Francesca Albanese wrote that states that supported Israel financially and militarily “could and should be held liable for aiding, assisting, or jointly participating in internationally wrongful acts.”

A report by one of the United Nations’ leading experts on Israel-Palestine describes the more than two years of  genocide in  Gaza as a “collective crime”, for which all nations with financial, diplomatic and military ties to Israel are culpable.

The draft  report, published on Monday, was written by Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur on  human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, who is expected to  speak at length on the humanitarian crisis in  Gaza this weekend as part of the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s lecture series in Johannesburg,  South Africa.

Her report names more than 60 countries, without which she says the systematic destruction of Gaza — which has killed or injured more than 10% of the strip’s population and displaced nearly everyone there — would not have been possible.

“Framed by colonial narratives that dehumanise the Palestinians, this live streamed atrocity has been facilitated through third states’ direct support, material aid, diplomatic protection and, in some cases, active participation,” Albanese wrote. “The world now stands on a knife-edge between the collapse of the international rule of law and hope for renewal. Renewal is only possible if complicity is confronted, responsibilities are met, and justice is upheld.”

Her report says the states most responsible are “primarily Western ones”, the US being chief among them.

The US accounts for two-thirds of Israel’s annual arms imports. And according to a report out this week from the  Centre for International Policy, it has spent more than US$38 billion since October 2023, both directly arming Israel through military grant programs and waging war against its enemies in  Iran,  Lebanon, and other nations across the  Middle East.

Under both a Democratic and Republican administration, the US has also provided critical diplomatic cover for Israel, proposing temporary “pauses” and “truces” to the conflict before international bodies, “sidestepping a permanent ceasefire and ensuring a continuation of the violence”.

On several occasions, the US has used its veto power to block unanimous votes in favour of a binding ceasefire resolution by the UN Security Council. In September, it did so for the fifth time, vetoing a 14-1 resolution that would have required both parties to halt the violence and release all hostages.

The US has  sanctioned the  International Criminal Court, which issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister  Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant, for  war crimes and crimes against humanity. The  Trump administration also  placed Albanese herself under  sanctions in July for her support of the ICC’s efforts.

American non-governmental organisations supported by US President Donald Trump were also directly involved with the creation and administration of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which administered aid sites after humanitarian organisations like the United Nations Relief and Works Agency were pushed out. In just over three months, more than 1000 Palestinian aid seekers were killed in routine massacres by Israeli troops, who have described the GHF sites as “killing fields”.

Many senior US politicians, Albanese said, have helped to prolong the genocide through rhetoric that frames Israeli lives as more important and worthy of protection than Palestinian ones.

“Israelis were depicted as ‘civilians’ and ’hostages’, and Palestinians as ’Hamas terrorists‘, ’legitimate’ or ‘collateral’ targets’, ‘human shields’ or lawfully detained ’prisoners’,” she wrote.

Albanese also singled out many European nations as particularly culpable. These include  Germany, which provided Israel with more than US$565 million worth of weapons, making it the second-largest exporter behind the US; and the United Kingdom, which has  participated in hundreds of surveillance missions over Gaza and whose prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, defended Israel’s right to cut off  water and power to civilians at the war’s outset.

She also called out others that increased  trade with Israel during the two years of genocide — Germany, Poland,  Greece,  Italy,  Denmark and France — as well as Arab countries like the United Arab Emirates,  Egypt, Jordan and Morocco. She said their continued economic support not only “legitimises and sustains the Israeli apartheid regime” but “countered the trade decline Israel might otherwise have faced” as a result of its increasing global isolation.

Albanese wrote that for helping Israel, which she described as a “genocidal  apartheid state”, these nations “could and should be held liable for aiding, assisting, or jointly participating in internationally wrongful acts”.

Though a ceasefire is now in effect between Israel and Gaza, Albanese  said on Wednesday that the plan, which currently has Israel occupying more than half the Gaza Strip, was “absolutely inadequate and it doesn’t comply with international law”.

She said that the recognition of a Palestinian state by several Western nations in recent months has “been a pretence of doing something while the emergency was to discuss… how we stop the genocide”.

Albanese said that the states “who still have ties with Israel, diplomatic, but especially economic, political and military ties, are all responsible in some measure”.

Republished from Common Dreams, 23 October 2025

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.