As the Israeli military’s largest assault on the West Bank in decades continued into its second week, U.N. Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese said the “writing is on the wall.”
Israeli military photo of its forces in Jenin in the Occupied West Bank on Monday. (IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)
An independent U.N. expert warns that “Israel’s genocidal violence risks leaking out of Gaza and into the occupied Palestinian territory as a whole” as Western governments, corporations, and other institutions maintain support for Israel’s military, which stands accused of grave war crimes.
Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the illegally occupied Palestinian territories, said in a statement that “there is mounting evidence that no Palestinian is safe under Israel’s unfettered control.”
“The writing is on the wall, and we cannot continue to ignore it,” said Albanese, who released a detailed report in May concluding that there are “reasonable grounds to believe” Israel is guilty of genocide in Gaza.
Albanese’s statement came as the Israeli military’s largest assault on the West Bank in decades continued into its second week on Monday. At least 29 Palestinians have been killed during the series of military raids, according to Al Jazeera, including at least five children.
Read
the
writing
on
the
wall. #StopTheGenocide https://t.co/mQuKAiA1fy— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) September 2, 2024
“Apartheid Israel is targeting Gaza and the West Bank simultaneously, as part of an overall process of elimination, replacement, and territorial expansion,” Albanese said Tuesday. “The longstanding impunity granted to Israel is enabling the de-Palestinization of the occupied territory, leaving Palestinians at the mercy of the forces pursuing their elimination as a national group.”
“The international community, made of both states and non-state actors, including companies and financial institutions, must do everything it can to immediately end the risk of genocide against the Palestinian people under Israel’s occupation, ensure accountability, and ultimately end Israel’s colonization of Palestinian territory,” Albanese added.
Biden-Harris are really going to let Israel fully annex the West Bank on their watch and keep sending the weapons Israel needs to do it – aren't they? pic.twitter.com/oTuKc6tmyS
— Prof Zenkus (@anthonyzenkus) September 3, 2024
Defense for Children International–Palestine noted Monday that “dozens of Israeli military vehicles” have “stormed” the West Bank city of Jenin over the past week as “Israeli forces deployed across the targeted refugee camps, seizing Palestinian homes to use as military bases and stationing snipers on the roofs of buildings, subjecting their residents to field investigations.”
“The military bulldozers began destroying the civil infrastructure in Jenin city and camp, which led to the destruction of the main water networks and power outage in several neighborhoods in Jenin and surrounding villages,” the group said. “Israeli forces besieged several hospitals in Jenin and impeded the movement of ambulances and paramedics.”
Netanyahu shows Gaza on a map of Israel not showing the West Bank. He says before the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza 2005 the Israel international border went from the Mediterranean to Eilat. Does not seem to recognize the independence of the Occupied Palestinian Territories. pic.twitter.com/2NLTtK41hB
— Philip (@rulesbasedworld) September 2, 2024
Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed more than 620 people in the occupied West Bank since Oct. 7, on top of the roughly 40,800 killed by the Israeli military in Gaza.
Unlawful Israeli land seizures have also surged in the West Bank as settlers and soldiers wipe out entire Palestinian communities. The BBC reported Monday that, according to its own analysis, there are “currently at least 196 across the West Bank, and 29 were set up last year — more than in any previous year.”
Israel’s multi-day attack on the West Bank that began last week has intensified fears that unless there’s a permanent cease-fire, the assault on Gaza could expand to the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories and throughout the Middle East.
David Hearst, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Middle East Eye, wrote Monday that “even with the obvious reluctance of Hezbollah and Iran to get involved, all the ingredients are there for a much larger conflagration.”
“An Israel in the grip of an ultra-nationalist, religious, settler insurgency; a U.S. president who allows his signature policy to be flouted by his chief ally, even at the risk of losing a crucial election; resistance that will not surrender; Palestinians in Gaza who will not flee; Palestinians in the West Bank who are now stepping up to the front line; Jordan, the second country to recognize Israel, feeling under existential threat,” Hearst wrote.
For U.S. President Joe Biden or Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, he added, “the message is so clear, it is flashing in neon lights: The regional costs of not standing up to Netanyahu could rapidly outweigh the domestic benefits of being dragged along by him.”
James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, similarly argued Tuesday that “the U.S. must reverse course — and do so dramatically.”
“A long-overdue cut-off of U.S. arms to Israel and recognition of the Palestinian right to self-determination would provide exactly the shock to the system that is needed,” Zogby wrote. “It would force an internal debate in Israel, empowering those who want peace. It might also serve to send a message to the Palestinian people that their plight and rights are understood.”
These actions, especially if followed up with determination and concrete steps, won’t end the conflict tomorrow,” Zogby continued, “but they would surely put the region on a more productive path towards peace than the one it is on now.”
Jake Johnson is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.
This article is from Common Dreams.
Views expressed in this article and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
The figure of 39,000 – 40,000 dead in Gaza was first reported 7/8 months ago, yet, since then, more ordnance has falling on tents, schools & hospitals than what fell on Hiroshima & Nagasaki, how and why is the figure of 40,000 still being reported? How can it stand 8 months later?
This may seem like a small trivial thing to some but it is far from it. By repeating the same grossly underestimated, undercounted figure over & over again without caveats is, in a way, underplaying the scale of extermination that’s occurring there.
The minimum number that should be reported is the Lancets 186,000 figure, which itself is probably massively underestimated. I heard on the George Galloway ‘Mother of all talk shows’ recently that 500,000 could be nearer the truth.
Please, stop with this 39,000 figure.
Ps Check Galloway on Rumble.Com
Scott Ritter et al is a regular on it
Even if it means world war three the axis of resistance needs to act NOW!!!
It is here already with us!
Even if the “Genocidal Violence” kills or displaces every Palestinian in Israel the violence will not stop. Zionism is by definition a state of apartheid. Apartheid is a system where ONE group of humans commands and dictates the rules to everyone else. Such a system can never succeed unless it totally exterminates all opposition. The Zionist have a plan to prevail forever. Therefore, the obvious but unstated goal of the Zionists (and their affiliates) is to establish control over the entire earth. The continuous wars (against terrorism) that the U.S. has fought for the last 40 years were all ultimately to serve this purpose.
We need to raise our perspective above the slaughter of the poor Palestinians. That battle is merely the tip of the spear of the WAR for global dominance promulgated by the United Zionists. Why has our choice for our next President been limited to two pro- Zionists? Why does our Congress give Netanyahu 58 standing ovations??
We are being herded by clever phycologists to our own demise.
Thank you for the truth of the situation. are you familiar with the Mackinder statement he referred to the entire middle east, China and Russia as the world island and whoever controls the world island controls the world. this strategy has not changed as we have destroyed several of the countries that are part of this massive land area and perpetrated by lies about why we invaded them.as Clinton stated,” it’s the economy stupid.” in this case it is NATO stupid. NATO left behind armies called Gladio in Italy as well as all the other countries with stashes of arms, explosives and operatives who committed terror attacks and then blamed them on some group when it was this secret government that committed atrocities like blowing up the trains in Spain and then fitting the puzzle pieces together that they orchestrated themselves. they have no qualms about murdering people in order to further the agenda. people are so Nieve as to think this could never happen by our own government! they would be wrong, Jack. Ps. Israel is part of this land grab and that is why the Zionists were granted this land in 1948.
The spirit of the worst of the Nazis, of the Huns and of the Tartars and of Cain is alive and well thriving in Israel as it joyfully expands its genocide of the Palestinians, something some of us will really “never forget”.
“Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed more than 620 people in the occupied West Bank since Oct. 7, on top of the roughly 40,800 killed by the Israeli military in Gaza.”
I would trust the Lancet’s estimate of “Jul 8, 2024– The accumulative effects of Israel’s war on Gaza could mean the true death toll could reach more than 186,000 people” or >8.5% of the 2.2 million population of Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children.
In comparison, Covid killed 1.2 million in the US of a population of about 335 million or ~0.035% of the population, mostly elderly/ seriously ill.
Hmmm. What “signature policy” is Hearst referring to? I assume the “ally” is Netanyahu. Genocide Joe’s “signature policy” is the extermination of Palestinians. So too for the entire political class and their media servants. There will be no slowing down and ultimately stopping the Genocide until the US stops shipping arms to the homicidal lunatics who run Israel.
And they won’t.
Israel, led by Netanyahu and his cohort of ultranationalist Zionist factions want a purely theocratic Jewish state.
They definitely do not want any peace with the non Jewish Arab people of Palestine.
As Netanyahu has recently made quite obvious, by his map displays, they are already years into erasing the remnants of geographic Palestine from that map.
In their eyes, their attempts at exterminating the ‘other’ human beings of the territory is purely incidental!
When has evil ever before in history recognized itself as such, before it has been too late?