GENEVA, July 3, 2025 (WAFA) — The United Nations Human Rights Council convened on Thursday as part of its 59th session to discuss Item 7 on its agenda: the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory.
During the session, Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, presented her latest report titled “From the Economy of Occupation to the Economy of Genocide.” The report examines how the Israeli occupation has evolved into a transnational profit-driven system rooted in military, artificial intelligence, and digital surveillance industries.
Albanese characterized this system as a form of “racist settler-colonial capitalism,” which, she said, perpetuates the ongoing Nakba through a combination of market mechanisms and military power. She emphasized that the impunity enjoyed by the occupying power, along with international complicity, has enabled the expansion of illegal settlements and continued human rights violations.
Ambassador Ibrahim Khraishi, Palestine’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, thanked the Special Rapporteur for her professionalism and courage amid threats and criticism. He asserted that “those who support a genocidal regime are the true opponents of human values, not those who expose its crimes.”
Khraishi stressed that the new report builds on last year’s findings and provides a comprehensive analysis of how the occupation’s economic network functions as a system of genocide, supported by global partnerships in weapons manufacturing and surveillance technologies.
He noted that more than 200,000 Palestinians have been killed, injured, or gone missing in the last 20 months, most of them women and children. Nearly two million people have been forcibly displaced from their homes in Gaza, with widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure.
Calling on the international community to act, Khraishi urged an end to all forms of military and economic support for the occupation, the cessation of cooperation with illegal settlements, and full implementation of international law, including Article 146 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
He underscored the need for accountability and justice for war crimes, affirming that the Palestinian people remain steadfast in their homeland and committed to their national rights.
The session was attended by numerous international and regional organizations and representatives of various countries. Many expressed support for the mandate of the Special Rapporteur and emphasized the importance of upholding international law, ensuring justice and accountability, and working toward a comprehensive and just solution, including the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Participants also called for an immediate ceasefire and unimpeded access for humanitarian aid.
In her concluding remarks, Albanese reiterated that the Israeli occupation's reliance on what she termed “racist settler-colonial capitalism” enables the continued reproduction of the Nakba. She called for the suspension of economic partnerships with the occupation and the prosecution of those responsible for crimes of genocide.
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