UN rapporteur calls for global action to stop ‘genocide’ in Gaza

UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese speaks during a two-day conference in Bogota

The United Nations’ special rapporteur for Gaza and the West Bank said yesterday [Macau time] that it’s time for nations around the world to take concrete actions to stop what she called the “genocide” in Gaza.

Francesca Albanese spoke to delegates from 30 countries meeting in Colombia’s capital to discuss the Israel-Hamas war and ways that nations can try to stop Israel’s military offensive in the territory. Many of the participating nations have described the violence as genocide against the Palestinians.

“Each state must immediately review and suspend all ties with the State of Israel … and ensure its private sector does the same,” said Albanese, who was sanctioned by the U.S. earlier this month. “The Israeli economy is structured to sustain the occupation that has now turned genocidal.”

The two-day conference organized by the governments of Colombia and South Africa is being attended mostly by developing nations, although the governments of Spain, Ireland and China have also sent delegates.

Israel, which was founded in the aftermath of the Holocaust, has adamantly rejected genocide allegations against it as an antisemitic “blood libel.”

Analysts say it’s not clear whether the conference’s participating countries have enough leverage over Israel to force it to change its policies in Gaza, where more than 58,000 people have been killed in Israeli military operations following a deadly Hamas attack on Israel in 2023. The death toll comes from the health ministry, which is under Gaza’s Hamas government and does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. The U.N. and other international organizations see its figures as the most reliable statistics on war casualties.

“The United States has so far failed to influence Israel’s behavior … so it is naive to think that this group of countries can have any influence over (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu’s behavior or on the government of Israel,” said Sandra Borda, a professor of international relations at Bogota’s Los Andes University. She said, however, that the conference will enable some nations of the Global South to clarify their position toward the conflict and have their voices heard.

The conference is co-chaired by the governments of South Africa and Colombia, which last year suspended coal exports to Israeli power plants, and includes the participation of members of The Hague Group, a coalition of eight nations that earlier this year pledged to cut military ties with Israel and to comply with an International Criminal Court arrest warrant against Netanyahu.

Participating nations have said they are trying to comply with an International Court of Justice opinion issued last year that said Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories is illegal. There is also a U.N. General Assembly resolution from September, which demands that Israel withdraw its military from Palestinian territories and calls on member nations to stop selling weapons to Israel.

“It’s important that we stand up for the rule of law in a meaningful way,” said Chrispin Phiri, a spokesman for South Africa’s Department of International Relations who is attending the conference in Bogota. “This idea that international law … can only be enforced on counties of the global south is something that has become unsustainable.”

For decades, South Africa’s ruling African National Congress party has compared Israel’s policies in Gaza and the West Bank with its own history of oppression under the harsh apartheid regime of white minority rule, which restricted most Blacks to “homelands” or Bantustans, before ending in 1994.

Albanese also brought up the comparison as she spoke to delegates in the conference, and urged them to impose sanctions on Israel until it withdraws from Gaza and the West Bank.

“I ask you to consider this moment as if we were sitting here in the 1990s, discussing the case of apartheid South Africa. Would you have proposed selective sanctions on South Africa for its conduct in individual Bantustans? Or would you have recognized the state’s criminal system as a whole?” Albanese said.

The gathering comes as the European Union weighs various measures against Israel including a ban on imports from Israeli settlements, an arms embargo and individual sanctions against Israeli officials found to be blocking a peaceful solution to the conflict.

Colombia’s Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Mauricio Jaramillo said Monday that the nations participating in the Bogota meeting, which also include Qatar and Turkey, will be discussing diplomatic and judicial measures that can be taken to put more pressure on Israel to cease its attacks.

The Colombian official described Israel’s conduct in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank as an affront to the international order.

“This is not just about Palestine,” Jaramillo said in a press conference. “It is about defending international law … and the right to self-determination.” MANUEL RUEDA, BOGOTA, MDT/AP