File Photo: Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur. Photo courtesy Francesca Albanese X account.
Francesca Albanese was speaking to a UN committee on the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people in New York the day after she published her latest report asserting that Israel was not just committing war crimes or crimes against humanity in Gaza, but a genocide.
“It is time to consider suspending the credentials of Israel as a member state of the UN,” she said.
I understand the sensitivity because none of you have clean hands when it comes to human rights.
She added that no other country had defied so many UN resolutions for so long.
In her report, Albanese revealed that Israel has pursued a pattern of conduct ‘deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction.’
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Thursday on Israel urgently to facilitate a second round of vaccinations in the war-battered Gaza Strip.
"It is urgent that this be completed in the days ahead, and we're looking to Israel to facilitate that action," Blinken told reporters.
For its part, The European Union condemned on Thursday “any attempt to abrogate the 1967 agreement between Israel and UNRWA or to otherwise attempt to obstruct its capacity to operate its mandate.”
The comments followed Israel’s decision to adopt two bills banning the UN agency for Palestinian refugees from operating inside the occupied Palestinian territory.
“If implemented, the laws will have far-reaching consequences, stopping all UNRWA’s operations in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, de facto preventing UNRWA’s vital operations in Gaza hampering UNRWA’s provision of health, education and social services in the West Bank and revoking UNRWA’s diplomatic privileges and immunities in Israel,” the EU said in a statement.
“As long as there is no sustainable solution to the conflict, the mandate of UNRWA will remain vital.”
Short link: