Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur On The Occupied Palestinian Territories: ‘Israel Commits Crimes Like It Breathes. It Must Be Stopped’

Judging by the attacks directed against the Italian lawyer Francesca Albanese, 48, Israel and its propaganda machine seem to fear this jurist, who has held the position of U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories since 2022. In March 2024, when few people dared accuse that country of crimes against humanity in Gaza, let alone genocide, Albanese published a report titled Anatomy of a Genocide. That international crime, perhaps the gravest one of all, is now unfolding with “overwhelming evidence,” says the rapporteur in an interview with EL PAÍS held at the Círculo de Bellas Artes cultural center in Madrid on Tuesday.

“Israel commits crimes like it breathes. The only way to protect not only Palestinians, but also Israelis, is to stop it. It is a threat to peace and security,” the U.N. rapporteur firmly states. Albanese argues that the problem is not only limited to Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, since, according to statistics published by the newspaper Haaretz, 80% of the Israeli population supports the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. “That society needs to be healed,” she adds.

Albanese will present a new report next week that will list the names of companies “that have profited from genocide.”

Question. In an interview with EL PAÍS in January 2024, you mentioned a “very likely genocide in Gaza.” Now you are certain of it.

Answer. I document it day after day. In January 2024, I was an almost solitary voice, and 99% either remained silent or denied it. But now there is an almost unanimous consensus within the human rights community, including international experts and even Israeli historians. To those who say it is not a genocide, I would say that I don’t know if I am more affected by their hypocrisy or by their ignorance. I don’t know what the terms of the debate are in Spain, but in my country, Italy, the arguments used to divert attention from the issue are that there are no concentration camps in Gaza or that Israel has not killed all the Palestinians [in the Gaza Strip]. These are both specious arguments. The evidence [of genocide] is overwhelming. Palestinians embody the sacrifices and exploitation imposed on the Global South — what I call the global majority — mainly at the hands of former Western colonial powers. What we see today is a monstrosity, not only for the Palestinians, who suffer from apartheid, but for the Israelis themselves. Despite their privileges, they have been indoctrinated into an ideology that has turned them into executioners and perpetrators of genocide. This is the most horrible crime, because it targets members of a group simply for belonging to it.

Q. Can we talk about genocide without a ruling from an international court?

A. Was the Armenian genocide not a genocide because no court declared it to be so? No court established the Guatemalan genocide or that of Sabra and Chatila [Lebanon]. The genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina was recognized this way only with respect to Srebrenica. Would we then say it wasn’t a genocide? And what about the Native Americans, the Inuit, the Aborigines in Australia, or the Nama and Herero in Namibia? Are they not genocides because there is no court ruling? Regarding Gaza, within 15 days, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued provisional measures recognizing the possibility of genocide, which should trigger the responsibility to prevent it. These are excuses for not assuming responsibility. [In Gaza] there are 400,000 people who have disappeared.

Q. The EU has just acknowledged in a report that Israel violates human rights, but has not announced any measures.

A. The question is, why this complicity? And it also applies to Spain, which is the most progressive country [in the EU]. [Pedro] Sánchez’s government has been explicit and firm. Spain seems to have everything it needs to do the right thing; it has done a lot already, and what it has done is very important, but I wonder why it has not yet completely severed economic, financial, strategic, and military ties with Israel. That brings me to another question: Who are the accomplices? In Spain, there is no ideological involvement like there is in the U.S. or Italy, nor do I see racism toward Palestinians, but I think the reason is that Israel represents a system. I have investigated the involvement of the private sector in the economy of occupation, which has now become the economy of genocide, and that genocide does not stop because there are people doing business and making a lot of money from it.

Q. Are you referring to the defense industry?

A. Of course there’s the military and technological spheres, and what Israeli companies represent, but you can’t imagine all the people involved, even in countries that support Palestine. Researchers and judges have investigated the mafia system as a contamination between financial interests and politics. I see in this case a mafia system, a mafia ideology at play on an international scale.

Q. How do you deal with that system?

A. By hitting it where its heart is: in its wallet. It’s also very important to understand how it works. For example, it was very revealing to understand that Israel is an apartheid state and to embark on a holistic understanding of that state as a system that maintains structural domination and discrimination against Palestinians in order to expel them from their land and prevent them from enjoying the right to self-determination.

Q. And then?

A. We must understand the elements of the economy of genocide and its actors: the media, the military components, the private sector, the companies that have normalized the occupation [of Palestine], the universities that have silenced their students and academics and whose priority is to continue doing business, securing their funding and their association with the apartheid state of Israel. I can’t name names because my report hasn’t been published yet, but there are also Spanish companies that have profited from the economy of occupation in Palestine, thanks to international crimes. It’s time for them to be held accountable. That system is one of ruthless capitalism. And I’m not proposing any political doctrine, I’m just saying that anything that doesn’t have rules runs the risk of being exploited by a minority to the detriment of the majority.

Q. Do movements like BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) have a real impact?

A. BDS is an ethical way of behaving, one that has articulated its demands based on human rights and international law, and it should be our default option. But I don’t want to burden individuals with responsibilities that really belong to governments. Spain, like other countries, has an obligation not to trade, not to aid, or not to transfer a weapon to a state that commits crimes.

Q. And the countries that sell weapons to Israel?

A. They are accomplices. Germany and the United States must be held accountable.

Q. Will Israel succeed in expelling the population of Gaza?

A. The goal of this genocide is the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, as other genocides aimed for the ethnic cleansing of the native population of Australia, and in many places in North and Latin America. Palestine is the last frontier of Western colonialism. That is why it is our responsibility; that is why I say that the progressive government of Spain, a country that, like others, caused so much harm during centuries of colonialism, should see it as a historic responsibility to challenge secular colonialism wherever it remains, and I encourage the Spanish government to join The Hague group and Colombia and South Africa, which will hold a meeting in Bogotá on July 15 and 16 to call for measures to end the genocide in Gaza. Citizens should continue to take to the streets. I remember Spain during the Iraq war. The whole country was demonstrating. Where are the people now? This is a test for all of us as humans.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition