Canada should recognize 'colonial genocide' in Gaza, UN expert says

Photo: Bashar Taleb Agence France-Presse A young Palestinian woman reacts in front of the body of a child killed in an Israeli strike on a hospital in the southern Gaza Strip, on November 3, 2024.

Léo Mercier-Ross

Published at 16:37

• Middle East

Visiting Montreal on Sunday following the publication of her latest report on the war between Israel and Hamas, the United Nations (UN) special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 urged UN member countries, including Canada, to “officially recognize what Israel is doing as an apartheid state that consistently violates international law.”

At the press conference, Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese also implored that states, “at a minimum,” impose an embargo on the sale and purchase of arms and security services to and from Israel and agree to a ceasefire. She added that member states should “completely withdraw from the Occupied Palestinian Territory in accordance with the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice of 19 July 2024” and “support the deployment of an international protection presence throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

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Through her work as UN Special Rapporteur, Ms. Albanese is mandated by the organization, but does not speak on its behalf.

Francesca Albanese took the opportunity to recall the “obligations” of UN member states “under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,” which requires these countries to act in the event of genocide.

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A “Colonial Genocide”

With the publication of her new dated report, entitled “Colonial Erasure through Genocide,” on October 1, Francesca Albanese persists and signs: Israel’s actions in Gaza against the Palestinian people are the “first colonial genocide broadcast live.”

This is the second report since Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. “The events of the last six months — since the last report — have only confirmed these conclusions that Israel is waging a genocidal campaign against the Palestinians. A campaign that seriously risks spreading to the West Bank,” she lamented on Sunday afternoon.

In this sense, Me Albanese affirmed that, due to “a history that obliges it to recognize the harms of colonization,” Canada had, in addition to a “legal” duty, a moral duty to recognize a “colonial genocide” against the Palestinian people. “If Canada is truly honest with its indigenous peoples today, it must help the Palestinian people not to disappear,” she said.

Raymond Legault, spokesperson for the Quebec Coalition URGENCE Palestine and co-organizer of the event, also took the opportunity to denounce the Canadian government’s “complicity” with the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “After almost 13 months of an announced and ongoing genocide, Canada is inactive and objectively consenting to the genocide. This contrast with Canada’s reaction to the invasion of Ukraine is striking,” he said.

Raymond Legault also called out the provincial government, which, according to him, “is also completely failing in its international obligations by opening an office in Tel Aviv in such a terrible context.”

For this visit to the country, Francesca Albanese is not currently scheduled to meet with members of the various levels of government, contrary to her wishes.