UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine: I was threatened because of my report on the genocide in Gaza
Association for Defending Victims of Terrorism - The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, said that she has been subjected to attacks and received numerous threats since she began her mission to prepare a report on Israeli crimes in the Gaza Strip.
Albanese confirmed, during a press conference on her report submitted to the Human Rights Council on the devastating Israeli war on the Strip, that after 5 months of analyzing the massacres committed by Israel in Gaza, the reports confirm the existence of elements indicating that Israel is committing a crime of genocide in Gaza, and its elements have been completed.
She said that Israel is committing 3 acts that fall within the framework of genocide, which are killing Palestinians in Gaza, displacing them, and imposing living conditions that lead to partial or total physical destruction against them.
She confirmed that Israel is using prohibited weapons against Palestinians in Gaza and starving them, “and this is a group of war crimes that have never occurred before in the occupied Palestinian territories.”
She said that what Israel is doing in Gaza is creating conditions that make life impossible for the Palestinians, and that what Israel is committing reflects its intention to destroy everything, which is classified as a crime of genocide.
The UN rapporteur called on the world to confront Israel’s brutality and force it to abide by international law, and stressed that Israel has manipulated international humanitarian law to justify the violations it is committing in Gaza.
She also stressed that the Palestinian people have lived since 1947 through practices that pave the way for genocide, adding, “We need more research to decide whether what happened in 1948 was genocide,” referring to the Palestinian Nakba.
Albanese stressed, during a symposium at the United Nations in Geneva – yesterday, Tuesday – on the sidelines of the Human Rights Council, that Israel has been committing many crimes and violations that have continued for decades against the Palestinians, including the crime of apartheid.
The UN rapporteur called for taking all necessary measures to defend the Palestinians’ right to life and end the crimes against them.
“I find reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating the commission of the crime of genocide against the Palestinians as a group in Gaza has been met,” she added.
