

45. Jurisprudence has also recognized that a group is “comprised of its individuals, but also of its history, traditions, the relationship between its members, the relationship with other groups, the relationship with the land”.182 Violent destruction of any of these components has a profound impact on the group and its ability to survive.183 Trauma, poverty, food scarcity, forced displacement, loss of homes, land and cultural heritage – and settler-colonialism as an “enduring structure”184 – are widely recognized determinants of individual and societal health.185

46. In settler-colonial contexts, land and its resources are particularly relevant. Land is intrinsic to both a people’s right to self-determination and the settler-colonial project. An inherent conflict exists between the colonizers, who seek to acquire and control the land, and the Indigenous population, for whom the land is integral to their identity: “where they are is who they are”.186 Disconnection from land and cultural roots contributes to the erosion of identity and community resilience, resulting in physically destructive outcomes: poorer health, lower life expectancy and abnormally high suicide rates.187 The issue of land is therefore indicative of how the settler-colonial project destroys – in order to replace – the Indigenous population.188

47. Consequently, components of conduct, such as repeated forced displacement, that result in the disconnection from the land, as well as the destruction of the cultural, educational and economic structures that tie a people to the land, must be considered “significant as indicative of the presence of a specific intent … inspiring [other genocidal] acts”.189 Forced displacement itself, together with aggravating factors – e.g. displacement into dangerous, squalid or toxic conditions – can constitute an underlying genocidal act.190 The particular vulnerability of the group must also be considered.191

48. In short, intent to destroy has become established as the targeting of a group’s existence such that “the group can no longer reconstitute itself”.192

C. Genocidal intent in the context of State responsibility

49. Early identification of genocide is crucial to prevent genocide, ensuring that a central tenet of the post-Second World War international legal system is not a dead letter.

50. In assessing State responsibility for genocide – i.e. genocidal intent attributable to the State – ICJ has drawn heavily on the jurisprudence of international criminal tribunals.193 While acknowledging that State responsibility can be established “without an individual being convicted of the crime”,194 in Bosnia v. Serbia in 2007, the Court found State genocidal intent only where individual perpetrators had been held criminally responsible. The Court established that, in the absence of direct evidence of State intent, the pattern of conduct must be such that it “could only point to the existence of such intent”.195 This approach was tempered in 2015, in Croatia v. Serbia, where the Court determined that “reasonableness” must be considered when inferring genocidal intent from patterns of conduct.196

51. However, further clarity is needed regarding genocidal intent in the context of State responsibility. State intent can be derived from the aggregate of individual perpetrators’ genocidal intents, but States should not be exonerated simply because there are no individual criminal convictions, which, if they do occur, may come too late to prevent or stop genocide. While ICJ acknowledged that State obligations concerning genocide are “not of a criminal nature”,197 the standard of proof required to ground the responsibility of a State is a quasi-criminal standard. Among other things, this would delay or frustrate justice for victims.

52. Intervening in The Gambia v. Myanmar, currently before ICJ, six Western States argued that the “reasonableness criterion” requires a “balanced approach” so as not to make it “impossible” to determine genocidal intent “by way of inference”198 in other words, urging the Court not to miss the forest for the trees. Otherwise, this risks protecting the State over the victims that the Convention is designed to protect.199

53. Three factors help achieve this balance:

(a) Applying the “only reasonable inference” test involves first filtering out other possible intents that could be inferred but are not reasonably supported by the evidence.200 A balanced consideration of the interplay between motives and intent should determine whether motives “preclude such a specific intent” to destroy a people,201 or whether they are consistent with, or even confirm, genocidal intent as the only reasonable inference;

(b) International law treats the State as a unit, not as separate organs.202 This means that conduct and intent of the State must be considered holistically. A rule of law-regulated State must be viewed as a whole, including its Government, parliament and judiciary and their regulatory functions;

(c) Given the high threshold set for establishing genocidal intent, the failure to illuminate the totality of conduct invites the possibility of invisibilizing the crime itself behind the claimed strategies, policies and actions that are advanced by the wrongdoing State in order to obscure it.203 Failure to recognize genocide in its totality may help create the camouflage that a State could employ to commit it.

V. “Totality triple lens”: Israeli intent towards the Palestinians as a group as such

54. The current intent to destroy the people as such could not be more evident from Israeli conduct when viewed in its totality. In this section, the Special Rapporteur applies the framework set out above to the totality of conduct targeting the totality of Palestinians, in the totality of the occupied Palestinian territory (“totality triple lens”). She then analyses specific components of Israeli conduct: the broader context of the political project of Israel in the region; the nature of the destruction inflicted on the Palestinian people; and the motives obscuring the specific intent itself.

A. Totality of the land: “Greater Israel”

55. The ambition for a “Greater Israel” (Eretz Yisrael), consolidating Jewish sovereignty over the territory now comprising both Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory, has been a long-standing goal since the very inception of the Zionist project and before Israel existed.204 The legally recognized right to self-determination of Palestinians being tied to that land,205 together with their large presence, have represented both legal and demographic impediments to the realization of “Greater Israel”.

56. Successive Governments have pursued this goal, predicated on the erasure of the Indigenous Palestinian people.206 Even after the Oslo Accords, which marked international support for a two-State solution, the plan was advanced.207 Since then, Israeli colonies have increased from 128 to 358,208 and settler numbers have grown from 256,400209 to 714,600.210 The 2018 Nation State Law asserted exclusive Jewish sovereignty over “Eretz Yisrael” and “Jewish settlement” in that area as a national priority.211 On 28 December 2022, the current Government of Israel announced its plan to expand the colonies in the West Bank212 and aggressively advanced substantial land confiscation and settlement expansion. In September 2023, before the General Assembly, Prime Minister Netanyahu exhibited a map of Israel erasing the occupied Palestinian territory and superimposing Israel.213

57. The cultivation of a political doctrine214 that frames Palestinian assertions of self-determination as a security threat to Israel has served to legitimize permanent occupation.215 The deliberate dehumanization of the Palestinians has accompanied systematic ethnic purges from the period 1947–1949 to today.216 Ideological hatred of Palestinians as such has pervaded segments of society and the Israeli State apparatus.217

58. Meanwhile, despite the oppression, Palestinians refuse to leave the land, and in fact the population has grown. The increasing risk of a majority-Jewish State becoming unachievable has progressively made destruction an unavoidable part of the process.218

59. The events of 7 October provided the impetus to advance towards the goal of a “Greater Israel”. Calls for the displacement of Palestinians into the Arab world, amid conquest, colonization and annexation, grew.219 The leaked Ministry of Intelligence of Israel “concept paper” from October 2023 outlining the expulsion of the entire Gaza population to Egypt,220 alongside widespread and explicit support within the governing coalition,221 identifies an opportunity to recolonize Gaza,222 which the Government seized, taking advantage of the fog of war. In parallel in the West Bank, following 7 October, annexation and colony construction intensified.223

60. The State’s intent to destroy, expressed in various statements and plans, and inferable from conduct considered in context, has gradually become more recognizable. This conduct had already, prior to 7 October, had the effect of “a cumulative, multilayered and intergenerational impact on the Palestinian society, economy and environment and [had caused] the deterioration of the living conditions of the Palestinians”.224

61. The violence and trauma suffered by the Israelis on 7 October deepened collective animosity, and calls for annihilation grew.225 In a manner reminiscent of other genocides, the ensuing vengeful atmosphere prepared the soldiers to become “willing executioners” of the heinous tasks required of them.226 An opportunity presented itself to sever Palestinian connection to the land, with foreseeable consequences for their Palestinian existence,227 as outlined below.

B. Totality of the group: destruction of the Palestinian people

62. Since 7 October 2023, the decimation of Palestinian human life has been swift and extensive. Amid mass killings, eradication of family lines, large-scale targeting of children and torture, the occupied Palestinian territory is being intentionally rendered unliveable – one home, school, church, mosque, hospital, neighbourhood, community, at a time. Spreading from Gaza to the West Bank, calculated destruction reveals a deliberate campaign of connected incidents, which must be considered cumulatively.

63. Israel has pursued a pattern of conduct “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction”,228 as evidenced by the systematic destruction of already precarious life-sustaining healthcare, food security and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for All (WASH) infrastructure. Although varying in intensity across the occupied territory, in Gaza this destructive violence has already led to starvation, epidemics and forced displacement with no possibility of safe return – as expressly intended. The destruction of infrastructure across the occupied Palestinian territory imperils the long-term survival of the group. The deliberate degradation of public health is a technique of genocide “by attrition”.229 More than 500,000 children with no schooling and 88,000 students without universities230 are doomed to dire outcomes.

64. For Palestinians, further layers of agony and forced displacement aggravate their inherited trauma and psychological vulnerability as Nakba survivors.231 Months of relentless shunting of weakened humans from one unsafe area to another – fleeing bombs and bullets, with minimal chances of escape, amid loss, fear and grief, and with little access to shelter, clean water, food and healthcare – have inflicted incalculable harm, especially on children.232 The movement of displaced Palestinians resembles the death marches of past genocides, and the Nakba. Forced displacement severs connection with the land, undermining food sovereignty and cultural belonging, and triggering further displacement.233 Communal bonds are broken, the social fabric shredded and reserves of resilience depleted. Systematic forced displacement contributes to “the destruction of the spirit, of the will to live, and of life itself”.234

65. As was foreseeable, the overall conduct of Israel post-7 October has inflicted severe psychological harm on all Palestinians, both direct victims and those witnessing in exile. The overall aim is to humiliate and degrade Palestinians as a whole. Prisoners stripped and sadistically tortured en masse; bodies of adults and children piled up and decomposing in the street; survivors forced to eat animal food and grass and drink seawater or even sewage; the maiming of thousands, including young children left limbless before they could even crawl; the destruction of homes and violation of intimate life; having absolutely nothing to return to. Mass graves and the exhumation and relocation of bodies are specific acts of desecration, which themselves can suggest genocidal intent.235 Combined, these acts go far beyond what international jurisprudence recognizes as “step[s] in the process of destruction of the … group”.236 The pain and loss will impact generations to come.237

66. Genocide could manifest in the targeting of members of the same group in different parts of their territory, through acts of varying intensity.238 In the background, Palestinians inside Israel (“the enemies within”) have also experienced suppression.239 The relentless attacks against the United Nations, and, in particular, UNRWA, threaten the socioeconomic lifelines of millions of Palestinian refugees across the broader region, and cannot be ignored.

67. The destructive consequences of Israeli conduct reverberate well beyond the Gaza epicentre, as the same patterns of genocidal conduct have begun to appear in the West Bank. The only inference to be reasonably drawn from all this is of a clear intention to attack “the group’s capacity to renew itself, and hence to ensure its long‑term survival”.240

Gaza: Is International Law a Waste of Time? With Francesca Albanese
The Thinking Muslim
Nov 14, 2024

Should we, people who remain married to justice, accept that international law, if it ever did work, is today defunct? In a broader sense, when we pursue its application are we in danger of creating a sense of false hope. These are the existential questions we are now asking ourselves as the genocide proceeds at pace into its 2nd year.

My guest today is Francesca Albanese, an international lawyer who has been in the eye of the storm, speaking truth at the highest levels. Francesca specialises in international humanitarian law and is the special rapporteur for the UN reporting on Palestine.



Transcript

Introduction
0:00
Palestine is a test for Humanity Gaza has been destroyed they have entrapped
0:07
and cired starved killed maimed tortured are you more or less hopeful about International
0:14
Justice there are double standards and now they're fully exposed David lamier foreign secretary was asked in Parliament a question about whether he would describe Gaza
0:24
to be a genocide David Lamy is not the only genocide denier what constitutes genocide is
0:30
established Arab states should be the first in complying with international law when it comes to Palestine there are countries who maintain economic ties diplomatic ties
0:41
but especially military and financial ties with Israel what happens to me have been so
0:47
many the slaughtering Gaza progresses in a haze of Silence ESS has colluded with Israel to provide
0:56
military assistance political legitimacy diploma cover and Financial Resources Gaza is a perfect
1:03
murder scene a graveyard not only of tens of thousands of children but a graveyard of a
1:09
defunct order that has been exposed as nothing but an empty set of rules to beat opponents
1:15
and protect friends from prosecution should we people who remain married to Justice accept that
1:22
international law if it ever did work is today defunct in a broader sense when we pursue its
1:29
applic ation are we in danger of creating a sense of false hope these are the existential questions
1:36
we are now asking ourselves as the genocide proceeds at PACE into its second years my guest
1:42
today is Franchesca albeni an international lawyer who has been in the eye of the storm
1:48
speaking Truth at the highest levels Franchesca specializes in international humanitarian law and
1:55
is the special repur for the UN reporting on Palestine Franchesca welcome to the thinking
2:01
Muslim thank you so much well it's lovely to have you with us now Franchesca 13 months of Slaughter
2:08
isn't it time to accept that international law is obsolete before I answer that let me I was
2:13
listening to you and there are a few a few words that caught my attention and I I wouldn't agree
2:22
with the framing please we are not into 303 months of Silence around genocide it's silencing because
2:33
the the world is in turmoil all Western countries have seen protests for 30 months and arrest and
2:42
detention and repression toward protesters um not because of violence I'm not saying that there were
2:51
no violent acts occasionally committed but the protests have largely been peaceful and there
2:58
has been silence and there's been silencing and through smear uh and attacks of voices who have
3:06
tried to stand against this to call attention to point at the way forward and here we go to the to
3:15
the allegedly defun uh international law system I do not think that international law is the problem
Is international law the problem?
3:26
per se yeah we have a set of norms and mechanisms to prevent to stop and punish crimes all the more
3:36
a crime as Insidious as vicious as genocide but is not working and to be honest it does not worked
3:45
in previous instances like um in the case of of Rwanda or Bosnia but there have been other cases
3:57
like in Central America we tend not to see are so Western centered that we do not see that in fact
4:03
genocide in as much as is aor is not an exception why so because the system doesn't doesn't respond
4:12
so the problem is to be is to be uh found is and the system is to be interrogated in what is
4:21
deficient is what is not functioning in it is the there is an inner discrimination and bias
4:31
and Western countries are somewhat responsible for it there are double standards and now they
4:39
are fully exposed and I think it was May that the IC um prosecutor Chief prosecutor Kareem Khan
4:47
issued an application for arrest um uh to the uh to the court uh yet months later we haven't
4:55
yet had a decision from the court and I think I remember Russia and Ukraine uh the decisions that
5:03
came from the IC were fairly rapid what accounts then for for the the lack of of attention to what
ICC ruling, why the delayed decision?
5:10
is a genocide I think you're right in a sense for for Russia the indictment came I think within 11
5:22
months uh from the announcement of the opening of the investigation yes Palestine it has going on
5:31
forever and the investigation is now three three year old but only after October 7 the prosecutor
5:42
really uh accelerated its uh its office capacity to investigate and collect evidence so this is
5:51
already a sign that something was not working yeah but yet after May the international court has come
5:58
under increasing pressure attacks smear threats from go governments like the Us and other powerful
6:08
organizations is not easy it's not easy to work in this uh toxic environment and clearly Justice is
6:16
uh is hijacked on the way you know retributive Justice can be delivered through various means
6:25
and channels and while the international criminal court is the International Mech
6:30
mechanisms supposed to uh to deliver that kind of Justice to to to deliver accountability this
6:40
is not the only one there are international there are sorry domestic courts uh who have which have
6:46
Universal jurisdiction so actions against alleged perpetrators of genocide could be initiated in
6:55
this country as well why doesn't it happen yeah um well I mean arguably the icj has moved at a
7:02
slightly more faster Pace there was that interim judgment which uh suggested that there may be a
How effective are the ICJ judgements ?
7:09
plausible genocide uh as well as judgments on the occupied territories in the West Bank yet without
7:15
the backing of the International Community it's fairly clear that those judgments are not really
7:21
going to take have much of an effect I mean is that a is that a fair reading of of where the icj is well the icj has issued three sets of provisional measures and had those measures been
7:35
um complied with we would have seen the end of what the court has recognized being a plausible
7:42
genocide yes or being plausibly a genocide uh and it has not been uh acted upon I the court will is
7:56
is currently investigated investigating whether is a state responsibility for genocide and may
8:02
it might take years this is not just because uh the the it's in it's difficult to to establish
8:09
genocidal intent at the state level it's also because the court has different cases to deal
8:16
with yeah um but at the same time the genocide convention sets three obligations to prevent stop
8:25
and punish genocide and the trigger is when there is an indication that genocide might be committed
8:34
when there is genocidal incitement incitement to genocide is a crime in and of itself so this is
8:42
the signal and the court in January this year found that where Israeli leaders in named them
8:49
Israeli leaders who had incited to commit Act of genocide they should have been investigated right
8:56
and this could have already had a deterrent effect unfortunately nothing has moved at the political
9:04
level arms have continued to flow into Israel and member states have even found creating creative
9:12
ways to circumnavigate the the legal obstacles the PO potential judicial scrutiny and National
9:20
level uh investing in indirect transfer so you see what we are facing now is the system in its
9:30
pure form it's not that men especially Western States western states political elites with a
9:39
few exceptions are standing with Israel as it commits genocide because there is a cohesion or a
9:47
convergence of Interest this is the system we are facing so it's not that the system is not working
9:53
the system is working to protect certain interests and in the way not only they are slaughtering the
Who is the system working for?
9:59
Palestinians not only they are um Paving the way toward the burial of the international
10:06
order but they are also crashing fundamental freedoms within their own States in order to
10:16
silence the solidarity with the Palestinians the solidarity to stop a genocide this is paradoxical
10:24
because we have had genocides before but never there has been this apology of the crime at the
10:31
international level politicians and media alike have been working together for that never we have
10:38
had such a resistance such an opposition um such a Revolution Brewing really around the globe to
10:47
stop it and seeing it silence is also a sign that the system is turning less and less liberal toward
10:54
their its own constituencies in the west I suppose what I'm trying to work out is where you are
11:00
more or less hopeful about International Justice working um and I think you've written forgive me
Is Francesca hopeful about international justice?
11:06
if I've if I'm mistaken here but you've you've now published five reports at the United Nations two
11:12
of which document genocide I mean since your first report from the first report to now are you more
11:19
or less hopeful about International Justice not sure hopeful is the right term I'd say motivated
11:28
and anxious to see it work because I do think that we do not have many peaceful tools to take us out
11:37
of here and I want to see it work because again human rights have are somewhat the codification of
11:50
civil struggles um against slavery against aparte for recognition of farmer rights food sovereign
11:59
indigenous rights gender gender equality I mean it's it's a a continuous struggle yes but we
12:09
build on each struggle and we become stronger this is the challenge now we need to be able to
12:16
see that in what what is at risk in Palestine Palestine is a test for Humanity versus like
12:26
permanent War a state of War between the system and the people therefore if we all take part to
12:35
this and become like a bigger movement building on the intersectionality of the struggles also
12:42
understanding how fragile we are in our societies we we we struggle standing in solidarity with one
12:50
another because we the system is such that we risk our job we risk um our reputation and it's
12:58
very difficult breaks these barriers but I wonder if this is not the moment to do that because we
13:04
have been fragilized enough so yeah this is where I'm hopeful it's not I'm hopeful that people we
13:15
realize what we are standing against and we use the the tools we have to make it happen
13:23
there seems to be a reluctance certainly in the west to use the word genocide whether that's in the media and certainly in in political circles um you may have seen a few weeks back David Lamy
David Lammy and the definition of genocide
13:33
our foreign secretary was asked in Parliament a question about whether he would describe um
13:39
Gaza to be a genocide and he said the scale of the of the killings was nowhere near a genocide
13:46
so he dismissed it outright um like how how is genocide defined and how would you respond to
13:52
to lamb excuse me I I can't believe that he's a lawyer isn't he yes a human right lawyer all
14:02
right I'm surprised I'm surprised because the first inting the first instinct of a lawyer
14:09
would be to look at the legal documents the Juris prudence and probably deid Lamy has to
14:18
explain to the public where did he read that is the number of people killed who Define genocide
14:24
probably David Lamy should read article 2.4 of the genocide convention which refers to an act
14:31
of genocide that doesn't even involve the killing of one person or the fifth I mean there there is
14:38
genocide through through forceful transfer of of children and this is how the genocide
14:45
in Australia has been mainly perpetrated and including in Canada so this is this is why I
14:53
insist on the cular colonial framework while David Lamy is not the only genocide denier it I think
15:02
that it's particularly serious when it comes from someone who has a position of authority who's who
15:08
has who carries an an an even greater Authority because he's a man of law but excuse me what
15:17
constitut genocide is established by article two of the genocide convention not personal opinions
15:23
and it's the intent the determination to destroy a group in all in part through several what even one
15:31
only of these acts killing infliction of severe bodly or mental harm and Creations of conditions
15:38
of Life uh which would bring about the destruction of the group and look at Gaza today Gaza has been
15:47
destroyed most of the Civil infrastruct civilian infrastructure arable land all universities the
15:55
the the the Civil registry uh thetion archive the historical and religious cultural heritage of that
16:05
place the medical infrastructure all universities or all schools how does David Lamy call this is it
16:12
a war I'm very concerned because this is not a war if this is a war we are entering a new
16:18
stage where War doesn't respect anything that has to do with civilian life and this is to be
16:26
pushed back so whatever whatever ignorance exists there it can be it can be uh resolved with a good
16:35
reading of what genocide is and how it has been uh commented on uh and developed as a concept
16:42
through International jurist Prudence can I ask you about the reluctance in the west generally to
16:48
call out Israel and now you've spoken to this in in in previous answers but of course maybe
The reluctance of the West to call this a genocide
16:54
one can accept that the Americans are very wedded to a pro-israel policy and maybe some elements of
17:00
European policies very much linked to Israel but you have institutions like the EU ort of underline
17:06
comes to mind the president of the European Council who has been a staunch unflinching U
17:11
supporter of of Israel regardless of what what it does like what account but European Union is
17:17
known in the textbooks as the the the liberal the symbolic liberal institution that cherishes the
17:23
concept of Human Rights so what's gone wrong in these International bodies not sure I'm the best
17:30
person to answer that question but because I do look at things from a legal perspective and I see
17:39
I don't know why they are doing that but in the process they are crushing fundamental freedoms
17:45
as I was say right um the what what officials like Osa lion are showing is is that the system
18:00
is at the service of political interests more than legal claims than more than fundamental
18:07
rights it applies to the Palestinians who by the way even before the last 13 months were
18:14
were oppressed they couldn't enjoy the right of self-determination where were these people who so
18:21
were so uh stonely in line with Israel even at the time it's committing side exactly there they have
18:30
been enabling the in Israel's impunity they have been enabling for decades the dispossession the
18:38
devastation of Palestinians Collective life inch by inch the take the take of home by home piece
18:45
of land after piece of land so it's a Continuum it shouldn't shock us but the thing that is new
18:53
is how fiercely the system is turning against European citizens in Germany in France in in
19:01
Italy pretty much everywhere so that no one can after criticism or can actively mobilize against
19:10
against the genocide and the oppression of the Palestinian people yeah I listen to a really good interview I think with Chris Hedges where you suggested that um Israel has the capacity
19:22
or you suggested that genocide was dormant within Israel and it's somewhat been a awakened by Rec
19:28
Rec events um like are you suggesting that in in a sense October the 7th was an excuse to conduct
Is October 7th a catalyst for ethnic cleansing?
19:36
or to to hurry or to accelerate this policy of of the ethnic cleansing I wouldn't use the the term
19:43
excuse but certainly he provided an opportunity and when we look at genocidal a settler Colonial
19:52
genocidal history this is what happens there are this is why the settler colal framing is
19:59
so important explain that to me and I understand that for for some for for for Jewish people who
20:07
do not see what we what we are seeing this is an extremely loaded and painful term but let's
20:14
just look at what is happening in the occupied Palestinian territory meaning the land the little
20:21
that remains of the land that was Palestine until 1948 yeah uh and of course there is there is a
20:30
history before this but however just if we look at that land which is occupied and has occupied since
20:38
1967 there were limits to what Israel couldn't could do in that land Israel as of 1967 has been
20:50
an occupying power hence an administrator of the land instead Israel started to uh uh manipulate
21:00
the local legal system to um demote the local institutions to take the land to push out the
21:10
Palestinians from that land and uh to build settlements colonies for Jewish Israeli only or
21:20
yeah people coming from all over the world as long as you you are Jew you can you are a Jew Jewish
21:25
person you can enter you can leave in Israel and including including in the colonies colonies
21:32
after colonies uh now 800,000 Israelis live in the occupied Palestine territory this is a crime per
21:41
se and over time the repression of the Palestinian has become impossible all almost 1 million people
21:50
had been 1 million palestin including children as young as 12 had been arrested and detained over 57
21:58
years years of uh of um uh occupation during which Israel has established why it's called aarid as
22:07
established and a dual legal system so there was civil law for the Israelis isra and martial law
22:15
for the Palestinians uh military orders written by soldiers enforced by soldiers reviewed IM military
22:22
Court by soldiers for 57 years Palestinians even children have been facing crimin um military
22:32
courts martial law this is an aberration and if you look at the legal regime that applies I
22:39
mean the the Palestinians are a security threat within this system so the situation was already
22:46
bad before October 7 and why so because Israel has steadily try to take as much land as possible by
22:56
pushing Palestinians into to these confinement Zone like reserves of bant toan people call it
23:03
different way the a a area a zones I look there are different views on what happened on October
23:12
7 but the thing is the violence of that day which was brutal for the Israelis but that brutality was
23:21
also uh there were Fabrications attached to it like the beheading of 40 babies the mass rape
23:30
and other horror stories that have been circulated which frankly I found somewhat disrespectful and
23:38
belittling uh toward the the Israeli victims themselves I mean is it is it less Grievous
23:45
what they endured without this Barbarian Fabrications no but it tells the story and
23:53
this is why we go to settler colonialism of the narrative of this the superior civilization which
24:03
is facing the barbarians so this is why October 7 building on the rage on the frustration and
24:12
on Decades of dehumanization of the Palestinians because one need to read how Palestinians are uh
24:19
discussed in Israeli textbooks and it's it's very dehumanizing so this was The Toxic mix that made
24:29
the the the the a social a social consensus uh behind what the Israeli politicians were doing so
24:41
I don't think Israel had the excuse Israel had the opportunity to escalate the violence and I've seen
24:49
it from the very beginning it was leading toward ethnic cleansing but meanwhile they have committed
24:56
acts of genocide they have and trapped and circled starved uh killed maimed uh tortured raped not
25:07
only the Palestinians in Gaza but the same acts of violence have metas expanded beyond the borders of
25:16
Gaza and are ENT trapping people in the West Bank so this is why I say we need to see that there is
25:23
a destructive intent and is set I mean it's it's expressed verbalized by the by the Israeli leaders
25:30
toward the pal the totality of the Palestinians in the totality of the land and this is why we need to capture the genocidal intent in the totality of conducts and crimes that are committed the
25:41
sector of colonial genocide is this taking off the land taking off the resources pushing out
25:50
the people so there is a dormant Gene which is genocidal in in settler colonialism and it explod
25:59
when there is resistance from the indigenous people you argued recently at the United Nations
Can Israel be isolated by the UN?
26:04
that uh Israel should be isolated internationally for what it's done and what it's continuing to do
26:10
in in in Gaza um in the absence of support from the West I mean how can this be realized first of
26:17
all let me let me explain why I I recommended the United Nations to to suspend Israel's credentials
26:27
as a member of the United Nations now I I'm aware that Israel is not the only country who has a
26:36
Napoleon human rights record although we have to con the fact that this this year after 57 years
26:45
of unlawful occupation of a people who's not made of Israel's citizens these are people who can't
26:51
even vote who do not have rights but this year Israel has as sort of lost old restraints and
27:01
the violations of international law have become of the extreme however there is something that
27:07
is really unprecedented that signals a tragedy within the tragedy this year Israel has targeted
27:13
the United Nations like no other state ever no other state before in fact it has uh bombed and
27:22
or attacked uh damaged or destroyed 70% of the un infrastructure in the Gaza Strip it has killed 237
27:34
un staff members it has attacked uh Palestinians as they were sheltered by the UN either in its
27:44
premises or as they were gathering uh for health care and uh food distribution it has destroyed the
27:53
UN distribution lines it has attacked un convoys uh carrying essential supplies it has hampered
28:01
the UN humanitarian function from vaccination to provision of again and basic forms of of
28:10
protection to the Palestinians in Gaza on top of it it has also launched a smear campaign against
28:19
the UN General Assembly international criminal court uh the Human Rights Council the Secretary
28:25
General has been pnged myself and of course it has taken action against causing much reputational
28:33
damage to a number of un independent experts like myself I'm not the only one I'm the most visible
28:39
one but there are 30 independent experts who have spoken out against Israel's genocide and they are
28:45
being targeted on top of it Israel has recently in its attack against Lebanon it has also hit
28:54
and continues to EIT the peacekeepers and on top of it it has also passed a law which banss
29:00
prevents a un organization to work in the occupied Palestinian territory Andra the this is an act of
29:07
the parliament because other un organizations had been kicked out more easily like the office of
29:12
the High Commissioner I commissioner for human rights three years ago so you see this is not
29:17
a normal State this is not normal violations by a state this is an assault on the UN which needs to
29:24
be dealt with accordingly can I turn to the Arab countries also at that meeting uh at the United
Arab and Muslim countries lack of solidarity
29:31
Nations you said that many of the Arab and Muslim countries are not showing sufficient solidarity
29:37
towards the Palestinians um what do you mean by that what do you expect uh these countries which
29:43
I agree with by the way they they haven't sown very much solidarity at all but what should we expect from them when I talk about solidarity I use the term that resonates very strongly across
29:55
the Arab world yeah because there has always been since the beginning of of since even
30:01
before the Naka there has been solidarity with the Palestinian Palestinian brothers and sister
30:08
but as I wrote in my book uh a few years ago about Palestinian refugees in international law and I've
30:16
looked at how Arab countries among others have have interacted with the question of Palestine
30:24
through the prism of Palestinian refugees of the Palestinians displ around the world and those who who have who are still in the region or have been kicked out of the region I call it
30:36
an unsettling solidarity this is the relationship but that Arab countries have traditionally Arab
30:42
states Arab authorities because I think that this is the the the the difference between the
30:48
people and the rulers is the is of the extreme and Arab rulers have often been ambiguous or
30:59
um not very supportive of the Palestinian struggle of the question of Palestine and how do I think
31:07
this needing correction Arab states should um be the first in complying with international
31:15
law when it comes to Palestine so there are Arab countries who are members of or our parties to
31:23
the Rome statute why they do not Lodge uh a file they don't make submissions to the IC on Palestine
31:34
the arguments that are made are insignificant substantially they and again they shows they
31:40
show that there is no interest in pursuing uh accountability worse than that there are countries
31:50
who still maintain apart from the normalizers yes this is something that could have used to advance
31:57
human rights for the Palestinians and uses not uh but there are countries who maintain economic ties
32:04
diplomatic ties uh but especially military and financial ties with Israel which are incredibly
32:13
detrimental to the Palestinians and also to their own societies the two things go hand inand because
32:20
it's not just about what Israel produces in terms of military service surveillance services that
32:28
are experimented on the body individual and Collective body of the Palestinian but it's
32:35
also what Israel sells to these countries that then become tools to repress local constituencies
32:44
this is the the cycle that we need to we need to break and I hope to see because there are I mean
32:51
it's not that the Arab country Arab region is a monolith there are countries who have steadily
32:58
been against the the system they have been outspoken now a number of those who are more
33:04
outspoken have been silenced I mean also because they have their own trouble Iraq Syria and and
33:10
and Libya Libya is still Libya is one of the countries who have joined um the South Africa
33:18
in the icj proceeding but many more needs to do that but it's again I think that it's important
33:25
to be honest once for all and decide which stands to take it's either or it's either with or against
33:36
this we are at this breaking point when I I came across I met Nell pandor Dr pandor on the weekend
33:43
and she's a a brave campaigner of course uh he was instrumental in lodging that complaint to the icj
How successful can the ICJ complaint be?
33:50
but how much uh how in your mind how successful do you think that icj complaint will will will be
33:58
since major major countries in particular Arab countries haven't really signed up to to that
34:04
no I think it's problematic because what made the success of the icj advisory opinion uh which which
34:13
determined which concluded that the occupation Israel maintains in Gaza the West Bank and his
34:20
Jerusalem is unlawful and to be undone totally and unconditionally as rapidly as possible and
34:25
the general assembly has said by by September 2025 what was I think that the fact that these
34:35
icj advisory opinion turned so radically uh revolutionary in terms of it it's it's broad
34:44
it's a watershed decision that covers the history that tackles all the critical issues that deliver
34:52
M delivers much more than was expected including in pointing out the responsibilities of all
34:58
member States including private organizations and international organizations what made it possible
35:05
was the the fact that it was a huge participation of the International Community there were 60 sub
35:10
missions made and this is probably the most uh watched and on the streamlined cases of the
35:18
icj I mean there were so many people connect and connected watching the thing is that the
35:26
court court J judges tend to be conservative in the application of international law it's not a
35:33
a um there is again this is an observation that I I make based on where the Juris Prudence is which
35:43
is okay but the fact of having State practice brought to the for to the court and showing
35:51
that this is unac unacceptable and Justice should be pursued as as fast as possible it's something
35:57
that would create a momentum for the court to pronounce itself so this is why it's still
36:03
important the other thing is that this case while will it will take time it's creating an awareness
36:11
that a genocide is ongoing had South Africa not done so we wouldn't be talking so with such a such
36:20
a sense of confidence also because the evidence that the South Africa legal team has produced
36:27
is incredible incredible so it it alleviates the the burden on all of us including I mean
36:33
my office doesn't have many means and does I have the possibility to go out there and investigate
36:39
and also the out the Outreach to collect evidence I have is limited but then there is the commission
36:45
of inquiry the South Africa legal team or the Nicaragua uh legal team which initiated a case
36:52
against Germany so this is bringing awareness and one day the will be Justice for the Palestinians
36:59
I mean recently there's been not recently it's probably been ongoing but it's it's probably accelerated there's been a a coordinated attack on you um accusing you of anti-Semitism I think
Weaponizing of antisemitism
37:11
it it was all around that un uh meetings that you had um C can I ask you about the personal impact
37:19
of that I mean you you still persevere in your you're still going and it's fantastic and but also how maybe anti-Semitism has sometimes been weaponized if that's not a harsh a hard term to
37:30
silence criticism of Israel I don't want to talk about me because again I am one among many and
37:39
while I have privileges and immunities there are hundreds and hundreds of individuals who do not
37:46
have that who do not have the visibility I have so they are punished smeared uh silenced uh fired
37:54
um reprimanded the object of reputational damage that it's hard to fix in the dark in the shadow I
38:03
want to shed light on those because what happens to me happens to many including Jewish people
38:11
Palestinians of course but including Jewish people there have been Jewish Scholars who have been fired because of their stance because of their factual and Neal analysis or historical analysis
38:22
of what's happening in Palestine because they they speaking of genocide or of the legal occupation
38:28
and apartheid before so this is a long Trend that is becoming more and more severe now but what does
38:35
it show the weakness of the other side because they have nothing to challenge us on the fact
38:42
and on the principles and so they try to attack us on nonsense it's nonsense and the only way to uh
38:51
I mean I tend to ignore the attacks because they're so distracting they're annoying yes
38:57
but why would I bother with this when there is a genocide ongoing I want to talk about that
39:03
and I want to see how we collectively act to stop that and let the genocidal minions rally and and
39:11
this using anti-Semitism as a tool to silence opposition to the genocide how do you like how
39:18
do you see that as a as a to yeah it's serious it's vicious so let's unpack it anti-semitism
39:27
exists there is no question about that it's revolting it's disgusting that after especially
39:33
in Europe after all we have had and down to the Jewish people having still traces of anti-Semitism
39:43
lingering is something that blows my mind but let's see what is anti-Semitism anti-Semitism
39:48
is discrimination against the Jews because they're Jews Like anti-palestinian racism is
39:54
discrimination against the Palestinians because they are Palestinians and these is something we need to talk about because it's it's not in the spotlight as it should and in fact the pro-israel
40:08
groups and Lobby and the cohorts acolytes what they're doing they're using anti-Semitism and the
40:14
fear it induces in anyone I've seen it on myself the first time I was accused of anti-Semitism I
40:20
was paralyzed for days I said I I was confused say am I what have I done and then the beauty of it is
40:28
that there were Jewish Scholars and Jewish people organizations and friends were I mean they have
40:36
helped me overcome this fear of speaking out saying this is the way they silence everyone
40:41
including us we cannot confuse anti-Semitism with a critique of what Israel does and in fact I tell
40:49
you very clearly that Israel could be led by Muslims atheist bud this anyone you wouldn't
41:00
change by critique so this allegation that whever criticizes Israel is an antisite is period and let
41:08
me tell you even more it it really it's stupid and the fact that people get intimidated shows how how
41:17
weak is the system I mean we are rational creators and we don't have the brain functioning enough to
41:27
AR today blows my mind can I ask you about uh just the transformational effect of Gaza on lots
41:34
of young people of course we've seen encampments in across Europe and in America and um I a lot of
How can young Muslims stay active?
41:41
my viewers are young Muslims who are starting out in life a lot of them are studying lore at universities and um many of them have really been moved by Gaza and been activated by Gaza I mean
41:53
what advice would you give them moving forward how do they stay stay active and and avoid the
41:59
the pitfalls of a of a corporate world that wants to buy their silence really yeah I think this is
42:05
the moment the moment to choose who you want to be and um yeah I relate with what you're saying
42:14
I see that I see that because I mean um those of us who are older see that something that the
42:22
young Generations might not realize there's never while Palestinians are have suffered oppression
42:29
Injustice Wars after wars destruction think of Janine during the second intifa how many
42:37
times the people in Janine have seen destruction right really uh wrote upon them without without
42:46
being even acknowledged so now it's on full display and it's triggering solidarity this
42:53
is excellent may this because this is this shows us that we are human that we are all connected
43:00
and that interconnectedness now as a potential to make us better understand what solidarity means
43:09
standing together means and it has two uh sort of consequences this determines who we decide to be
43:18
in the what you call the the corporate world we decided to step in I'm not saying don't step into
43:26
the corporate world there but when you do don't forget your principles don't be silenced they
43:33
cannot silence all of us and this is the second element don't forget what alliances mean made
43:43
of solidarity the world we live in has sort of created barriers around all of us as individuals
43:52
confining us in a in a corner of fragility and solidarity allows to break those walls and Stand
44:01
United and Federate and it goes to the the first point they cannot fire us all they cannot silence
44:07
us all if we find the strength to to stand against a genocide we need to keep that fire and continue
44:15
to fight against Injustice I know that many people feel hopeless but we don't all have that luxury
44:22
because like the people in Gaza they cannot choose they can only strive for survival who are we to
44:30
call ourselves hopeless we need to do everything we can to stop this genocide and learn what this
44:39
standing together has has taught us one final question for you um there is a a question that
How does Francesca stay motivated in an unjust world?
44:46
I ask a lot of my guests and that's one of just resilience and motivation um we've seen 13 months
44:51
now of his genocide and um I don't know people maybe are becoming slight more desensitized to
44:58
the pictures maybe that's a bit too harsh but uh there is a sense that we've tried everything we've
45:04
protested in England here in London we protested in great numbers in hundreds of thousands but it
45:10
doesn't seem to make an impact David Lamy is still saying there is no genocide taking place
45:15
in in Gaza how do you stay motivated in such an unjust World Franchesca and this is where I
45:23
think that the colonial and um Imperial historical Amnesia play in because we tend to live so much in
45:35
the moment that we seem to have forgotten the struggles that led us to the freedom we enjoy
45:42
today again we need to think of the people who have fought against libery it was not that long
45:50
ago that even if we want to keep the genocide the experiences aside but until a few years ago even
46:01
in the west in the United States there were people were segregated like in South Africa and we've
46:10
never called what the African Americans endured as apartheid but I don't think that had I mean an
46:18
analysis of it would fail understand how apartheid did exist and was practiced upon them and in fact
46:25
we could in go further and see what has happened to the indigenous people the Native Americans in
46:33
uh in the United States are totally invisibilized the original and the continuous owner of the land
46:40
are are them are these people so we need to understand that we are part we are a small
46:48
part of history but our actions will determine both the present and the future this is what
46:57
builds what builds Revolution is the necessity the impossibility to live with the status quo
47:04
if we do not push back on this it means that the status quo is still convenient to us which is a
47:10
reflection of our selfishness and again we need to be put in front of a mirror and today we need
47:17
decide who we want to be and the kind of of future we want to we want to to secure for ourselves our
47:29
families for the planet and again this is the moment to make a choice this can be this can
47:36
be a revolution

“Genocide as Colonial Erasure”: U.N. Expert Francesca Albanese on Israel’s “Intent to Destroy” Gaza
by Amy Goodman and Nermeen Shaikh
October 31, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/10/31 ... a_albanese

We are joined by U.N. special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, Francesca Albanese, who says Israel is committing genocide on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Facing accusations of antisemitism from Israeli and U.S. officials, Albanese is in New York to present her report, titled “Genocide as colonial erasure,” which finds that Israel’s genocide is founded on “ideological hatred” and “dehumanization” and “enabled through the various organs of the state,” and recommends that Israel be unseated from the United Nations over its conduct. She argues that Israel’s attacks on U.N. employees, including the killings of at least 230 U.N. staff in Gaza, its flagrant violations of U.N. resolutions and international law and the unique status of “the first settler-colonial genocide to be ever litigated before [an international] court” justify this unprecedented measure. Israel’s continued impunity, Albanese warns, “is the nail in the coffin of the U.N. Charter.”

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Israel’s deadly siege on northern Gaza has entered a 26th day. Earlier this week, the World Health Organization managed to deliver some medical supplies to the Kamal Adwan Hospital, but earlier today, Israeli fighter jets bombed the hospital’s third floor, where the supplies were being stored.

Meanwhile, Al Jazeera reports Israeli forces are continuing to shell Beit Lahia, the scene of multiple massacres this week. On Wednesday, an Israeli attack on a market in Beit Lahia killed at least 10 Palestinians. Earlier in the week, Israel struck a five-story residential building, killing at least 93 people, including 25 children.

Meanwhile, at the United Nations, the U.N. special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, Francesca Albanese, has released a major report accusing Israel of committing genocide. Albanese concludes that Israel’s war on Gaza is part of a campaign of, quote, “long-term intentional, systematic, State-organized forced displacement and replacement of the Palestinians,” end-quote. The report is titled “Genocide as colonial erasure.”

AMY GOODMAN: Francesca Albanese is now facing intensifying personal attacks from Israeli and U.S. officials. She was set to brief Congress earlier this week, but the briefing was canceled. On Tuesday, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield wrote on social media, quote, “As UN Special Rapporteur Albanese visits New York, I want to reiterate the U.S. belief she is unfit for her role. The United Nations should not tolerate antisemitism from a UN-affiliated official hired to promote human rights,” unquote. On Wednesday, Francesca Albanese spoke at the United Nations and responded to the U.S. attacks.

FRANCESCA ALBANESE: I have the same shock that you have, looking at how the United States is behaving in this context, in the context of the genocide that is unfolding in Gaza. I’m not — I’m not surprised that they attack anyone who speaks to the facts that are, frankly, on our watch in Gaza. And they do that so brutally because they feel called out, because it’s not that it’s that the United States is simply an observer. The United States is being an enabler in what Israel has been doing.

AMY GOODMAN: That was U.N. special rapporteur Francesca Albanese speaking at the United Nations Wednesday. She joins us here in our studio.

Welcome back to Democracy Now! Thanks so much for joining us.

Well, before we get you to further respond to what the U.S. and Israel is saying, can you lay out the findings of your report?

FRANCESCA ALBANESE: Absolutely. First of all, thank you for having me.

I have to say that this report is the second I write on — and I present to the United Nations on the topic of genocide. And it has been very reluctantly that I’ve taken on the responsibility to be the chronicler of — the chronicler of an unfolding genocide in Gaza. In March this year, I concluded that there were reasonable grounds to believe that Israel had committed at least the three acts of genocide in Gaza, like killing members of the protected group, Palestinians, and inflicting severe bodily and mental harm, and creating conditions of life that would lead to the destruction of the group. And the reason why I identified these were not just war crimes and crimes against humanity is because I identified an intent to destroy. And I understand that even in this country, people are quite confused about what is genocidal intent, because it’s not a motive. One can have many motives to commit a crime. And I understand genocide is a very insidious one, and it’s difficult to identify what’s a motive. But this is not about the motives. The intent to commit genocide is the determination to destroy, which is fully evident in — especially in the Gaza Strip, as I identified in — as argued in March already.

The reason why I continue to write about genocide — and, in fact, this report walks on the heels of the previous one — is in order to better explain the intent, especially state intent, because there is another misunderstanding that there should be a trial of the alleged perpetrators in order to have — to attribute responsibility to a state. No, because not only you have had acts committed that should have been prevented by the — in a rule of law, in a proclaimed rule of law system like Israel, where there is the government, the parliament, the judiciary, working as checks and balances, genocide has not only been not prevented, has been enabled through the various organs of the state.

And I explain what has happened as of October 7, which has provided the opportunity to escalate violence, to build on the rage and on the fury of many Israelis, turning the soldiers into willful executioners, is that there was already a plan, hatred. I mean, the Palestinians, like Ilan Pappé says, are victims not of war, but of a political ideology that has been unleashed. Palestinians have always been an unwanted encumbrance in the Israeli mindset, because they are an obstacle both as an identity and as legal status to the realization of Greater Israel as a state for Jewish Israelis only.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: So, we’ll go back to — because I do want to ask about the Israeli state institutions that you name and the branches of the Israeli state that have been involved in forming this state’s intent. But if you could elaborate on the point that you make, the difference between intent and motive, and in particular what you say in the report about how it’s critical to determine genocidal intent, quote, “by way of inference”? You know, that’s a different phrasing than one has heard in all of this conversation about genocide so far. If you explain what you mean by that and what such a determination makes possible? So, rather than just looking at genocidal intent in other forms, what it means to infer genocidal intent?

FRANCESCA ALBANESE: So, first of all, what constitutes genocide is established by Article II of the Genocide Convention, which creates a twofold obligation for member states, to prevent genocide so genocide doesn’t have to complete itself. When there is a manifestation of intent, even genocidal intent, there is already an obligation to intervene, because a crime is unfolding.

And then there is an obligation to punish. How the jurisprudence, especially after Rwanda and after former Yugoslavia, there have been cases both for criminal proceedings, where individual perpetrators have been investigated and tried, and responsibility of the state, litigated before the International Court of Justice. This is how the jurisprudence on genocide has developed.

And the intent has been further elaborated upon what the Genocide Convention says. And while it might be difficult to have direct intent, meaning to have — it’s difficult but not impossible, in fact, to have a state official say, “Yes, let’s go and destroy everyone” — although I do believe that there is direct intent in this genocide in Gaza. But the court also established that genocide can be inferred from the scale of the attack on the people, the nature of the attack, the general conduct. And what it says is that normally there should be a holistic approach in order to identify intent, which is exactly what I’ve done.

And indeed, this is why I proposed in this report what I called the triple lens approach. We need to look at the conduct, like the totality of the conduct, instead of studying with a microscope each and every crime. We need to look at the whole, against the totality of the people, the Palestinians as such, in the totality of the land, that Israel has slated as its own by divine design.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: No, absolutely. And then, if you could — the other precedent you’ve just spoken about — of course, Rwanda and former Yugoslavia — another case that you cite in the International Court of Justice is The Gambia v. Myanmar. So, how is that comparable to what we see happening in Gaza? Why is that a relevant example and different from both Rwanda and former Yugoslavia?

FRANCESCA ALBANESE: Let me tell you what I see as the major differences in the case of Israel, because it’s a very complex discussion. But in all four cases, there is a toxic combination of hatred, ideological hatred, which has informed political doctrines. And this is true in all the various contexts we are mentioning. The other common element is that there is combination of crimes. Like, forced displacement is not an act of genocide per se, but the jurisprudence says that it can contribute to corroborate the intent. But the, again, mass killing or mass destruction of property, torture and other crimes against a person, which translate into an infliction of physical and mental harm to the group, not individuals as such, but individuals as part of the group, these are common elements to all genocides.

What I find characteristic in this one is, first of all, this is not — I mean, the state of Israel is not Myanmar and is not Rwanda 30 years ago. This is not war-torn former Yugoslavia. This is a state which has a separation of powers, different organs, as I said, checks and balances. And let me give you a specific example, because you asked me to comment on the state functions. In January this year, the International Court of Justice issued a set of preliminary measures in the context of its identification, before even looking at the merits of the case initiated by South Africa for Israel’s breach, alleged breach, of the Genocide Convention, which identified the plausibility of risk for the rights protected — of the rights of the Palestinians protected under the Genocide Convention, which means plausibility — it’s semantics, but it’s plausibility that genocide might be committed against the Palestinians in Gaza. And the provisional measures included an obligation to investigate and prosecute the various cases of incitement, genocidal incitement, that the court had already identified. And it mentions leaders, senior leaders, of the Israeli state. Has there been any investigation? Has there been any prosecution?

But I’m telling you more. The genocidal statements didn’t resonate as shocking in the Israeli public, not only because there was rage, an enormous rage and animosity, of course. I mean, this is understandable, that the facts of October 7 were brutal and traumatized the people. But at the same time, hatred against the Palestinians and hate speech, it’s not something that started on October 7. I do remember, and I do remember the shock I felt because no one was reacting, and years ago, there were Israeli ministers talking of — freely, of killing, justifying the killing of Palestinians’ mothers and children because they would turn into terrorists.

AMY GOODMAN: Francesca Albanese, talk about the title of your report, “Genocide as colonial erasure.”

FRANCESCA ALBANESE: This is another element which I think — and, in fact, it’s the most important, where we see the difference between this genocide and others, because there is a settler-colonial component. And again, if you look at what the International Court of Justice in July this year concluded, when it decided that the — when it found that Israel’s 57 years of occupation in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem is unlawful and needs to be withdrawn totally and unconditionally, as rapidly as possibly, which the General Assembly says before — by September 2025. The court said that it amounts to — that the colonies amount to — have led to a process of annexation and racial segregation and apartheid. And these are the features of settler colonialism, the taking of the land, the taking of the resources, displacing the local population and replacing it. This has been a feature.

Now, it is in this context that we need to analyze what is happening today. And by the way, don’t believe, don’t listen only to Francesca Albanese. Listen to what these Israeli leaders and ministers are saying — reoccupying Gaza, retaking Gaza, recolonizing Gaza, reconquesting Gaza. This is what they are saying. And there are settlers on expeditions, not only to Gaza but also to Lebanon. So, this is why I say that the main difference, the main feature of this genocide, apart all the horrible aspects of it, is that this is the first settler-colonial genocide to be ever litigated before a court, an international court.

And this is why coming to this country, which is a country birthed from a genocide, when I meet the Native Americans, for example, I feel the pain of these people. And I say if we manage to build on the intersectionality of Indigenous struggle, the cry for justice behind this case for Palestine will resonate even louder, because it will somewhat be an act of atonement from the settler-colonial endeavor, which has sprouted out of Europe, toward Indigenous peoples. So there is a lot of symbolism behind it.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, you know, the analogy — first of all, you talked about the case brought by South Africa, so what they share, apart from South Africa and Israel-Palestine, is both the fact that they were colonial-settler states, as well as the fact that apartheid has been established as having occurred in both places. Now, in the case of South Africa, it was a decision that was taken by the United Nations at the time of apartheid, was unseating South Africa from the General Assembly. There have been calls now to do the same with Israel. So, if you could — if you could comment on that? And then, I just want to quote another short sentence from your report, in which you say, “As the world watches the first live-streamed settler-colonial genocide, only justice can heal the wounds that political expedience has allowed to fester.” So, if you could talk about the International Criminal — Court of Justice’s case in that context, what role you think they can play, South Africa’s case, in resolving or addressing — seeing and addressing this wound?

FRANCESCA ALBANESE: First of all, let me unpack the question of the unseating Israel, because this is one of the recommendations I made in my report. Under Article 6 of the U.N. Charter, a member state can be suspended of its credentials or its membership by the General Assembly upon recommendation of the U.N. Security Council. And the first criticism I got is that we cannot do that, because every states commit international law violations. Absolutely. Absolutely.

But there are two striking features here. First, Israel is quite unique in maintaining an unlawful occupation, which has deemed such by — in at least one full occasion, but again, there was already a case brought before the ICJ in 2004, so there have been two ICJ advisory opinion. There is a pending case for genocide. There has been the violations of hundreds of resolutions by the — on Israel, over occupied Palestinian territory, by the Security Council, the General Assembly, the Human Rights Council, and steady violation of international humanitarian law, human rights law, the Apartheid Convention, the Genocide Convention. So this is quite unique.

But all the more, this year alone, Israel has conducted an attack, an unprecedented attack, against the United Nations. It has attacked physically, through artillery, weapons, bombs, U.N. premises. Seventy percent [70%] of UNRWA offices and UNRWA buildings, clinics, distribution centers have been hit and shelled by the Israeli army. Two hundred thirty [230] U.N. staff members have been killed by Israel in Gaza alone. U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon have been attacked. And this doesn’t even take into account the smear, the defamation against senior U.N. officials, the declaration of the secretary-general as persona non grata, the referring to the General Assembly as a cloak of antisemites.

Again, this has mounted to a level — the hubris against the United Nations and international law has been unchecked and unbounded forever, but now, especially after the Knesset passed a law outlawing UNRWA, declaring UNRWA a terrorist organization, and therefore disabling it from its capacity to deliver aid and assistance especially in Gaza and the West Bank and East Jerusalem, this is the nail in the coffin of the U.N. Charter. And it can also contribute to that sense of colonial erasure, because here it’s not just at stake the function of a U.N. body — and UNRWA is a subsidiary body of the General Assembly, so it’s even more serious. But there is the capacity of UNRWA to deliver humanitarian aid in a desperate situation, and also the fact that UNRWA is seen by Israel as the symbol of Palestinian identity, especially the Palestinian refugees. So there is an attempt to erase Palestinianness, including by hitting UNRWA.

[Irony:] On 29 November 1947, the General Assembly approved a resolution to partition Palestine, approving the creation of the state of Israel.

-- United Nations, by Wikipedia

Ex 32:1-35 The Israelites rebel against the God Who Created Them
by The Bible Journey
https://www.thebiblejourney.org/biblejo ... ainst-god/

While he is away for forty days on Mt Sinai (see Exodus 24:18), the Israelites rebel against Moses. They demand to worship the ancient gods they left behind in Egypt. So Aaron makes a golden image of a young bull and the people offer sacrifices to it.

Ancient Egyptian Gods Left Behind
by Google AI

Based on the provided search results, the ancient gods and goddesses worshipped by the Egyptians, which the Israelites would have been familiar with and potentially wanted to worship, include:

Amun: God of kingship, creation, and fertility, often combined with Ra to form Amun-Ra.
Isis: Goddess of motherhood, magic, and fertility, often associated with childbirth and protection.
Osiris: God of the afterlife, mummification, and the dead, responsible for preparing the deceased for the afterlife.
Ra: God of the sun, creation, and kingship, often depicted as a falcon or a man with the head of a falcon.
Sekhmet: Goddess of war, destruction, and healing, often depicted as a woman with the head of a lioness or a cat.
Nekhbet: Goddess of childbirth, protection, and the city of Nekheb, often depicted as a woman with the head of a vulture.
Qebehsenuef: God of mummification and protection of the intestines, often depicted as a mummified human figure with a falcon head.
Atum: God of creation, often depicted as a man wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt.
Hapy: God of the Nile and fertility, often depicted as a man with the head of a ram or a hippopotamus.
These gods and goddesses were part of the Egyptian pantheon and were worshipped throughout ancient Egypt. The Israelites, who lived in Egypt for several centuries, would have been exposed to these deities and may have wanted to worship them alongside or instead of the God of Israel, Yahweh.

Who was Moloch?
by Got Questions.org

Over five hundred years after Abraham, Joshua led the Israelites out of the desert to inherit the Promised Land. God knew that the Israelites were immature in their faith and easily distracted from worshiping the one true God (Exodus 32). Before the Israelites had even entered Canaan, God warned them not to participate in Moloch worship (Leviticus 18:21) and repeatedly told them to destroy those cultures that worshiped Moloch. The Israelites didn’t heed God’s warnings. Instead, they incorporated Moloch worship into their own traditions. Even Solomon, the wisest king, was swayed by this cult and built places of worship for Moloch and other gods (1 Kings 11:1–8). Moloch worship occurred in the “high places” (1 Kings 12:31) as well as a narrow ravine outside Jerusalem called the Valley of Hinnom (2 Kings 23:10).

Despite occasional efforts by godly kings, worship of Moloch wasn’t abolished until the Israelites’ captivity in Babylon. (Although the Babylonian religion was pantheistic and characterized by astrology and divination, it did not include human sacrifice.) Somehow, the dispersion of the Israelites into a large pagan civilization succeeded in finally purging them of their false gods. When the Jews returned to their land, they rededicated themselves to God, and the Valley of Hinnom was turned into a place for burning garbage and the bodies of executed criminals. Jesus used the imagery of this place—an eternally burning fire, consuming countless human victims—to describe hell, where those who reject God will burn for eternity (Matthew 10:28).

[Francesca Albanese] The genocidal statements didn’t resonate as shocking in the Israeli public, not only because there was rage, an enormous rage and animosity, of course. I mean, this is understandable, that the facts of October 7 were brutal and traumatized the people. But at the same time, hatred against the Palestinians and hate speech, it’s not something that started on October 7. I do remember, and I do remember the shock I felt because no one was reacting, and years ago, there were Israeli ministers talking of — freely, of killing, justifying the killing of Palestinians’ mothers and children because they would turn into terrorists.

Moloch, Molech, or Molek[a] is a word which appears in the Hebrew Bible several times, primarily in the Book of Leviticus. The Bible strongly condemns practices that are associated with Moloch, which are heavily implied to include child sacrifice.

-- Moloch, by Wikipedia

When Moses returns to the camp with the two tablets of stone containing the Ten Commandments he is furious. He smashes the tablets and destroys the golden calf, then sends armed Levites into the camp to restore order.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to ask you about your trip here, as we begin to wrap up. The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield quoted on — tweeted on Tuesday, “As UN Special Rapporteur Albanese visits New York, I want to reiterate the U.S. belief she is unfit for her role. The United Nations should not tolerate antisemitism from a UN-affiliated official hired to promote human rights.” If you can further address their charge of antisemitism against you?

FRANCESCA ALBANESE: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: And talk about what happened. You were supposed to come to Congress and speak and brief them, but that was canceled this week.

FRANCESCA ALBANESE: Yes, it was canceled. But let me — first of all, I’m very embarrassed to read this, because a senior U.S. official who writes this, I mean, it shows a little bit of desperation. I’m sorry, but, you know, I’m very candid. And let me unpack my antisemitism for the audience. So, what I’ve been accused — the reason why I’ve been accused of antisemitism is because I’ve allegedly compared the Jews to the Nazis. Never done. Never done. What I’ve said, what I’ve done is saying, and I keep on saying, that history is repeating itself. I’ve never done such a comparison where I draw the parallel. It’s on the behavior of member states who have the legal and moral obligation to prevent atrocities, including an unfolding genocide. In the past, they have done nothing — nothing — until the end of the Second World War, to prevent the genocide of the Jews and the Roma and Sinti. And they’ve done nothing to prevent the genocide of the Bosnians. And they’ve done nothing to prevent the genocide of the Rwandans. And they are doing the same today. This is where I insist that now, compared to when there was the Holocaust, now we have a human rights framework that should prevent this. The Genocide Convention to prevent this. So, this is one of the points.

The second point, because — which leads to portray me as an antisemite, which is really offensive, is that I’ve said that the October 7 was not — I’ve contested, I’ve challenged the argument that October 7 was an antisemitic attack. October 7 was a crime, was heinous. And again, I’ve condemned the acts that were directed against the Israeli civilians, and expressed solidarity with the victims, with the families. I’ve been in contact with the families of the hostages. But I’ve also said the hatred that led that attack, that prompted that attack, to the extent it hit civilians, not the military, but it was prompted not by the fact that the Israelis are Jews, but the fact that the Israelis — I mean, the Israelis are part of that endeavor that has kept the Palestinians in a cage for 17 years and, before, under martial law for 37 years. And Palestinians have tried — it’s true they have used violence, but before violence, they have tried dialogue. They have tried collaboration. They have tried a number of means, access to justice, and they have gone nowhere.

I can — I mean, let me relate just this case, because last year I worked with children. And someone who was 17 before — 17 years old before October 7 last year had never set foot out of Gaza. This is the reality. And I spoke with children while I was writing my report on unchilding, the experience of Palestinians under Israeli occupation. And one of them — I mean, there were these two girls fighting, because one of them had been able to go to Israel and the West Bank because she had cancer and could be treated, and the other was jealous, because, she said, “At least she was sick, and she could go, she could travel. I’ve never seen the mountains.”
And again, this doesn’t justify violence, but, please, please, put things in context. And even Israeli scholars have said claiming that October 7 was prompted by antisemitism is a way to decontextualize history and to deresponsibilize Israel. I condemn Israel not because it’s a Jewish state. It’s not about that, but because it’s in breach of international law through and through. And were the majority of Israelis Buddhists, Christians, atheists, it would be the same. I would be as vocal as I am now.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Francesca, just one last question, and we only have a minute. Your recent book, J’Accuse, you take the title, of course, from the letter Émile Zola wrote during the Dreyfus Affair to the French president. You came under severe criticism for the choice of that title. Could you explain why you chose it and what it means in this context?

FRANCESCA ALBANESE: Absolutely. I have the sense that whatever I say comes under scrutiny and criticism. But J’Accuse is — first of all, it’s the title that was proposed by the editor, the publisher. And I was against it until October 7. When I saw the narrative, the dehumanization of the Palestinians after October 7, and what it was legitimized, I said, “This is the title. We need to use it,” because I draw the parallel between what is happening to the Palestinians and what has happened to other groups, particularly the Jewish people in Europe. I say the Holocaust was not just about the concentration camps. The Holocaust was a culmination of centuries of discrimination, and the previous decades had led the Jewish people in Europe to be kicked out of jobs, professions, to be treated like subhumans, as animals. And it’s this dehumanization that we need to look at in the face today, in the eyes today, and recognize as leading to atrocity crimes.

AMY GOODMAN: We want to thank you for being with us, Francesca Albanese, U.N. special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory.

UN expert shuts up reporter for questioning integrity, slams America’s veto woman
Janta Ka Reporter
Oct 30, 2024

-- Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control, by Medea Benjamin [Code Pink Founder]

UN expert Francesca Albanese has presented another report to the UN General Assembly saying that Israel had expanded its genocidal campaign to the occupied West Bank as well.

Albanese had presented another report in March this year saying that Israel had crossed the threshold of genocide in Gaza.

Reacting to her damning report, America’s veto woman, Linda Thomas Greenfield called her antisemitic. Albanese lashed out at the American representative at the UN. She also shut up a reporter after he questioned her integrity.

Transcript

0:00
Madam Mike wagenheim with 124 news it's
0:03
been a while since we've last spoken um
0:05
a couple questions for you in your
0:07
report uh you have a line in here that
0:10
says that since its establishment Israel
0:13
has TW uh treated the occupied people as
0:16
a hated encumbrance and threat to be
0:18
eradicated and you go on uh listing
0:21
other items um we'll leave aside the
0:24
contextual and factual debate about that
0:27
based on that statement it seems to
0:28
infer that you believe
0:30
that Israel has been an occupier since
0:32
the day of its birth is that your
0:35
position you said since its
0:37
establishment Israel has treated
0:39
occupied people Etc are you inferring
0:42
that Israel's been an occupier since 194
0:44
why do you have to infer instead of
0:46
sticking to what I saiding that's what's
0:48
there let me let me
0:49
elaborate um Israel
0:53
has taken and we can I can concede that
0:57
it has done it with uh with the
0:59
recognition of the general assembly but
1:02
from a human rights law point of view
1:04
and as I take a people centered approach
1:07
I cannot uh I cannot forget it the
1:10
creation of the state of Israel has
1:12
meant the dispossession of uh hundreds
1:15
of thousands of Palestinians of who have
1:17
been kicked out of their homes and never
1:19
allowed to return why
1:22
so and
1:24
um is it does it make an occupier it
1:28
makes a state mix of Israel State who
1:31
has forci forcibly
1:33
displaced significant part of the native
1:36
population and this is the past that has
1:38
never been addressed the Palestinians
1:41
with Israeli citizenship who remained in
1:44
Israel have been kept for two decades
1:48
under military
1:50
rule and this is why when I MH uh when I
1:55
when I say an incumbrance I was not even
1:58
referring to them but as you ask I mean
2:01
this is documented so it's not debatable
2:03
it's it's history and since
2:07
1967 which is what I'm most interested
2:10
in because of the Mandate I have Israel
2:14
has continued as continue this practices
2:16
has
2:17
extended the the custodianship system
2:21
that had been used to take control of
2:24
all the properties left behind by the
2:26
Palestinian
2:28
refugees but without time limit so from
2:32
1967 I think this is military order
2:35
5058 one of one of the early military
2:37
orders Israel has been able to to sa and
2:42
acquire all the all the property left
2:45
behind by the Palestinians the
2:48
350,000 were forcibly displaced outside
2:52
the occupied Palestinian territory in
2:55
1967 and the hundreds of thousand who
2:57
have been kicked out of their homes and
2:59
lands ever
3:01
since so there's been a continuity so
3:04
it's not just
3:06
about what has been happening in the
3:10
occupied Palestinian territory for the
3:12
past 57 years is the fact that
3:16
unfortunately there is a continuity with
3:19
patterns of conduct that had already
3:21
been enacted in modern day
3:26
Israel.

[Shill for Israel] I'm not sure that answers the
3:29
question but it will have to
3:30
suffice. One other question for you
3:31
because I know my colleagues want to
3:33
jump in here. You know about the
3:34
controversy surrounding your positions
3:37
and your statements. I'm not going to
3:39
repeat them here. But you did comment on
3:42
social media within the past week and
3:44
I'm going to read this back. You said, "I'm
3:45
profoundly committed to human rights for
3:48
all people. How could I ever be an
3:50
anti-semite?" A few days ago you were
3:53
supposed to have a briefing with members
3:55
of Congress. That briefing was
3:57
cancelled. I don't know if the Jewish
4:00
Lobby was behind it or not.

[Francesca Albanese] But oh, you
4:02
said Jewish Lobby. Watch out,
4:04
because it's very antisemitic apparently. I didn't use it you did.

[Shill for Israel] I don't
4:09
know who you feel was behind it.

https://www.codepink.org/

[Shill for Israel] In
4:11
any case uh you appeared and your
4:15
appearance there was sponsored by a
4:17
group called Code pink you appeared in a
4:19
video with the co-founder of code pink
4:21
code pink well documented shills for
4:26
some of the world's worst human rights
4:28
violators -- Iran where they appeared
4:31
with Holocaust deniers they deny the
4:33
genocide going on in China of the Uyghurs
4:36
population completely deny it how can
4:39
you say appearing with a group like that
4:42
that you stand and are committed for
4:44
human rights for all people and are not
4:46
an anti-semite? This group is drawn to
4:48
you and you happily appear with them
4:51
while they shill for human rights
4:53
abusers all over the world and only
4:55
focus in on Israel.

[Francesca Albanese] According to this
4:57
principle I shouldn't be asking question
5:00
from from journalists for example unless
5:04
I check their pedigree and I explain to
5:06
you because I was not at an event hosted
5:08
by Code pink check your sources because
5:11
this is not correct.

[Shill for Israel] I was correct
5:14
that you appeared in a video with the
5:15
co-founder.

[Francesca Albanese] Can I finish?

[Shill for Israel] Sure you can.

[Francesca Albanese] I
5:18
was speaking at an event organized by ___
5:22
at Bas boys and Poets a venue I've
5:26
always uh where I've always attended
5:28
wonderful talks then if they have
5:31
hosted people who have terrible records
5:34
I don't know but I wouldn't feel
5:36
responsible and as I was um as I was on
5:39
my way out and looking at Morales Medea Benjamin
5:43
from code pink approached me and said
5:45
can I ask you a question and I said of
5:46
course do you mind being on record? Of
5:48
course of course not and that is it. Now
5:50
do you want to add on the on the
5:53
allegations against me because I gave a
5:55
I answer a question to Medea Benjamin, or
5:59
do I have to check to do a background
6:01
check of any person I talk to?

[Shill for Israel] You have
6:04
no idea who code pink is? You have no
6:06
prior contact with them?

[Francesca Albanese] Of course I know
6:08
who Code pink is, I but I don't,
6:11
apparently I'm not as informed as you
6:13
are. Thank you for educating me.

[Shill for Israel] That's
6:16
part of my job as a journalist . Thank
6:19
you.

6:23
[Reporter] Thank you very much.
6:26
I'm sorry because I arrived uh I
6:30
think you had started already a few
6:31
minutes, so I don't know if you talked
6:33
about it, but uh I heard about when you
6:36
were talking about the Israeli
6:39
government accusing you to be
6:43
anti-semitist, but here of anti-Semitism,
6:47
but did you respond, uh did you
6:51
respond to that tweet that Ambassador
6:54
Linda Thomas Grimfield wrote
6:58
yesterday? Uh she wrote that, "As a U.N.
7:01
Special Rapporteur Albanese visit New
7:04
York, I want to reiterate the U.S. believes
7:06
she's unfit for a role. The United
7:09
Nations should not tolerate
7:11
anti-Semitism from a UN-Affiliated
7:13
official hired to promote human rights.
7:16
This is the ambassador of the United States
7:18
at the United Nations. What's your
7:20
response to it?

[Francesca Albanese] I have the same shock that
7:23
you have looking at how the United
7:26
States is
7:28
behaving in the context, in the
7:30
context of the genocide that is
7:32
unfolding in Gaza. I'm not, I'm not
7:37
surprised that they attack any anyone
7:42
who who speaks to the facts that are uh
7:47
frankly on our watch in um in Gaza. And
7:51
uh they do that so um so brutally
7:56
because they feel called
8:01
out, because it's not that is the United
8:03
States is simply an observer. The United
8:06
States is being an enabler in
8:10
what Israel has been doing. So of course
8:13
they have a conflict of interest in uh
8:16
in let's say, orchestrating
8:19
attacks against uh against anyone who
8:22
criticizes
8:23
Israel. But besides this, I really don't
8:26
feel comfortable at entertaining any
8:29
longer discussions concerning the
8:31
attacks against me, because it's not
8:33
about me. And I'm not the story. The story
8:36
is the fact that there are Palestinians
8:39
who risk to be erased from their land.
8:42
The questions that journalists should
8:44
ask -- I mean, this is what I would expect.
8:47
How do you comment on the fact that
8:48
Israel has passed laws that Outlaw a U.N.
8:52
organization! Because other member states,
8:55
who have a even a worse record than
8:57
Israel, could do the same --
9:00
human rights record in Israel -- could do
9:01
the same. And how do I
9:06
comment the fact that Israel is, that there
9:09
has been a plan to erase Palestinian
9:12
presence from northern Gaza. And the fact
9:14
that Israel is freely talking about
9:17
going back to Gaza, and reoccupy
9:19
Gaza, while the International Court of
9:21
Justice has recognized that the
9:23
occupation is illegal and must go.
9:26
Unequivocally and totally ! This is what I
9:28
want to talk about. Because if we keep on
9:30
entertaining discussions on, "Is she an
9:33
antisemite?" I'm sorry. Think
9:36
what you want of me. I will do my
9:39
job until I have this mandate. And that
9:41
is it.

[Reporter] Uh just a quick followup um just
9:45
to say that is about what you have to
9:48
cover in the sense you if I understood
9:50
what you're saying basically don't don't
9:53
focus on me focus on on on what I
9:56
denounce in my reports and so on uh uh
10:00
but if I understand that a special
10:02
reporter is effective or could be
10:05
effective if it maintains is uh uh if
10:09
appears not only his but appears uh
10:12
neutral or they can you know talk to
10:15
both sides
10:16
so for now we seeing that US ambassador
10:20
in it's a personal tweet I mean is a
10:22
tweeted attacking you so my simple
10:25
question it's not a personal question
10:27
it's about your work as a reporter yeah
10:29
in the last let's say one year could you
10:33
have done something different do you
10:34
think you could have done something
10:35
different to
10:37
maintain your uh you know to be uh more
10:41
effective in in be able to talk to both
10:45
Sid but it you you seem to be someone
10:49
who measures Effectiveness in talking to
10:51
both sides and I don't even understand
10:52
who both sides are what are so can you
10:55
be more specific on who are the both
10:57
sides
10:59
I'm talking as a journalist I'm not
11:01
talking as as a journalist say that we
11:04
see if we do a research uh you know we
11:07
as a journalist that to quote our source
11:09
and everything and unfortunately and say
11:14
unfortunately uh your name now when you
11:18
we quote in our article because uh
11:20
according to the report that um Alban
11:24
wrote
11:26
unfortunately you are considering no By
11:29
Me but by what happened in the situation
11:32
that we have also the I don't know I
11:34
don't remember Ambassador Linda Thomas
11:35
Greenfield do some attack like this for
11:38
anybody on on
11:40
Twitter unfortunately is like it doesn't
11:43
make your work your reports Ando you're
11:46
denouncing any more effective because
11:48
this is your opinion how do you measure
11:51
Effectiveness look let's cut it short uh
11:54
first of all there is an inaccuracy and
11:56
I have to to to be uh clear about that
12:00
and I don't want to put the spot on you
12:02
but because I I and thank you for that
12:03
it gives me the opportunity to clarify
12:05
but uh an independent expert of the
12:09
United Nations with a human rights
12:11
monitoring mandate is not requested to
12:13
be neutral it's requested to be
12:16
[Music]
12:17
impartial it's different it's different
12:19
tell me how I am partial because I am
12:22
the the only special raor who has in
12:24
investigated violations of international
12:26
law committed by Hamas in my my second
12:30
report and the Palestinian Authority and
12:33
I've tried I've tried to visit the
12:35
prisons of the Run by the Palestinian
12:36
Authority and I was prevented from doing
12:39
so by
12:40
the uh by Israel and who prevented my
12:44
visit and and if you look if you look at
12:48
the terms of reference of my resolution
12:51
of the resolution creating this mandate
12:53
my mandate uh obliges me to look at the
12:56
violations committed by Israel So when
12:58
you say
13:00
talk to both parties but I I understand
13:04
where what you're trying to say I should
13:07
maintain uh a position that allows me to
13:10
be listened to by all member states and
13:14
this is what I've done
13:17
until March this year I've had the
13:20
discussions with everyone in March uh
13:23
already 30,000 Palestinians had been
13:26
killed and it was clear that there were
13:28
it was not not in the in the in the
13:31
Horizon that this would stop and again I
13:35
speak what do I do I I I I tell the
13:38
facts and I point to the
13:40
responsibilities of member states of
13:42
course member states are not pleased
13:44
with it so I don't particularly take uh
13:48
I'm not sensitive to the fact that
13:51
Ambassador uh I mean any Ambassador
13:54
criticizes my work look at it seems that
13:58
there is also some misinformation about
14:00
the work of special repor I mean the
14:01
special repor on
14:03
Iran receives criticism by Iran the
14:06
special reporter of Myanmar receives CRI
14:08
criticism by Myanmar what is unique here
14:12
is that Israel is the only state that
14:14
it's absolutely protected and CED by the
14:18
by most of the West what Craig mber
14:21
calls the setler colonial
14:23
block yeah and my mandate is the only
14:25
one who in fact stands looking straight
14:28
in the face at western states so I again
14:31
I take your criticism next time try to
14:34
be a special reporter on the opt and
14:36
maybe you will be more effective than me

The Origins of Israel
by claude.ai

I'll walk through the key procedural steps that led to Israel's establishment, focusing on the formal diplomatic and legal processes:

1917 - Balfour Declaration: British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour issued a letter declaring British support for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people," while protecting the rights of non-Jewish inhabitants.

1920-1922 - League of Nations Mandate:
- The League of Nations assigned Britain the Mandate for Palestine at the San Remo Conference
- This formalized British administrative control over the territory
- The mandate explicitly incorporated the Balfour Declaration's goals

The League of Nations, abbreviated as LN or LoN, (French: La Société des Nations, [la sɔsjete de nasjɔ̃] abbreviated as "SDN" or "SdN" and meaning "Society of Nations") was an intergovernmental organisation founded on 10 January 1920 as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. Its primary goals, as stated in its Covenant, included preventing wars through collective security and disarmament and settling international disputes through negotiation and arbitration. Other issues in this and related treaties included labour conditions, just treatment of native inhabitants, human and drug trafficking, the arms trade, global health, prisoners of war, and protection of minorities in Europe. At its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members.

The diplomatic philosophy behind the League represented a fundamental shift from the preceding hundred years. The League lacked its own armed force and depended on the victorious Great Powers of World War I (France, the United Kingdom, Italy and Japan were the permanent members of the executive Council) to enforce its resolutions, keep to its economic sanctions, or provide an army when needed. The Great Powers were often reluctant to do so. Sanctions could hurt League members, so they were reluctant to comply with them. During the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, when the League accused Italian soldiers of targeting Red Cross medical tents, Benito Mussolini responded that "the League is very well when sparrows shout, but no good at all when eagles fall out."

After some notable successes and some early failures in the 1920s, the League ultimately proved incapable of preventing aggression by the Axis powers in the 1930s. The credibility of the organization was weakened by the fact that the United States never officially joined the League and the Soviet Union joined late and only briefly.Germany withdrew from the League, as did Japan, Italy, Spain and others. The onset of the Second World War showed that the League had failed its primary purpose, which was to prevent any future world war. The League lasted for 26 years; the United Nations (UN) replaced it after the end of the Second World War and inherited several agencies and organisations founded by the League.

-- League of Nations, by Wikipedia

1936-1939:
- Arab Revolt led Britain to issue the White Paper of 1939, limiting Jewish immigration
- This created tension between British mandate authorities and Jewish organizations

1945-1947 - United Nations involvement:
- After WWII, Britain announced its intention to terminate the mandate
- The issue was referred to [url]the newly-formed United Nations[/url]
- The UN created UNSCOP (United Nations Special Committee on Palestine) to examine the situation

On 29 November 1947, the General Assembly approved a resolution to partition Palestine, approving the creation of the state of Israel.

-- United Nations, by Wikipedia

1947 - UN Partition Plan:
- November 29: UN General Assembly passed Resolution 181
- Called for partition of the territory into separate Jewish and Arab states
- Jerusalem would be under international administration
- The Jewish Agency accepted the plan while Arab leaders rejected it

1948 - Establishment of Israel:
- May 14: British Mandate officially terminated
- David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel
- May 15: US President Truman extended de facto recognition
- Israel was admitted as a UN member state in May 1949