Tunisia - Together - The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Palestine, Francesca Albanese, said that the Palestinian Gaza Strip is witnessing a tragedy, noting the alarm of Western countries at describing the conditions in the Strip as 'genocide.'
Albanese's statement came in a speech she delivered during the opening of the Maghreb-Mashreq Social Forum held in Tunisia on May 11 and 12, under the slogan "Palestine is our future. The war of extermination on Gaza represents a challenge to humanitarian and democratic values."
Speaking about the ongoing Israeli attacks against the Gaza Strip, Albanese said: 'How can we ignore what is happening in Gaza now? This is a tragedy.'
She pointed to human rights violations in Gaza, and the killing of 35,000 people at the hands of Israeli forces, including about 15,000 children, stressing that Israel aims with these attacks to take revenge on all Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
In this context, she called on the international community to take action to stop the Israeli attacks, saying: 'I can say without hesitation that what is happening in Gaza is not a war, but genocide.'
She added: 'There is great discomfort in Western countries regarding the use of the term genocide. The reason for this is that the term genocide is reminiscent of the Holocaust.'
39;. But this is exactly what Israel is doing now."
In her speech, the UN rapporteur touched on the protests against the Israeli attacks in Gaza and said: 'We must support student movements around the world.'
Source: Maan News Agency