The Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs (ECFA) expresses its full solidarity and support for Ms. Francesca Albanez, the independent United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, in light of the accusations she has faced from some states regarding her report titled “A Genocide Autopsy,” submitted on March 26th to the United Nations Human Rights Council during its fifty-fifth session. In her report, she asserted that there were reasonable grounds to believe that the Israeli occupation authorities had committed the crime of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza since October 7, 2023. She noted that “the threshold for Israel’s genocide had been reached” after analyzing Israel’s actions and patterns of violence in its Gaza attack, which, she claimed, were supported by dehumanizing rhetoric from high-level Israeli officials and reflected in soldiers’ actions on the ground.
In this context, the Council commends the report by the United Nations Rapporteur, as well as her integrity, objectivity, and independence, emphasizing the crucial role played by independent human rights experts mandated by the United Nations in reporting and advising on specific issues and crises. The Council emphasizes that Ms. Albanez’s position aligns with that of all conscientious people witnessing the Israeli massacres perpetrated in the Gaza Strip, along with other occupied Palestinian territories. These actions have resulted in the deaths of more than 32,000 innocent civilians, predominantly women and children, and thousands of missing people, while violating various international laws and norms, including the United Nations Charter, international humanitarian law, and the International Court of Justice’s decision of January 26th, which obliges Israel to refrain from actions that may lead to the displacement of Palestinians from their lands or any acts of genocide and other activities prohibited by the Geneva Conventions. Additionally, it references the decision of March 29th, ordering Israel to ensure the unimpeded flow of humanitarian assistance to Gaza to prevent starvation.
In this context, the Council reiterates the report’s findings that the Israeli executive and military leadership and soldiers deliberately violated basic rules of international humanitarian law: distinction (between military and civilian objectives), proportionality (in military response), and precautionary measures, in an attempt to legitimize genocidal violence against the Palestinian people. Israel had also committed three acts of genocide: causing serious bodily or psychological harm to members of a group of people; deliberately imposing living conditions on the group with the aim of its total or partial physical destruction; and imposing measures aimed at preventing reproduction within the group. The violent anti-Palestinian rhetoric, which portrays all Palestinians in Gaza as enemies to be eliminated and forcibly removed, is spreading throughout Israeli society. Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza represents an escalation of a long-standing colonization process that, for more than 70 years, has sought to suppress Palestinian demographic, cultural, economic, and political rights, attempting to displace them and seize control of their lands.
Based on the aforementioned, the Council strongly supports the Special Rapporteur’s call on states to ensure compliance by Israel and third states with their obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, as well as the need to “stop and address once and for all the ongoing catastrophe.” The Council also renews its demand for an immediate ceasefire, the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, and the guarantee of humanitarian access to Gaza, in accordance with Security Council resolution 2728 (March 25, 2024), and particularly the United Nations General Assembly resolution of October 27, 2023. The Council also deplores Israel’s insistence on a ground attack on the city of Rafah on the border with Egypt. More than 85% of the population of the Gaza Strip sought refuge as displaced persons to escape the massacres carried out by the occupying forces against innocent civilians, only to be trapped in inhumane and degrading conditions intended to force them to leave their territories, constituting a serious violation of international humanitarian law and a war crime.
The Council reaffirms its full and absolute support for the resolutions of international legitimacy regarding the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and the establishment of an independent state based on the borders of June 4, 1967, including East Jerusalem, the complete withdrawal of the occupying Power from those territories, and the return of Palestinian refugees to their usurped lands and their compensation in accordance with General Assembly resolution 194 of 1949. The Council also acknowledges Egypt’s tireless diplomatic efforts, in collaboration with other fraternal Arab states and at the international level, within the framework of the United Nations system, aimed at achieving an immediate and complete ceasefire, ensuring the protection of civilians in accordance with the rules of international humanitarian law, and lifting all restrictions on the entry of humanitarian assistance into the sector.
