The outspoken Italian human rights lawyer, Francesca Albanese, accuses British politicians of genocide denial and urges the EU to cut trade ties with Israel
Middle East Eye
Part 4 - Colonial erasure
Despite being banned by Israel from entering occupied Palestinian territories, including Gaza, Albanese has gathered enough evidence to author two reports analysing the plausibility of a genocide unfolding in Gaza and the risk of it expanding to the West Bank and East Jerusalem. She has relied on interviews with victims and witnesses as well as input from experts and civil society organisations working on the ground.
"Israel has no authority to bar fact-finding mechanisms from the territory that it illegally occupies," she wrote in her latest report titled "Genocide as colonial erasure."
The report, published last month, came on the heels of her March report that concluded that the threshold for the crime of genocide in Gaza had been met.
"Israel has no authority to bar fact-finding mechanisms from the territory that it illegally occupies," she wrote in her latest report titled "Genocide as colonial erasure."
The report, published last month, came on the heels of her March report that concluded that the threshold for the crime of genocide in Gaza had been met.
Her legal analysis shows that, in the first five months of the military campaign in Gaza, Israel was guilty of at least three of the underlying acts listed in the Genocide Convention of 1948, perpetrated against Palestinians as a protected group.
The acts, as stipulated in the convention, are: "Killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; and deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part."
To prove this crime, courts require the twofold evidence of the underlying acts and a specific intent to destroy the protected group, partially or totally.
The acts, as stipulated in the convention, are: "Killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; and deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part."
To prove this crime, courts require the twofold evidence of the underlying acts and a specific intent to destroy the protected group, partially or totally.
Evidence of intent, Albanese elaborates, can be derived from direct statements made by Israeli officials dehumanising Palestinians or advocating their erasure as a group, including forced displacement from their lands. It can also be inferred indirectly from the patterns, scale and nature of the attacks, she added.
She draws on extensive jurisprudence dating back to the Nuremberg trials that prosecuted Nazis for the Holocaust in the aftermath of World War II, cases before the International Court of Justice, and genocide convictions before the ad hoc tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.
Her October report expands the analysis to include the context of settler colonialism, and the need to hold Israel as a state, rather than just officials, accountable.
She draws on extensive jurisprudence dating back to the Nuremberg trials that prosecuted Nazis for the Holocaust in the aftermath of World War II, cases before the International Court of Justice, and genocide convictions before the ad hoc tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.
Her October report expands the analysis to include the context of settler colonialism, and the need to hold Israel as a state, rather than just officials, accountable.
Albanese was among more than 30 UN experts who sounded the alarm about the risk of genocide in Gaza since November 2023. A month later, South Africa initiated its landmark case before the ICJ accusing Israel of genocide.
She proposes a "totality triple lens" approach to inferring genocidal intent within the framework of a holistic approach that looks at the bigger picture of Israel's state responsibility.
"It's the totality of the genocidal violence, the destructive violence that has been unleashed against the totality of the Palestinians in the totality of the land that Israel militarily controls," she explained to MEE.
"That gives the broader picture, which inscribes itself in the long trajectory of colonial erasure that Israel has practised on the Palestinians."
She proposes a "totality triple lens" approach to inferring genocidal intent within the framework of a holistic approach that looks at the bigger picture of Israel's state responsibility.
"It's the totality of the genocidal violence, the destructive violence that has been unleashed against the totality of the Palestinians in the totality of the land that Israel militarily controls," she explained to MEE.
"That gives the broader picture, which inscribes itself in the long trajectory of colonial erasure that Israel has practised on the Palestinians."
"In order to prove Israel's genocidal intent, one should not miss the forest for the trees," she said, referencing an approach used by the ICJ and voiced by six western states in an intervention before the court in the Gambia v Myanmar case.
"This genocide case is particular because it's the first settler-colonial genocide that gets litigated before an international court," she said
"This is what makes the momentum even more important and it gives it gravitas," she added.
"This genocide case is particular because it's the first settler-colonial genocide that gets litigated before an international court," she said
"This is what makes the momentum even more important and it gives it gravitas," she added.
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