The United Nations’s special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territory has said that it is time for nations around the world to take concrete actions to stop Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza.
Francesca Albanese spoke to delegates from 30 countries meeting in Colombia’s capital, Bogota, on Tuesday to discuss Israel’s brutal assault and ways nations can try to stop the offensive in the besieged enclave.
Many of the participating nations have described Israel’s war on Gaza as a genocide against the Palestinians.
STARVATION
More than 58 000 people have been killed since Israel launched the assault in October 2023, according to Palestinian health authorities. Israeli forces have also imposed several total blockades on the territory throughout the war, pushing Gaza’s 2.3 million residents to the brink of starvation.
“Each state must immediately review and suspend all ties with the State of Israel . . . and ensure its private sector does the same,” Albanese said. “The Israeli economy is structured to sustain the occupation that has now turned genocidal.”
COLOMBIA, SOUTH AFRICA LEAD TALKS
The two-day conference, organised by Colombia and South Africa, is being attended mostly by developing nations, although Spain, Ireland and China have also sent delegates.
The conference is co-chaired by South Africa and Colombia, which last year suspended coal exports to Israeli power plants. It includes the participation of members of The Hague Group, a coalition of eight countries that earlier this year pledged to cut military ties with Israel and comply with an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant against Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
For decades, South Africa’s governing African National Congress (ANC) party has compared Israel’s policies in Gaza and the West Bank with its own history of oppression under the harsh apartheid regime of white minority rule, which restricted most black people to areas called ‘homelands’, before ending in 1994.
The gathering comes as the European Union weighs various measures against Israel, which include a ban on imports from illegal Israeli settlements, an arms embargo and individual sanctions against Israeli officials who are found to be blocking a peaceful solution to the conflict.
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