Geneva, 28 March 2024 (TDI): During the 55th session of the Human Rights Council (HRC55) on 26th March, Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese outlined the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) since 1967 as a report titled “Anatomy of a Genocide”.
She has declared that genocide is a “process”. It is marked by the initiation of “dehumanization of a group as other”, followed by the “denial” of their “humanity” and “ends with the destruction of that group” either total or partial.
She has characterized that “the dehumanization of Palestinians as a group is a hallmark of their history of ethnic cleansing, dispossession, and apartheid.”
Quoting Edward Said, she has lamented that “Palestinians were made ‘Orphans of a Homeland’ by the creation of the State of Israel and its continuous policies intended to erase their presence from their land.”
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‘Conspicuous and ostentatious’ genocide in Gaza
The Special Rapporteur has identified the ongoing genocide in Gaza as “conspicuous and ostentatious” in nature.
“We must confront genocide, we must prevent it and we must punish it,” she has urged.
Furthermore, she has highlighted that “the catastrophic situation I investigated is known as it has been broadcast to the world in real-time by its victims.”
Addressing the HRC55, she criticized that “astoundingly, rather than halting its momentum a minority of powerful member states have provided military, economic and political support for the atrocity compounding the devastation it has wrought for the Palestinians.”
Thereafter, the Special Rapporteur shared the detailed figures of the Palestinians killed, including men, women, and children, people belonging to different professions in the society, the near collapse of the healthcare system, and the absence of basic amenities of life during the current Israeli offensive.
Following that, she outlined the blockades installed by Israel to prevent humanitarian aid from reaching people in the north of Gaza as well as efforts to halt the functioning of UNRWA in this regard.
Israel’s Apocalyptic Arsenal of Weaponry
“In the initial weeks of the assault, Israeli forces killed around 250 Palestinians daily through an apocalyptic arsenal of weaponry on one of the most densely populated places on Earth,” she said.
The Special Rapporteur explained to the HRC55 that “the ground offensive changed the pattern but not the scale of destruction.”
She further charted the damage incurred to the neighborhoods and infrastructure related to agriculture and cultural and educational sites.
Lastly, she grieved the ways Israeli soldiers “have published footage[s] boasting about their killing, bombing, self-incriminating videos [that] show them sadistic, basically mocking and humiliating their Palestinian victims, violating their physical integrity and right to life but also their dignity.”
She concluded that “anti-Palestinian narrative” and “rhetoric has been pervasive” where Israeli high-ranking officials calling on soldiers “to annihilate people of Gaza.”
And, both “executive and military leadership and soldiers have intentionally distorted rules of International Humanitarian Law, [Rules of] Distinction, Proportionality and Precaution in an attempt to legitimize genocidal violence against the Palestinian people.”
