DaysofPal- UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, Francesca Albanese, has described the situation in Gaza and the wider occupied territories as “apocalyptic,” saying the unfolding destruction represents the first genocide in modern times to fully rouse global public consciousness.
Speaking on Sunday during the closing session of the Doha Forum 2025 in Qatar, Albanese said the near-total devastation of Gaza reflects a complete collapse of political and moral responsibility.
“This is not the first genocide in history. It is at least the third, possibly the fourth or fifth, that I have witnessed in my own lifetime,” she said. “But it is the first genocide that has triggered such widespread global awareness and mobilization. Palestine is exposing what the law becomes when it is controlled by power.”
Albanese argued that the crisis in Palestine reveals the common threads behind injustices elsewhere, from Yemen and Sudan to Congo and even Western societies now facing deepening inequality. “We are confronting a shared adversary: political systems captured by economic interests,” she added.
She said the delayed UN ceasefire vote, together with Israeli use of the truce period to continue actions left unfinished by earlier assaults, shows how power and impunity have corroded international institutions. Gaza, she noted, has exposed stark Western double standards and revealed profound dishonesty at the core of the global order.
“Palestine has ignited a worldwide awakening led by young people, workers, and civil servants across former settler-colonial states, in the US, Europe, and beyond,” she added.
Albanese also denounced the unprecedented US sanctions imposed on her, calling them illegal and incompatible with the UN Charter. Her sanctioning followed a June 30 report in which she named more than 60 companies, including major US tech firms like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft, as contributors to the transformation of Israeli “occupation economy” into an “economy of genocide.” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio cited this report as a justification for targeting her.
“What remains with me is my dignity and my voice,” she said. “I will not be silenced as long as I can breathe.”
She urged urgent international action, stressing that the International Court of Justice has already laid out the legal obligations: the Israeli occupation must end its occupation, withdraw its forces, dismantle settlements, and stop exploiting Palestinian resources.
Since October 2023, the Israeli military campaign has killed more than 70,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and wounded over 171,000 in Gaza, leaving the territory largely in ruins. Despite a ceasefire announced on October 10, the Israeli occupation has carried out roughly 600 violations in the past seven weeks, killing at least 360 more Palestinians, including at least 70 children, according to UNICEF and local authorities.
Multiple international bodies, including the UN Commission of Inquiry and the International Association of Genocide Scholars, have determined that the Israeli war on Gaza constitutes genocide.
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