Al-Haq welcomes the new report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese, ‘Gaza Genocide: a collective crime’. In upholding what our organisation has been highlighting since the beginning of Israel’s genocidal campaign against Palestinians in Gaza, Al-Haq hopes that the clear, irrefutable findings of the Special Rapporteur finally lead to meaningful, tangible action on behalf of States to bring an end to the daily horror experienced by Palestinians across the unlawfully occupied Palestinian territory (OPT).

In the very first line of the report, the Special Rapporteur states:

Without the direct participation, aid and assistance of other States, the prolonged unlawful Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territory, which has now escalated into a full-fledged genocide, could not have been sustained.

This is the central premise of the report, and echoes Al-Haq’s longstanding calls for an end to Israeli impunity and respect for international law. The ‘Palestine Exception’ has seen nations throughout the world, but particularly Western, Global North States, show complete disregard for their binding legal obligations as they continue to ignore (and deny) the consensus on Israel’s widespread and systematic commission of mass atrocities while simultaneously providing its settler-colonial, apartheid State with the multilevel support needed to carry them out.

‘Gaza Genocide: a collective crime’ identifies four sectors of support: diplomatic, military, economic and “humanitarian” – each of which is labelled as “indispensable” to the ongoing and egregious Israeli violations of core principles of international law. Influential Third States provide diplomatic protection and have normalised Israel’s protracted occupation and ongoing Nakba, allowing its genocidal, settler-colonial apartheid regime to destroy a population in front of the world as it annexes vast swaths of the same population’s territory. This is highlighted by the United States (US) repeated use of its veto power in the UN Security Council, which has now blocked seven resolutions capable of ending the destruction and devastation in Gaza – signalling to Israel that there are no red lines when it comes to its conduct towards the Palestinian people. Other States’ actions, leading to delays and “watered-down draft resolutions”, reinforce Israel’s diplomatic cover, creating an illusion of progress while stymying concrete action.

Large-scale military aid, cooperation, and arms transfers, primarily from the US and European nations have provided Israel with the means to carry out its destruction of the Palestinian people, who have been dehumanised to such a degree that the international community remains deaf to their cries despite watching their suffering for two full years. Through strategic litigation targeting arms transfers in Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, Al-Haq has endeavoured to halt this flow of weapons – mindful of the integral role they play in Israel’s genocidal campaign.

Continued economic cooperation has fuelled the Israeli economy, allowing it to profit off Palestinian erasure. Finally, and as discussed extensively in Al-Haq’s report ‘How to Hide a Genocide: The Role of Evacuation Orders and Safe Zones in Israel’s Genocidal Campaign in Gaza’ published in January 2025, the weaponisation of aid as a method to both forcibly transfer Palestinians in Gaza, accelerating their physical destruction, and imposing conditions of life calculated to bring about their destruction is well-documented and undeniable – as further evinced by the daily massacres at supposed “aid distribution” sites.

This framing reflects Al-Haq’s own analysis of Third State and international organisations’ complicity set out in our July 2025 position paper. There, we identified the same patterns: stalled enforcement of international law and a disregard for their binding legal obligations, as clearly outlined by the International Court of Justice (ICJ); refusal to end trade and cooperation that sustains an unlawful situation and supports war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide; the persistent flow of arms; and the weaponisation of “humanitarian” channels amid an imposed famine. These core features of complicity are also reflected in our various calls to action over the past two years.

Based on the extent of State complicity, and in some cases active participation, in Israel’s ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people, the Special Rapporteur rightly described it as an “internationally enabled crime”. It is the culmination of decades of impunity for a settler-colonial apartheid system that dehumanises the indigenous population to such an extent that they are unworthy of life itself. This is what the international community has deemed acceptable. This is the system States are so determined to protect that they have forsaken the fundamental human rights of not just Palestinians, but their own citizens as they criminalise and quash opposition to Israel’s genocide and silence all calls for an end to its Zionist regime.

Crucially, the Special Rapporteur’s call for systemic countermeasures aligns with and offers further authoritative support for Al-Haq’s continued demands for:

• A comprehensive cessation of military, trade, and diplomatic support that sustains Israel’s unlawful occupation and settler-colonial apartheid regime, including a full and immediate cessation of its genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the entire OPT;

• An immediate, comprehensive two-way arms embargo – including security cooperation, and related services to Israel as well as blocking shipment routes and logistics that facilitate arms flows;

• Imposing a ban on trade in goods and services with Israel on this basis of it contributing to maintaining the unlawful situation – with rigorous regulation to capture production, marketing, logistics, finance, and services. This includes the termination of complicit agreements, including the EU–Israel Association Agreement and any agreements on natural resources, including fossil fuels;

• Imposing targeted sanctions on Israeli and international officials, corporations, institutions, and non-profits complicit in the breaches, as well as punitive mechanisms to halt and deter investments and financial services that maintain the unlawful situation;

• Giving effect to the ICJ Orders on provisional measures and Advisory Opinions, which inevitably includes ending all forms of complicity and upholding their negative and positive binding obligations under international law;

• Pursue accountability by supporting and cooperating with the ICC and initiating legal proceedings in domestic jurisdictions, including on the basis of universal jurisdiction;

• An end to the dehumanisation of Palestinians, to protect their life and dignity immediately by acting to end the siege, secure unhindered humanitarian access, and support UNRWA and impartial relief organisations;

• Collective action, such as supporting the Hague Group and taking consequential UN steps, including action under Article 6 of the UN Charter in response to Israel’s internationally wrongful conduct.