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Ammon News - The genocide in Gaza is a tragedy that could be extended to other Palestinians under Israeli rule,” said Francesca Albanese, an independent UN expert. “The pursuit of the goal of ‘Greater Israel’ risks erasing the indigenous Palestinian population.”

In a report to the General Assembly entitled “Genocide as Colonial Erasure,” the international expert stressed the need to view “Israel’s genocidal conduct, which is obscured by false Israeli narratives of a war waged in ‘self-defense,’ in a broader context as multiple acts targeting Palestinians as a ‘people in their entirety’ in the entire territory in which they reside, in furtherance of Israel’s political ambitions to extend sovereignty over the entirety of formerly mandated Palestine.”

“We see not only the past reproducing itself in the occupied Palestinian territory, but also the same indifference and the ability to turn a blind eye on the part of many member states and the international community and a complete collapse of the international order based on the principle of ‘no repetition’ that the world promised after World War II and especially after the Holocaust,” Albanese said at a press conference at UN headquarters.

“It is deeply disturbing to see member states obliterating and questioning the meaning of international law, and working to dehumanize the victims of the past year,” she said.

This report follows her previous report to the Human Rights Council in March, in which she concluded that there were “reasonable grounds to believe that Israel committed acts of genocide in Gaza.”

“I can say that for more than a year I have been calling on all parties concerned, especially those states that can exercise more influence over the State of Israel, to take concrete steps to stop the destruction of the Palestinian people, to ensure the immediate and unconditional release of all Israeli and Palestinian hostages, and to ensure respect for international law,” she added.

She noted that if international law had been respected — at least over the past 12 months — what was happening in Gaza would have stopped, which she said should have stopped. “It should have been stopped by the Security Council last October. It should have stopped after the first set of interim measures issued by the International Court of Justice. It should have stopped when I submitted my first report. It should have stopped before the invasion of Rafah or before the invasion of Lebanon,” she said.

The UN rapporteur described the developments on the ground as horrific, saying that the “genocidal violence” she described in her first report had expanded and spread to other parts of the occupied Palestinian territory.

“How can we explain the fact that Palestinians from the West Bank are subjected to the same practices and violations, she continued.

The expert said in her report that the “ongoing genocide” is the result of Israel’s “exceptional status and prolonged impunity.”