It is important to call a genocide a genocide, UN expert Francesca Albanese told the UN Palestinian Rights Committee on 31 October as she called on all states to examine their relationships and avoid being complicit in this crime being committed by Israel on the Palestinian people in Gaza.
“If you go to a doctor because you have cancer and you are diagnosed with fever, you have a big problem – it’s the same with the people who are being genocided,” said Francesca Albanese, special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, during a briefing on the international legal responsibilities for preventing genocide, holding perpetrators of war crimes accountable and ending the unlawful occupation of Palestine.
Describing herself as “a reluctant chronicler of genocide”, Albanese said the international community must recognise what is happening in Gaza as a genocide and “understand the bigger design behind what’s happening in Palestine today”. It is not simply war crimes and crimes against humanity that the Palestinians are experiencing – “they have experienced those through their entire life,” she said, but the current situation is different.
Under the fog of war, Israel has accelerated the forced displacement of the Palestinians that began decades ago, but “what’s happening today is much more severe because of the technology, the weaponry and the impunity,” she added.
It is time to consider suspending Israel’s credential as a UN member state. Acknowledging that this is a sensitive topic, she said: “None of you really has clean hands when it comes to human rights,” but no other country has maintained an unlawful occupation violating decades of UN resolutions as Israel has done, she said.
AGENDA RAKYAT - Lima perkara utama
- Tegakkan maruah serta kualiti kehidupan rakyat
- Galakkan pembangunan saksama, lestari serta tangani krisis alam sekitar
- Raikan kerencaman dan keterangkuman
- Selamatkan demokrasi dan angkatkan keluhuran undang-undang
- Lawan rasuah dan kronisme
