“Israel-Hamas War”: Tackling the root causes from an international law perspective, with UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese

Jointly organized with the Murrow Center

On Tuesday, October 31st, the Fares Center and the Murrow Center hosted Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967. While Albanese was initially planning to speak about the situation of children in the occupied territories, as well as Israel’s system of widespread carcerality, the events on the ground compelled her to change the focus to the war between Israel and Hamas, and the general situation in the occupied territory since October 7th. Professor Tom Dannenbaum was the discussant.

Albanese spoke about the indiscriminate killing of civilians in the Gaza Strip, the destruction of homes and property and the mass displacement that have been taking place in the territory. She also spoke about the mass arrest campaign being carried out in the West Bank and the ongoing settler violence, which had caused the forcible transfer of numerous Palestinian communities. She emphasized that the current situation was unsustainable, and that the international community had to use the tools at its disposal to ensure the implementation of international law, not only in the ongoing hostilities, but generally in the decades-long occupation.