UN Expert: ‘Israel’ Committing One of the Cruelest Genocides in Modern History
GENEVA — United Nations Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, Francesca Albanese, declared Thursday that the Zionist entity is responsible for “one of the cruelest genocides in modern history,” accusing Tel Aviv of turning Gaza into a testing ground for military technology and urging sweeping international action, including a total arms embargo and suspension of all trade and investment ties.
Addressing the UN Human Rights Council while presenting her latest report, Albanese described the situation as “apocalyptic,” stating, “In Gaza, Palestinians continue to endure suffering beyond imagination. Israel is responsible for one of the cruelest genocides in modern history.” She noted that although official figures cite more than 200,000 Palestinians killed or wounded, health experts believe the real toll is far higher.
Albanese condemned the Zionist entity’s recently established Gaza Humanitarian Foundation as “a death trap—engineered to kill or force the flight of a starved, bombarded, emaciated population marked for erasure.” She further emphasized the financial benefits gained by arms manufacturers during the war, pointing out that companies supplying the Zionist entity with advanced weaponry have made “near-record profits” over the past 20 months. “Israel has unleashed 85,000 tons of explosives—six times the power of the Hiroshima bomb—to destroy Gaza,” she said.
Highlighting economic disparities, she cited a 213% rise on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange since October 2023, describing it as a case of “one people enriched, one people erased.” According to Albanese, the war has turned Gaza into “an ideal laboratory for the Israeli military-industrial complex,” where new weapons, surveillance systems, and lethal drones are tested on a defenseless population.
The report names 48 corporate actors—including arms manufacturers, banks, tech firms, fossil fuel companies, and academic institutions—that are allegedly part of a broader “economy of occupation.” These entities, she said, enable violence and colonization through financing, infrastructure, and normalization.
“There is a prima facie responsibility on every state and corporate entity to completely abstain from or end their relationships with this economy of occupation,” Albanese stated. She urged UN member states to impose a full arms embargo on the Zionist entity, suspend all trade and investment agreements, and ensure accountability for corporations involved in human rights violations.
Calling on the private sector, she warned that businesses must immediately end all activities tied to abuses against Palestinians. “Ignorance and ideology no longer excuse global inaction,” she said, noting that the genocide in Gaza is “so visible, so livestreamed.”
Albanese concluded with a powerful appeal to civil society: “Trade unions, lawyers, civil society groups, and ordinary citizens must push for boycotts, divestments, sanctions, and accountability. What comes next depends on all of us.”
