Francesca Albanese, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, called on the European Union, on Wednesday 10 April, to take measures against Israel.
At a press conference with Manu Pineda (The Left, Spanish) at the European Parliament, Ms Albanese, who published a report at the end of March entitled ‘Anatomy of a Genocide’ called for an arms embargo and other economic measures, including sanctions. “They must be imposed on state and non-state actors to ensure a permanent ceasefire (...). Israel must be forced to comply with international law”, she added.
According to the UN rapporteur, it is essential to study what can be done under the UN Charter in the event of massive international wrongdoing, “countermeasures, such as revoking diplomatic recognition, targeted sanctions on government officials, political and economic sanctions, including in the case of the EU, the Association Agreement and other trade agreements”. She said that the conditions for suspending this agreement existed before 7 October, due to the colonisation and annexation of Palestinian territories and the forced displacement of Palestinian populations.
Ms Albanese also called for accountability, saying that South Africa’s case before the International Court of Justice should be supported, that there should be an independent investigation into atrocity crimes, “in particular acts constituting genocide”, and that the situation of genocide in Palestine should be referred to the International Criminal Court.
“We are at a crossroads in our history, and it is high time we realised that continuing with business as usual will harm the democratic order, the Palestinians and also Israeli society”, warned the rapporteur.
For his part, Mr Pineda, who chairs the European Parliament Delegation for relations with Palestine, called for an end to cooperation ties with Israel and for the suspension of the Jewish State from all EU-funded programmes. He denounced the fact that Horizon Europe was funding Israeli drone programmes, which he claimed were being used in Gaza.
To see Ms Albanese’s report, published on 25 March: https://aeur.eu/f/bop (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)