From ‘Never Again’ to Again and Again: How the World Enabled Gaza’s Destruction
UNITED NATIONS, 3 Nov 2025
Javed Akbar - TRANSCEND Media Service
27 Oct 2025 – Special Rapporteur, Francesca Albanese* the UN’s rare voice of conscience amid its faltering moral architecture, has delivered a searing indictment — not only of Israel but of the global order that enables it. In her latest report, she states plainly that nations maintaining military, financial, and diplomatic ties with Israel are “responsible in some measure” for what she calls the Gaza genocide.
These are not rhetorical flourishes. They are the measured language of law — and of a moral reckoning long deferred.
For over two years, Gaza’s destruction has unfolded in plain sight — a live-streamed atrocity that has killed or wounded more than ten percent of its population and displaced nearly all. Albanese calls it a “collective crime,” impossible without the aiding hand of foreign powers. “Framed by colonial narratives that dehumanize the Palestinians,” she writes,
“this atrocity has been facilitated through third states’ direct support, material aid, diplomatic protection, and, in some cases, active participation.”
The enablers are neither few nor innocent, the chorus of collaborators stretches far and wide, but none bears greater guilt than the United States. Washington supplies two-thirds of Israel’s weapons, has poured more than $38 billion in military aid since October 2023, and wielded its UN veto as a shield against accountability. Its choreography of “pauses” and “truces” — never a permanent ceasefire — ensured the continuity of violence under the guise of diplomacy. Under both Democratic and Republican administrations, America has not merely condoned Israel’s actions; it has underwritten them.
Europe’s record fares no better. Germany remains Israel’s second-largest arms supplier. Britain, invoking the moral bankruptcy of realpolitik, defended Israel’s right to cut off water and power to civilians — a stance indefensible under international law. France, Italy, Denmark, Poland, and Greece deepened trade ties even as Gaza’s hospitals collapsed and its schools turned to dust. Economic pragmatism triumphed over principle; commerce eclipsed conscience.
Arab states stand equally guilty – masters of betrayal draped in the cloak of silence, their palaces glitter while Gaza burns – their hypocrisy knows no bounds, loud in rhetoric but criminally silent in action.
Nothing illustrates this rot better than the UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco — through normalization and business with Israel — lent legitimacy to a regime of occupation and annihilation. Albanese names over sixty nations whose material, political, or diplomatic support made Gaza’s devastation possible. Their complicity, born of expedience and ambition, stands as a betrayal of both Arab solidarity and the universal ideals of justice they claim to uphold.
What emerges from her report is a world order on the brink — between the collapse of international law and the faint hope of its renewal. The West’s hypocrisy is now complete: those who once vowed “never again” have presided over genocide in real time. The same powers that proclaim democracy and human rights now officiate at their burial.
A century of Western complicity in Palestine’s dispossession has been marked by cowardice disguised as diplomacy, cruelty cloaked in neutrality, and indifference exalted as pragmatism. Every chance for courage was replaced by calculation; every plea for justice, met with silence.
Albanese’s warning is unequivocal: states that arm, fund, or shield Israel “could and should be held liable for aiding, assisting, or jointly participating in internationally wrongful acts.” This is not moral outrage — it is a legal summons. The International Criminal Court, having already issued warrants for Israeli leaders, must now extend its reach to those who financed, justified, and protected their crimes.
When the smoke clears, the world will face its own reflection – distorted by cowardice, scarred by hypocrisy. If Gaza’s cries cannot awaken our sense of justice, perhaps nothing ever will.
Notes:
Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, hasn’t been directly quoted as saying “Framed by colonial narratives that dehumanize the Palestinians….” in the provided search results. However, her reports and statements suggest she believes Israel’s actions against Palestinians are rooted in colonialism and settler-colonialism, which dehumanize Palestinians.[¹](https://law4palestine.org/genocide-as-colonial-erasure-summary-of-the-un-special-rapporteurs-report-on-israels-settler-colonial-genocide/) [²](https://www.un.org/unispal/document/genocide-as-colonial-erasure-report-francesca-albanese-01oct24/)
Some relevant quotes from Francesca Albanese include
[³](https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/03/1147976) [⁴](https://www.greenleft.org.au/2024/1419/analysis/francesca-albaneses-second-report-gaza-genocide-colonial-erasure):
– “The colonial amnesia of the West has condoned Israel’s colonial settler project,”
– “Genocide as colonial erasure” – This is the title of her report where she investigates the atrocities Palestinians currently go through and gives a broader view of the genocidal intent as colonial erasure.
– “In settler-colonial contexts, land and its resources are particularly relevant. Land is intrinsic to both a people’s right to self-determination and the settler-colonial project. An inherent conflict exists between the colonisers, who seek to acquire and control the land, and the Indigenous population, for whom the land is integral to their identity”.
You can find her reports and more information on the UN Human Rights Council website or through the provided links
– Report: A/79/384: Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese – Genocide as colonial erasure
– Document: Genocide as colonial erasure – Report of Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967
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Javed Akbar is a freelance writer with published works in the Toronto Star and across diverse digital platforms.
Tags: Francesca Albanese, Gaza, Genocide, Israel, Palestine, United Nations
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 3 Nov 2025.
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