There is ‘not much time left’ to save the Palestinian people from Israel's expansionism, UN expert warns

The United Nations’ special rapporteur on Palestine has warned that there is “not much time left” to save the Palestinian people amid Israel’s ongoing offensive on the Gaza Strip and persecution in the West Bank.

According to Turkish news outlet Anadolu, UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese stressed that Israel never respected the ceasefire in Gaza since it began in January, and that Israel will not halt its war crimes unless action is taken by the international community.

Albanese expressed her pessimism for any chance of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu being held accountable for his role in Israeli atrocities and violations of international law. “I think I no longer have any hope in national justice at the Israeli level or the international level, because you see everyone saying they’re increasingly ready to roll out the red carpet for him,” she said, referring to many Western and European nations who have allowed the Israeli leader to visit their territories or have said they refuse to abide by an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Belgium PM: We will not arrest Netanyahu

The UN rapporteur also highlighted the Israeli government’s and settlers’ expansionist aims to further annex Palestinian territory in Gaza and the occupied West Bank and absorb them into the Israeli occupation state. She stressed that they have seized “this historic moment, with Europe’s weakness and the United States’ aggressiveness” as an “opportunity” to advance their conquest of not only Palestine but also the wider Middle East, especially as “attacks continue against Lebanon, against Syria. It would be crazy to think that Israel will stop here.”

Albanese added that “it is clear that Israel wants the lands from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River in order to establish the sovereignty of the Jewish people; that’s what they say.”

She called on the international community and global institutions to act more effectively in foiling those plans, stating that “international law tells us what we must do: end the occupation, end the genocide, end apartheid.” She added, however, that a “fundamental tool needed for this is the will of the states, and this does not exist.”

From Gaza to Syria: The unyielding reality of Israeli settler-colonialism