We are on day 175 of the genocide in Gaza. We are on day 4, after the UN Security Council’s resolution for a ceasefire during Ramadan, and two days after The ICJ’s additional provisional measures: Israel is ignoring both.
On March 26, 2024, the UN Special Rapporteur was speaking at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, where she presented her latest report about the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.
“Following nearly six months of unrelenting Israeli assault on occupied Gaza, it is my solemn duty to report on the worst of what humanity is capable of and to present my findings,” she said.
By analyzing the patterns of violence and Israel’s policies in its onslaught on Gaza, this report concludes that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating Israel’s commission of genocide is met. One of the key findings is that Israel’s executive and military leadership and soldiers have intentionally distorted just in bello principles, subverting their protective functions, in an attempt to legitimize genocidal violence against the Palestinian people. More broadly, the context, facts, and analysis presented in this report also indicate that Israel’s actions have been driven by a genocidal logic integral to its settler-colonial project in Palestine, signalling a tragedy foretold.”
The document, called ‘Anatomy of a Genocide’, reports her findings after 6 months of analysis. As she said during the presentation, “It is my solemn duty to report on the worst of what humanity is capable of and to present my findings.”
Francesca Albanese’s report on genocide, as well as the ICJ judges’ renewed statements on the need to protect Gaza from genocide, represent a growing legal consensus on Israel’s violation of the Genocide Convention. This is important, and the UN, CIJ, and ICC can’t ignore this report. What will happen politically is another thing because politics is a dirty game that has nothing to do with respect for law or morality but only fighting for greed and power.
In the report, she “firmly condemns the crimes committed by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups in Israel on October 7
and urges accountability and the release of hostages.” It is also specified that the “report does not examine those events, as they are beyond the geographic scope of her mandate. Nor does it examine the situation in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.”
Following the definition of genocide made by Raphael Lemkin,
“Genocide is a process, not an act.” She continues by asserting that
the seeds of genocide are in the ideology and processes of settler-
colonialism. History teaches us that settler-colonialism aims to
acquire Indigenous land and resources by destroying and replacing
Indigenous people. The methods can be different depending on the
perception of the threat by the settler group.
As I wrote in my previous article in February, Colonial powers used
the differences in culture, ethnicity, and religion for the creation of
“us vs. them” mentalities, fostering dehumanization, discrimination,
and violence. They used the “terra nullius” defense, meaning “land
belonging to no one,” to conquer regions inhabited by indigenous
peoples who had different land-use systems that were not
recognized or understood by the colonizers. This concept allowed
colonial powers to disregard the presence and rights of indigenous
populations, leading to the dispossession, displacement, and
mistreatment of native communities.
Genocide is a dormant gene of settler-colonialism.”
What is happening in Gaza exposes the hypocritical stance of the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Europe, and France, who support Israel against genocide allegations at the International Court of Justice.
What is happening in Gaza exposes the hypocritical stance of the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Europe, and France, who support Israel against genocide allegations at the International Court of Justice. These states struggle to distance themselves from a legacy of violent arrogance persisting through centuries, marked by wars that still resonate with historical atrocities.
The USA is responsible for nearly eradicating the Native American population and participating in numerous conflicts against the global south, including Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Korea, and Gaza!
The United Kingdom is accountable for imperial transgressions globally, encompassing devastating famines in India, the violent suppression of the Mau Mau uprising, and the Amritsar Massacre. And Gaza!
Germany bears responsibility for the initial genocide of the 20th century in Namibia, as well as the Holocaust and Nazi atrocities. And Gaza!
France is responsible for the torture inflicted upon numerous African nations through colonialism, along with the bloodshed of 1.5 million Algerians who sacrificed their lives for Algeria’s independence. And
Gaza!
Canada is responsible for the genocidal annihilation of the First Nations and Inuit, as well as cultural genocide through the forced assimilation of the natives that remained.
All these examples in history tell us what Francesca put on paper: “Settler-colonialism is a dynamic, structural process and a confluence of acts aimed at displacing and eliminating Indigenous groups, of which genocidal extermination/annihilation represents the peak.”
As I wrote in February, before October 7th, 2023, Palestinians endured 75 years of a harsh U.S.-backed Israeli system characterized by racial oppression, denial of fundamental necessities and rights, dispossession, detention, torture, and murder. During this period, they had no right to protest or resist. However, according to international law, U.S.-backed Israel, functioning as an occupying force, lacks the right to defend itself against the occupied population. Conversely, Palestinians possess the right to defend themselves.
Settler-colonialism is a dynamic, structural process and a confluence of acts aimed at displacing and eliminating Indigenous groups, of which genocidal extermination/annihilation represents the peak.”
Constitutive elements of genocide
In her report, Francesca Albanese writes: “The Convention codifies genocide as “any of the [specified] acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, as such. Accordingly, the crime of genocide comprises two interconnected elements:
- (a) The actus reus: the commission of any one or more specific acts against a protected group, namely: (i) killing members of the group; (ii) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (iii) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (iv) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (v) forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
- (b) The mens rea: the intent behind the commission of one or more of the above-mentioned acts that must be established, which includes two intertwined elements: (i) a general intention to carry out the criminal acts (dolus generalis), and (ii) a specific intention to destroy the target group as such (dolus specialis).
If displacement, ethnic cleansing, or mass deportation are perpetrated with the requisite intent to destroy the protected group as such, this may amount to genocide. Similarly, these displacement actions can also be evidence of specific genocidal intent.”
When I wrote my article in February, the situation was over 117 days of war, and U.S.-backed Israel killed more than 100 journalists and their families by using AI and the technology of drones. Over 27.000 Gazans have been killed and 66.000 wounded by U.S.-backed Israel since the beginning of the bombing. UNICEF estimates that at least 19,000 Gazan children have been orphaned by the IDF. 2.3 million Palestinians are homeless with no access to water, food, or medications, and Israel is purposely starving them. They have no roof and no possibility to shower; they cannot protect themselves from the rain and the cold; over 8,000 people are missing; and outbreaks and hunger are spreading.
Bombardment, forced displacement, and a breakdown in healthcare: the onset of the conflict in Gaza has led to the displacement of nearly 1 million women and girls. In total, more than690,000 menstruating women and adolescent girls in Gaza need menstrual hygiene products, along with access to clean water, sanitary facilities, and privacy.
Hospitals, the so-called safe zones, schools, and every place in Gazaare bombed by Israeli forces. Children, when they can get the medications, are treated, or undergo amputation of limbs without anesthesia; women are having a C-section without any kind of safe support; and they are hungry, dehydrated, and unable to breastfeed. These millions of Palestinians are terrorized and stripped of their dignity as human beings.
Today, the situation is worse because Israel is provoking famine in Gaza by blocking humanitarian aid. The ICJ responded to South Africa’s request of March 6, 2024, for the indication of additional provisional measures, making clear that “preventing, through any action, the delivery of urgently needed humanitarian assistance” would constitute a violation of the Genocide Convention (paragraphs 45 and 51(2)(b) of the Order of 28 March 2024).
State Responsibility and Individual Criminal Liability
The international community, through the United Nations, has the responsibility to prevent and punish the crime of genocide. Under the 1948 Genocide Convention, Israel is also legally obliged to act against those who incite genocide.
The Convention emphasizes individual accountability for genocide, regardless of the perpetrator’s official role. Individual criminal liability arises from direct involvement in committing genocidal acts, requiring specific intent to contribute to group destruction. State responsibility arises when an individual commits genocide while exercising state authority.
Today, what the world is witnessing is Biden’s lethal foreign policy, which includes expediting weapons sales to the Israeli military, ignoring the ICJ’s determination that Israel’s assault on Gaza constitutes a plausible case of genocide, suspending UNRWA funding until 2025, blackmailing Palestinians if they support the ICJ case of genocide, obstructing international efforts to achieve a permanent ceasefire, supporting Israel, which violates US law, and for that people are resigning from the State Department, and finally smearing anybody who speaks truth to power.
Professor Francis Boyle, who serves as counsel to Bosnia and Herzegovina and to the Provisional Government of the PalestinianAuthority, on the cutting off funding to UNRWA “It is no longer the case of these states aiding and abetting Israeli genocide against the Palestinians in violation of Genocide Convention Article 3 (e)criminalizing ‘complicity’ in genocide. These states are now also directly violating Genocide Convention Article 2(c) by themselves: ‘Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”
The defunding of UNRWA is important because it shows intent. Not intent by Israel; we knew that already from South Africa’s ICJ case and the statements of Israeli leaders. But now we have intent by theU.S., UK, and others—intent to aid a genocide, with no plausible deniability.
The international community, through the United Nations, has the responsibility to prevent and punish the crime of genocide. Under the 1948 Genocide Convention, Israel is also legally obliged to act against those who incite genocide. Third-world states must enact the CIJ’s orders—arms and diplomatic embargoes, triggering national jurisdictions—to prevent Israel’s genocide.
Genocidal acts, war crimes, and crimes against humanity have been perpetrated and persist, as I write, both in Gaza and the West Bank, where there is no Hamas, by the U.S.-backed Israeli government and its soldiers. It remains crucial to differentiate them from the Jewish population in the world, which is championing the call for justice and peace. An impartial international investigation is essential to examine the actions of both Israel and Hamas, at the very least.
The imperialist mindset of the Western world can only endorse the concept of a “rules-based international order” for preserving global peace and security when it is dictated by the US and its allies. It is now imperative to foster a multipolar world where every nation has equal rights and is held accountable under the rule of law.
The masks have been lifted. The conflicts are not driven by the rationales presented in propaganda but stem from a ruthless, ethically devoid colonial mindset. If the act of taking innocent lives, especially those of infants and children, is deemed a heinous crime, which it is, then it should be condemned as such in all conflicts, not just when it aligns with the political convenience of one world or the other.
Genocidal Acts in Gaza
“The Holocaust did not commence with the gas chambers; it began with hate speech. We must unite in our efforts to prevent and eradicate hate speech in all its manifestations.” UN Geneva Director-General @UN_Valovaya’s plea during the #HolocaustRemembranceDay commemoration.
Genocide is a process that begins with the dehumanization of a group, and hate speech plays a role in that, and ends with the destruction of the group in total or part. The evidence presented byFrancesca Albanese suggests Israel has committed at least three of the acts proscribed in the Convention:
- “Killing Members of the Group”
- “Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group”
- “Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”
“The nature and scale of the atrocities, if demonstrably capable ofachieving the genocidal outcome, are strong evidence of intent. Thewords of state authorities, including dehumanizing language,combined with acts, are considered a circumstantial basis fromwhich intent can be inferred. Dehumanization can be understood asfoundational to the process of genocide. Evidence of context mayhelp determine the intent and must be considered with the actualconduct: intent should be evident above all from words and deeds,and “patterns of purposeful action”, such that no other inference canbe reasonably drawn. In the latest Gaza assault, direct evidence ofgenocidal intent is uniquely present.”
Humanitarian camouflage: distorting the laws of war to conceal genocidal intent
The Convention on Genocide outlines individual and State responsibility for genocide. Individual criminal liability arises from direct involvement in committing genocidal acts, requiring a specific intent to contribute to the destruction of the target group.
State responsibility arises when an individual commits genocide while exercising state authority. Israel’s distortion of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) has transformed a national group into a destroyable target, costing lives and causing irreparable harm. This highlights the need for genocidal intent as the only reasonable inference.
As I wrote, despite claiming to protect their people, the invocation of the “Hannibal Directive,” which involves targeting their citizens, and the unfolding events increasingly suggest that the goal of Israel has always been to expand the occupation, ethnically cleanse Gaza and the West Bank, and persecute the Palestinians to pursue its territorial conquest.
“Vitriolic genocidal rhetoric has painted the whole population as the enemy to be eliminated and forcibly displaced. High-ranking Israeli officials with command authority have issued harrowing public statements evincing genocidal intent.”
Human Shields and the logic of genocide
IHL strictly prohibits the use of human shields. Israel accusesPalestinian armed groups of using civilians as human shields in Gaza aggressions, justifying high casualties and attacks against paramedics, journalists, and others. UN fact-finding missions and human rights organizations challenge these allegations, sometimes concluding that evidence of human shields had been fabricated.
“Nevertheless, Israel has used these accusations—sometimes then retracted—to justify the widespread and systematic killing of Palestinian civilians in its ongoing assault.”
After October 7, Israeli leaders consistently portrayed Gaza’s civilians as connected with Hamas to reinforce the perception of a population characterized as “accomplices,” or human shields, highlighting their involvement in the ongoing conflict and therefore making them killable. To justify the “Hannibal Directive” and the destruction of universities, churches, UN facilities, schools, mosques, hospitals and ambulances.
But, as Albanese states, “International law does not permit the blanket claim that an opposing force is using the entire population as human shields en bloc. Any such usage must be assessed and established on a case-by-case basis before each individual attack.”
Turning Gaza as a whole into a ‘military objective’
“International law stipulates that attacks must be “strictly limited” to those objects which “by their nature, location, purpose or use make an effective contribution to military action”, whose “total or partial destruction, capture or neutralization” in the circumstances ruling at the time “must offer a definite military advantage.
Israel has misused this rule to “militarize” civilian objects and whatever surrounds them, justifying their indiscriminate destruction. Turning Gaza as a whole into a ‘military objective’, Israel has thus de facto abolished the distinction between civilian objects and military objectives.
Rationalizing patterns of attacks on civilian objects and knowingly killing civilians en masse, has become a military strategy premised upon probable war crimes presented as IHL-abiding. This strategy reasonably and solely infers a genocidal policy.”
Indiscriminate killing as “collateral damage”
“Israel has also sought to provide legal cover for indiscriminate attacks by misusing the notion of ‘collateral damage’, unlimitedly expanding what can be considered ‘incidental civilian harm’.
Presenting indiscriminate lethal violence against the protected group as a ‘proportionate means’ to pursue the war points to an intent to target the Palestinian population as a whole, consistent with the genocidal statements announcing the campaign. In other words, Israel appears to represent itself as conducting a‘proportionate genocide’.”
Evacuations and safe zones
The pattern of killings of civilians who evacuated to the south, in combination with statements of some senior Israelis declaring an intent to forcibly displace Palestinians outside Gaza and replace them with Israeli settlers, lead to reasonably infer that evacuation orders and safe zones have been used as genocidal tools to achieve ethnic cleansing.”
Under International Humanitarian Law (IHL), conflict parties must evacuate civilians and remove civilian objects from military objectives, ensuring they don’t displace protected persons.Displaced, wounded, and sick individuals should be protected through safe zones established through agreement between parties.
Instead, the massive evacuations during the bombing campaign, coupled with poorly communicated safe zones, extended communications blackouts, forced displacement, and mass killings, exacerbated the situation and increased panic.
“The erasure of civilian protections in the evacuated area was combined with indiscriminate targeting of evacuees and inhabitants of the areas designated as safe zones.”
“By the beginning of February, 1.4 million Palestinians had been displaced to Rafah, rendering that governorate the most overcrowded in Gaza with “an average density of over 22,200 per square kilometre, five times its pre-conflict levels.” Continuous bombardment of these “safe areas” targeted premises hosting displaced people and medical facilities.”
The imminent attack in Rafah, a safe zone, is an ulterior demonstration of the intent to destroy or displace the Palestinian population. Remaining in Rafah signifies death. Escape death signifies displacement.
Medical Shielding
Israel’s “humanitarian camouflage” involves legal cover for attacks on medical facilities and personnel, leading to Gaza’s healthcare sector collapse. This strategy, used in previous wars, justifies genocide through the destruction of life-sustaining infrastructure.
Israel’s “humanitarian camouflage” in Gaza was genocidal due to its awareness of the healthcare system’s destruction and the potential for physical trauma. By targeting Al Shifa Hospital, Israel knowingly condemned thousands of sick and displaced people to preventable suffering and death. The reliance on hospitals as medical shields, disregarding their function as societal survival hubs, exposes the genocidal logic underpinning Israel’s military strategy.
Conclusions
- “The overwhelming nature and scale of Israel’s assault on Gazaand the destructive conditions of life it has inflicted reveal anintent to physically destroy Palestinians as a group.”
- “Israel has de facto-treated an entire protected group and itslife-sustaining infrastructure as ‘terrorist’ or ‘terrorist-supporting’, thus transforming everything and everyone intoeither a target or collateral damage, hence killable ordestroyable. In this way, no Palestinian in Gaza is safe bydefinition.”
- “Israel’s genocide on the Palestinians in Gaza is an escalatorystage of a long-standing settler-colonial process of erasure.”
Recommendations
- The Special Rapporteur recommends that member states:
- Immediately implement an arms embargo on Israel, as well as other economic and political measures necessary to ensure an immediate and lasting ceasefire and to restore respect for international law, including sanctions;
- Support South Africa, having resorted to the UNSC under Article94(2) of the UN Charter following Israel’s non-compliance with the above-mentioned ICJ measures;
- Act to ensure a thorough, independent and transparent investigation of all violations of international law committed by all actors, including those amounting to war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of genocide;
- Holding accountable Israel, as well as States that have been complicit in the Gaza genocide, and adopting measures for prevention and full reparations;
- Address the situation in Palestine and stand ready to implement diplomatic, economic and political measures provided under the United Nations Charter in case of non-compliance by Israel;
- Deploy temporarily an international protective presence to constrain the violence routinely used against Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory;
- Refund UNRWA.
Here is the presentation at the Human Rights Council…
UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese said also that her next work will be to investigate countries complicit in Israeli genocide in Gaza!
The path to a sustainable world begins when our personal healing aligns with the healing of humanity, acknowledging that, as human beings, we all share the common pursuit of hope, peace, and belonging to the human community in our diverse lives.
