The Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Francesca Albanese has released a report, Anatomy of a Genocide, at the United Nation’s 55th regular session of the Human Right Council in Geneva saying, the “monstrosity” of Israel’s crimes in Gaza are grounds to conclude genocide is occurring.
At the Geneva media conference, Albanese said:
After 5 months of monitoring and analysing Israel’s onslaught on Gaza, my report finds there are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating that Israel is committing the crime of genocide has been met.
Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Francesca Albanese
Specifically, Israel has committed three acts of genocide with a represent intent, killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group and deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.
The flagrant and systematic slaughter of Palestinians civilians, the deployment of unlawful weaponry, the utter obliteration of vital civilian infrastructure, including the deliberate targeting of all Gaza’s hospitals and the manmade starvation of the Palestinian people transcend the realm of war crimes and crimes against humanity that had been seen in the occupied Palestinian territory before.
The monstrosity unfolding is accompanied by a pervasive anti-Palestinian narrative and dehumanisation emanating from the uppermost tiers of Israeli society, including high ranking officials with command authority and frequently reflected in soldiers actions on the ground.
Albanese told media these reflect the intent to destroy in whole or in part the members of the group, which is what distinguishes genocide from war crimes and crimes against humanity.
During the media conference Albanese was asked if she’d received threats or attempts at intimidation while working on the report, the Special Rapporteur confirmed she had, adding that most of her pain was caused by what she had to observe, monitor and investigate.
Albanese called for sanctions and an arms embargo to be implemented against Israel “as soon as possible”.
Advance unedited version: Anatomy of a Genocide