LONDON: International momentum toward recognizing a Palestinian state should not distract UN members from bringing an end to the “genocide” in Gaza, Francesca Albanese has said.
The UN special rapporteur for the Occupied Territories told The Guardian that the extended debate about Palestinian statehood has yielded no political progress, instead enabling the spread of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
“The territory has been literally eaten out by the advancement of the annexation and colonization,” she said.
Recognition of a Palestinian state is “important,” but something so simple that “it’s incoherent that they’ve not done it already,” Albanese added.
Renewed global attention toward statehood should not “distract the attention from where it should be: the genocide,” she said, calling for a total arms embargo and a cessation of trade agreements with Israel.
