UN Special Rapporteur calls for concrete action on 'genocidal' Gaza occupation

United Nations Special Rapporteur on Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese is calling for concrete action on what she described as Israel's "genocidal" occupation of Gaza.

Albanese was speaking to delegates from 30 countries at a conference in Colombia on 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. Israel, which was founded in the aftermath of the Holocaust, has adamantly rejected genocide allegations against it as an antisemitic “blood libel.”

"Each state must immediately review and suspend all ties with the State of Israel, military, strategic, political, diplomatic, economic relations, imports and exports," Albanese said on Tuesday, "and make sure that their private sectors, insurers, banks, pension funds, universities and other good and service providers in the supply chain do the same."

Lacking influence

Most of those attending are from developing countries, although Spain, Ireland and China also sent delegates. 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 UN 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.

Albanese pointed the finger directly at Washington:

"I do believe that the US is totally complicit with whatever Israel is doing. But to the point, that the new administration, even in the forced displacement of the Palestinians -which has occurred for decades under the watch of everyone including the United States-, has become part of the US Foreign Policy, declaring that Gaza is a construction site, is to be turned into Gaza Riviera, the Riviera of the Mediterranean Sea."

Diplomatic and judicial measures

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.

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” before ending in 1994. South Africa’s current argument is rooted in the sentiment that Palestinians have been oppressed in their homeland as Black South Africans were under apartheid.

The gathering comes as the European Union weighs various measures against Israel that include a ban on imports from Israeli settlements, an arms embargo and individual sanctions against Israeli officials, who are 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.

The conflict has been raging since October 7, 2023, when Hamas militants launched coordinated attacks on southern Israel, killing 1,139 people and kidnapping more than 200 others.