governments in the global South don't be in the shadow remember where you come from the struggles of your people through their efforts and sacrifice and blood this is a time to stand together for something better Israel has been bombing Gaza for over a year but most of the world governments have either failed to stop the genocide or in the case of the US actively blocked the United Nations from taking action the US has vetoed a ceasefire resolution four times Maybe for some we have the wrong nationality the wrong Faith the wrong skin color but we
are humans is there an international law for them an international law for us do they have the right to kill and the only right we have is to die meanwhile Departments of the UN have been openly criticizing Israel's actions for months Franchesca albanesi is a special rapur assigned by the UN to investigate human rights abuses of Palestinians by Israel Israel is an aparte states which has been predicated upon the Erasure of the Palestinians the dehumanization of the Palestinians since the UN was created it has been inextricably linked to the question of Palestine it's also the
place where countries can create and codify international law international law is not just a promise is a set of obligations they are Universal they apply to the powerful and weak to the rich and the poor to the large and the small but international law feels unequal when it comes comes to stopping Israel's assault on the Palestinian people so what exactly was the un's role in Palestine how can the global South Community replicate previous successes to liberate the Palestinian people and what does the future hold if countries no longer abide by international [Music] law Franchesca Albania
wrote two reports this year about Israel's genocide in Gaza her first report was titled anatomy of a genocide I concluded that Israel had committed at least three acts of genocide acts of killing infliction of severe bodily and mental harm and Creations of condition of life that would lead to the destruction of the Palestinians in Gaza and H or in part supported by genocidal intent 7 months later she wrote a new report genocide as Colonial Erasure this is a state Endeavor committed intentionally by state officials uh military political leadership religious leadership so all the state apparatus
has been complicit in the crimes that have been committed against the Palestinians but Albania also wants people to know that this isn't something new it's been happening since the nakba in Israel's Creation in 1948 since its very Inception Palestinians have been forcibly displaced dispossessed increasingly segregated and arrested and detained on Mass uh their homes have been destroyed their churches and mosques their identity has become a liability they have all become through Decades of Israeli unlawful occupation in what remains of Palestine a security threat presumed guilty until proven innocent so the history of the Palestinians at
the end of the state of Israel has been one of continuous ethnic cing what happens today is what a settler Colonial genocide looks like this is the kind of Destruction of a people in all or in part that happens in a context where one people wants to dominate take the land and the resources from another people and push them away because they're very existence as indigenous people is an identity and legal threat to the occupier to the colonizer the United Nations was formed in 1945 primarily by the five major Powers who won World War II
the Soviet Union China France the United Kingdom and the United States when the United Nations came into existence it was constituted by 51 states most of the world was still colonized meaning controlled land resources and people primarily by European countries that included Palestine which was under UK control and tensions were high in the region after an influx of Jewish immigrants from Europe 2 years after the UN was created the UK tasked it with resolving what should happen to Palestine the UN decided to partition the land the UN plan would have given the Jewish settler minority
which only accounted for onethird of the population the majority of the land the much larger indigenous Arab Palestinian population would get a much smaller portion and Jerusalem was to be an international Zone the plan was rejected by the Palestinian people but Israel used the plan to declare independence and when war broke out to forcibly displace nearly 3/4 of the indigenous Palestinian population in what's now known as the nakba or catastrophe Palestine is unique but he not unique is unique in the in the sense that he Standing Tall and resisting the the Erasure that a colonial
mindset has brought upon them but this again this is what in history has happened to other uh colonized people while most other countries went through decolonization in the 20th century Israel did the opposite after the war in 1967 Israel colonized all the Palestinian land to this day it controls who can enter and leave the occupied territories and has been building more illegal settlements on Palestinian land every year and I know that this is painful to hear for uh Israelis and Israeli youths in particular who love Israel and I don't blame them but the point is
that their country is imposing an ATI regime on the Palestinians and he's trying to erase the Palestinians from whatever remains of Palestine which is what settler Colonial powers in Australia in Canada in the United States have done with their indigenous people as decolonization expanded around the world the UN expanded too now there are 93 member states but only the five permanent members of the security Council have veto power it has been quite a journey for most people in the world to liberate themselves from the Yoke of this control which is not completely undone there are
still ties economic military ties Financial ties the system has changed over time and in my view the major Revolution came about with a decolonization which gave impetus to a number of changes in the International System albanesi says the UN has been successful in the past at holding countries committing human rights abuses accountable think of the aparte committee that was set up to deal with the dismantlement of aparte South Africa with the identification of what aparte was and then little by little the dismantlement of the aparte regime there Israel is an apar states which has been
predicated upon the Erasure of the Palestinians we need to act we need to coales we need to remember that we decide how much we support or we do not support this system by also adhering to what are the calls of the Palestinian movement which is acting like it was against apartheid South Africa to boyot to divest and sanction um the Israeli unlawful Endeavor and also again build Coalition build alliances and it seems there are coalitions building recently Malaysia partnering with other countries proposed expelling Israel from the United Nations because of the genocide Israel no longer
belongs within the Civilized community of Nations it is not the first time that we see countries from the global South taking upon themselves the struggle to bring about Justice it's natural because they are more aware than us in Western societies about uh the risks of permanent control and disempowerment albanesi says she can understand why many young people would feel like the UN and the International Community is not doing enough of course the international justice system has dragged its feet of course the international criminal court the prosecutor should have acted before October 7 because it was
already criminal enough and the alleged perpetrators were already bragging about their crimes the international criminal court which is independent from the UN did finally issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister YF Galant over war crimes in Gaza and now the UN fa an unprecedented attack from Israel the United Nations whose premises and beneficiaries have been bombed hit by Israeli weapons this year in Gaza but also peacekeepers in Lebanon and uh the Secretary General has been declared Persona nrata I've been declared Persona nrata the general assembly the international criminal court
the Human Rights Council everyone has been accused by Israel to be harboring terrorists or anti-semites this is unacceptable this is why the test is how much the United Nations today manages to to push back this huis albanesi says she views now as a chance to help bring about change the time is ripe for a revolution to make the system better it's important that especially young people understand the potential of this moment to make the world a better place because on the time it takes to make their realization and act it depends how many people will
be able to save in Gaza and in Palestine the first thing she recommends people should do is hold their own governments accountable Justice starts at home by making sure that those policy makers who have enabled in this specific case the genocide to be invoked to unfold to continue they have to be held accountable businesses uh from your own country who have profited from the unlawful occupation the apartheid and now the genocide every time we purchase from these businesses we participate a little bit in the maintenance of the unlawful occupation and apartheid regim according to albanesi
what the UN does provide is a forum for people to have discussion to prevent conflict but the UN has been unable to do that because of push back from Israel with us support the United Nations doesn't exist as a virtuous system other than us it sums up who we are as member states as family of nations with its goods and beds like with its setbacks and and virtues so we shouldn't romanticize or idealize what the United Nations is however this is a place where discussions on how to prevent conflict how to ensure peace and stability
for everyone how to advance equality and freedom for everyone is to be held and then reflected into International policies even though it hasn't been able to stop the genocide albanesi says the previous successes of the UN shouldn't be overlooked it does allow developing countries Global South countries to liberate themselves and to make the system a little bit better let's build on this and make the system even better because I'm really afraid of what we might be facing lacking that is the return to a place of lawlessness where might make right and we don't need to
go there Alban says her message to Western leaders hasn't changed since October 2023 the slaughtering of children after children after children I mean how many other children need to die before our political leaders come to census why not to be remembered for something good instead of destroying the planet do the right thing start by abiding by international law lead your country into a virtuous path [Music]
