Forced displacement, Albanese pointed out, has been a constant in occupied Palestine since the Nakba.

UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese warns that Israel’s actions in the West Bank are a “litmus test” of its ethnic cleansing campaign, with 40,000 Palestinians displaced in a single month, while criticizing media bias and international inaction.

Truth and accuracy, she said, are “missing” from coverage of the occupied Palestinian territory. “I have spoken to journalists who have been told not to mention genocide and what is going on.” This is not just the Israeli media, she pointed out, but also the Western and international media. “This will have to be investigated, because it has helped to create an environment conducive to genocide being carried out.”

Forced displacement, Albanese pointed out, has been a constant in occupied Palestine since the Nakba. “Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been displaced. More than 350,000 were displaced in 1967, and Israel destroyed everything they left behind, preventing their return.”

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Arab Inaction

In an interview with Al Jazeera on Sunday, the UN official described what is happening in the West Bank and the position of Arab countries as shocking, expressing surprise at claims about their limited ability to act. She said the current situation provides an important opportunity to unify the Arab voice in defense of the Palestinians, rather than just talking about rebuilding Gaza, even as “genocide is continuing.”

Albanese stressed that what Israel is doing in the West Bank is shameful and illegal, but not surprising. “Genocidal violence,” she noted, “has been happening since before 7 October 2023.” Moreover, she accused some Arab countries of conspiring against the Palestinians.

She pointed out that the entire world knows Israel is trying to control what remains of Palestine, repeating in the West Bank what it has done in Gaza, as it wants all Palestinians to leave their land. Meanwhile, Arab countries and the international community do nothing. “How many warnings does the international community need to receive?” she asked.

Impunity

The UN rapporteur condemned the occupation state’s restrictions during Ramadan, stressing that there is no justification for banning Palestinians under the age of 55 from praying at Al-Aqsa Mosque. She noted that Palestinians have tried to mobilize the international community peacefully and through resistance, including by remaining on their land.

Albanese highlighted that countries such as South Africa, Spain, and Namibia have taken measures to respond to Israel’s actions, while Arab states have not taken similar steps beyond opposing Donald Trump’s displacement plan for Gaza.

In a recent interview with the Palestine Chronicle’s FloodGate Podcast, Albanese said the reason the Gaza genocide is spreading to the West Bank is largely “due to the impunity that Israel has been granted; by whom? By the rest of the world, primarily the West. There is no question about that.”

“It’s not just that the system has been paralyzed; part of the system has actively enabled Israel financially, economically, politically, and militarily to do to the Palestinians what it’s doing. We need to make sure that the system that has led to this in Palestine is held accountable,” she added.

(PC, MEMO, AJA)