UN Expert Faces Threats After Report on Israeli Genocide in Gaza
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - A United Nations expert who recently published a report stating there were reasonable grounds to believe Israel has committed genocide during its war on Gaza has revealed that she has been subjected to threats during her mandate.
Francesca Albanese, the special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, presented her report titled "Anatomy of a Genocide" to the UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday, which Israel said it "utterly rejects", according to Aljazeera.
In her report, Albanese highlighted clear indications that Israel has violated three of the five acts outlined in the UN Genocide Convention during its war on Gaza.
When asked whether her work on the report had caused her to receive threats, Albanese said, "Yes, I do receive threats." However, she clarified that so far, she has not deemed them serious enough to warrant additional precautions. She also acknowledged facing pressure but stated that it has not affected her dedication to her work or the outcomes of her investigations.
Albanese, who assumed her position in 2022, did not provide details about the nature or sources of the threats she has received. She described her mandate as challenging, noting that she has faced criticism since the beginning.
Israel has criticized Albanese, accusing her of "delegitimising the very creation and existence of the State of Israel." Albanese has refuted this accusation.
One of Albanese's key findings was that Israel's executive and military leadership, along with its soldiers, intentionally “subverted their protection functions in an attempt to legitimize genocidal violence against the Palestinian people”.
“The only reasonable inference that can be drawn from the unveiling of this policy is an Israeli state policy of genocidal violence toward the Palestinian people in Gaza,” she said, adding that it was a “long-standing settler colonial process of erasure”.
Albanese called for an end to the "ongoing Nakba," referring to the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948.
Responding to the report, Israel's diplomatic mission in Geneva denounced the use of the term "genocide" as "outrageous" and claimed that the war was against Hamas, not Palestinian civilians.
Albanese, an Italian lawyer and academic, is among the many independent human rights experts mandated by the UN to report on specific themes and crises. The views expressed by special rapporteurs do not necessarily represent those of the global body as a whole.
