Israel’s genocide in Gaza impossible without global complicity, UN report says
Special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese speaks during a press conference at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg, South Africa, on 22 October 2025
Syma Mohammed reports in Middle East Eye on 22 October 2025:
A new United Nations report reveals that more than 60 countries are complicit in the “collective crime” of enabling Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza. An advanced version of the report by UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, was made available on Monday.
In her second report this year, Albanese called the genocide a “collective crime, sustained by the complicity of influential Third States that have enabled longstanding systemic violations of international law by Israel”.
“Framed by colonial narratives that dehumanize the Palestinians, this livestreamed atrocity has been facilitated through Third States’ direct support, material aid, diplomatic protection and, in some cases, active participation.” The report shows that without the support of mostly European countries, Israel would not have been able to sustain its full-pronged assault on Gaza.
She categorised the support into four main categories: diplomatic, military, economic and humanitarian.
No ‘decisive action’ from Arab states
Albanese argues that diplomatic immunity for Israel and failure to hold it to account for violating international laws, particularly in the West, has allowed it to continue its genocide with impunity. The report says this took place through western media and political discourse, which “parroted Israeli narratives” and failed to distinguish between Hamas and Palestinian civilians, and drew on colonial tropes of Israel’s right to defend itself as a “civilised” nation against “savages”.
Albanese highlighted that the US used its UN Security Council veto power seven times to control ceasefire negotiations and provide diplomatic cover for the genocide. But she notes that the US did not act alone. It was helped by abstentions and delays, as well as watered-down draft resolutions from the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands.
All of these actions helped stymy concrete actions while creating “an illusion of progress”.
While she noted that Arab and Muslim states support the Palestinian cause, they failed to take “decisive action” and some regional players “facilitated land routes to Israel, bypassing the Red Sea”. Egypt continued to maintain relations with Israel, including energy cooperation and closing the Rafah crossing.
She highlighted notable failures with regard to international courts, including the fact that most western countries failed to support South Africa or Nicaragua before the ICJ and continue to deny that Israel has committed genocide, as well as uphold the ICJ’s ruling on the illegality of Israel’s occupation of Palestine.
In addition, her report says that most western countries have undermined the arrest warrants the ICC issued against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other members of the government. Instead, the US has imposed sanctions on the ICC, and the UK has threatened to pull its funding.