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UN should suspend Israel's membership for genocide in Gaza — expert

UN special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese acknowledged suspending Israel’s credentials as a member state is a sensitive topic, explaining that all countries in the world have difficulties in respecting human rights

NEW YORK, November 1. /TASS/. The United Nations (UN) should consider suspending Israel due to numerous violations of international law, Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, stated at a briefing in New York.

"It is time to consider suspending the credentials of Israel as a member state of the UN," the organization's website wrote, quoting the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory. Albanese said the international community must recognize what is happening in Gaza as genocide and "understand the bigger design behind what's happening in Palestine today." It is not simply war crimes and crimes against humanity that the Palestinians are experiencing, she pointed out.

The UN rapporteur acknowledged suspending Israel’s credentials as a member state is a sensitive topic, explaining that all countries in the world have difficulties in respecting human rights. Nevertheless, no other country has maintained an unlawful occupation that violates decades of UN resolutions as Israel has, she said.

The report also notes that Tlaleng Mofokeng, the UN special rapporteur on the right to health, accused Israel and its allies of "knowingly and intentionally imposing famine and dehydration" on people in the Gaza Strip and warned that these practices would stunt an entire generation. "The Strip now is a wasteland of rubble and human remains," she said, adding that the Israeli leadership’s promise last year to destroy Gaza has been fulfilled.

On October 31, the enclave's health ministry reported that over 43,200 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip as a result of the Israeli operation in the enclave that began in October 2023.

In December 2023, South Africa filed a lawsuit against Israel at the UN International Court of Justice in The Hague, accusing the country of violating the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip. The court ruled on January 26 that Israel must take all necessary measures to prevent genocide in Gaza. Since then, South Africa has sent three urgent requests to The Hague to seek an end to Israel's military operation in Gaza and to expand humanitarian aid programs for the enclave's population. On October 28, 2024, the South African presidential administration's press office said the country had submitted a 750-page memorandum to the UN International Court of Justice with evidence in support of its lawsuit.