UN-Sonderberichterstatterin: »Schwelle zum Völkermord erreicht« (nd, 2024-04-23)
An interview of Francesca Albanese (UN Special Rapporteur oPt) by Hanno Hauenstein, in German.
(Asked about the freedom of expression with a view to Israel-Palestine in nowadays Germany)
"There seems to be a kind of paranoia in #Germany when it comes to critical arguments with what Israel is doing. Many Jews around the world are speaking out against what is being done in their name. But Germany is silencing even Israelis and Jewish people who publicly oppose Israel's policies."
« [L]e rapport de #FrancescaAlbanese s’inspire de travaux historiques récents pour rapprocher la situation des territoires occupés d’un #ColonialismeDePeuplement [..] La qualification du #génocide doit certainement être appréhendée dans ce contexte, souligne Francesca Albanese, c’est-à-dire en situant l’offensive contemporaine dans une histoire de déplacement et d’effacement du peuple palestinien » - #RafaëlleMaison
“If the International Criminal Court is serious about investigating what Israel has done in Gaza as of the 7th of October – only as of the 7th of October – it will be busy for decades.”
The UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, is an expert on #HumanRights and #InternationalLaw.
She is widely published, holds a number of academic positions, and has ten years experience advising various international bodies on human rights.
She has just delivered her latest report to the UN Human Rights Council, in which she summarises the patterns of violence in #Gaza and public statements by Israeli officials before reaching this conclusion: "The only reasonable inference to be drawn is a state policy of genocidal violence against Palestinians."
It is worth watching the 12 minute summary of her report.
I appreciate the way that when she is discussing the victims of the #GazaGenocide, #FrancescaAlbanese doesn't stop with the more than 32,000 Palestinians who have been confirmed killed by direct Israeli violence. She makes sure to include the 12,000+ Palestinians who are missing, presumed dead under the rubble, and the 71,000+ Palestinians who have been wounded, most of them with 'life-altering' injuries.
She also mentions (without putting a figure on it) the many who are dying of #starvation, disease and the collapse of the healthcare system due to targeted, systematic attacks by the Israeli military. Most of these deaths are not included in the above figures. There are tens of thousands of cancer patients, pregnant people and all kinds of other life-threatening chronic medical conditions going untreated in #Gaza right now. The total number of people killed by Israel's genocidal violence already far, far exceeds the widely quoted figure of ~32,000. And thousands more are going to die deaths of deprivation in the weeks ahead, living out their last agonising days as their bodies waste away from lack of food, clean water, adequate shelter and medical care.
Many tens of thousands of lives still hang in the balance, depending how quickly #Israel (armed by western governments) is stopped.
"By analysing the patterns of violence and Israel’s policies in its onslaught on Gaza,
this report concludes that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating
Israel’s commission of genocide is met."
"Gaza in Context: A Collaborative Teach-In Series — Session 20": Ramifications of UNRWA's Funding Suspension.
Live Conversation with Dr Francesca Albanese - Sunday February 4th 2024 4:00 PM EST ⬇️
Have western governments now directly engaged in genocidal actions in #Gaza?
To understand why some experts are saying this may be the case, let us sketch some context:
• For the last sixteen weeks or more, #Israel has escalated its comprehensive devastation of the entire population of Gaza, causing tens of thousands of violent deaths, many more serious injuries, likely condemning tens or hundreds of thousands more to die in coming weeks and months from dehydration, starvation, exposure, disease, and a collapsed health system, and displacing around two million people.
• It seems to me that the governments of these nine nations, who were already deficient in failing to take action to prevent this #genocide, and for some of them, already complicit in continuing to arm the #Israeli military, may now have become directly co-perpetrators of genocidal acts through the deliberate deprivation of the necessities of life from a civilian population. This is life-or-death #CollectivePunishment of the #Palestinian population for the unproven crimes of twelve people.
• Many legal experts agree with this perspective (that defunding #UNRWA at this point amounts to a genocidal activity), including #FrancescaAlbanese, the UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories; US #HumanRights lawyer and professor of #InternationalLaw, #FrancisBoyle (one of a very small number of lawyers to have successfully prosecuted a genocide case in the ICJ). And it is a point that has been made by multiple international aid organisations, as well as members of at least two #Labor branches in NSW, who voted a day or two ago to warn their federal MPs (both government ministers) that they are at risk of contributing to genocidal activities.
"Genocide is a dormant gene of settler-colonialism.Seeing ISR as the state born out of the Holocaust, some countries cant accept that it might commit atrocities,incl genocide.
Acknowledging ISR's settler-colonial origins would help remedy that false perception & move twd justice."
On the pretext of "eradicating Hamas", ISR has killed more than 20,000 Palestinians in Gaza since Oct7. Yet, in 2023 ISR has also killed 500 Palestinians in the West Bank,where Hamas has no military presence (incl 79 children after Oct7).
Why Palestinian lives do not matter?
Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur for human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories
Decades of impunity enjoyed by Israel while breaking international law, colonising Palestinian land and forcefully displacing Palestinians, has weakened the United Nations, the UN’s special rapporteur to the occupied Palestinian territories has said.
If the UN is to salvage its reputation and purpose, Israel must be held accountable for its actions, Francesca Albanese said on social media.