Under the title “Detailing Genocide,” the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, presented her report to the United Nations Human Rights Council on Tuesday.
Albanese confirms in her report that there are reasonable grounds to believe that Israel committed genocide in the Gaza Strip during its military campaign there against Hamas.
She revealed that she had received threats while working on the report, and said, “Yes… I do receive threats. Not to the point where I am considering taking additional precautionary measures yet. But does it constitute pressure? Yes, and it does not change my commitment to my work or its results.”
Albanese is an Italian lawyer and academic and one of dozens of independent human rights experts mandated by the United Nations to report on specific topics and crises. The views of the Special Rapporteurs do not reflect the views of the World Organization as a whole.
Who is Francesca Albanese?
Albanese (47 years old) is considered an international lawyer and Italian academic researcher. She assumed the position of Special Rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories in May 2022.
Albanese studied law at the University of Pisa, obtained a Master’s degree in Human Rights from SOAS University of London, and is currently completing postgraduate studies for a PhD in International Refugee Law at the University of Amsterdam Law School.
And according to the site Email of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Albanese was a researcher at the Institute for the Study of International Migration at the University of… George TownAmerican, and senior advisor on migration and forced displacement at a specialized research center affiliated with the Arab Renaissance Organization for Democracy and Development.
Francesca co-founded the Global Network on the Palestinian Issue, an alliance that includes well-known experts and scholars involved in the Israeli and Palestinian issues.
During her academic and professional life, she published many publications and research papers on the legal situation in Israel and Palestine. She also participated in many international conferences and events, usually dealing with the legal status of the State of Palestine.
In 2020, she published a book entitled “Palestinian refugees in international law“In which I presented a comprehensive legal analysis of the situation of Palestinian refugees.
Threats to a UN expert after “detailing the genocide” in Gaza
A United Nations expert, who published a report stating that there are reasonable grounds to believe that Israel committed genocide in the Gaza Strip during its military campaign there against Hamas, said on Wednesday that she had received threats during her mandate.
That is why her appointment sparked controversy in some circles, which criticized her for previous posts on social media in 2014, when she said that “the Jewish lobby controls the United States. A previous newspaper report was considered…The Times of IsraelIt “sympathized with a terrorist organization, rejected Israeli security concerns, compared Israelis to the Nazis, and accused Israel of committing war crimes.”
Although Albanese did not disclose the nature of the recent threats or their source, she said, “It was a difficult time… I was constantly attacked from the beginning of my mandate.”
Israel criticized Albanese before, saying that she “delegitimizes the establishment and existence of the State of Israel itself.” Albanese denied the accusations.
Israeli criticism
Albanese said in her latest report that Israel’s executive and military leadership, as well as soldiers, deliberately misused their protection duties “in an attempt to legitimize genocidal violence against the Palestinian people.”
She added, “The only reasonable inference that can be drawn from the disclosure of this policy is the Israeli state’s policy of genocidal violence towards the Palestinian people in Gaza.”
Genocide, as defined by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide issued following the mass killing of Jews in the Nazi Holocaust, is “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”
Israel rejected the findings of the Special Rapporteur.
The Israeli diplomatic mission in Geneva said that the use of the word genocide was “disgraceful” and added that the war was against Hamas, not against Palestinian civilians.
Israel says its war in Gaza is against Hamas, not Palestinian civilians.
At the session in which Albanese presented her latest report on Israel and Gaza, the seat of the United States, Israel’s ally, was empty.
Washington has previously accused the UN Human Rights Council of permanent bias against Israel.
Even before the war in Gaza, Albanese was always warning of Israel’s practices in the West Bank, and that some of them may amount to “war crimes.” Last November, it warned that “the Palestinian people are at risk of genocide” and then called for a ceasefire.
Last December, she said on the X platform, “The attack launched by the Israeli occupation forces on the health system in Gaza takes the most sadistic forms of its kind.”
Albanese denounced a “useless war on the people of Gaza.”
UN expert: Israel is committing genocide in Gaza
The United Nations Special Rapporteur in the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, said on Tuesday that she believes that the Israeli military campaign in Gaza since October 7 amounts to genocide, and called on countries to immediately impose sanctions and an arms embargo.
In January, she confirmed at a press conference in Madrid that “Israel has done a number of highly illegal things.”
She added that while Israel has the right to defend itself, international humanitarian law must be respected “to protect persons not taking part in the fighting, civilians, prisoners of war, and the sick and wounded.”
In the same month, it criticized the announcement by several countries to suspend their aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), considering it a violation of the decision of the International Court of Justice, and could also constitute a violation of the International Convention on Genocide.
Israel responds to a claim of “sexual violations” against Palestinian women
International human rights experts called for an independent investigation into what they described as “credible allegations of horrific human rights violations” against Palestinian women and girls in Gaza and the West Bank at the hands of Israeli forces.
The war broke out, which destroyed the Palestinian Strip and displaced more than 80 percent of its population, after Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israeli settlements on October 7.
In response to the Hamas attack, the Israeli attack on Gaza has, so far, killed more than 32 people, the vast majority of them women and children, according to the Ministry of Health in the Strip.
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