Notes on the UN Special Rapporteur's Latest Report on the Palestinian Territories - and Some Additional Resources
Genocide is brewing in the West Bank, Francesca Albanese warns.
Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, has authored a new report for the UN. The report is entitled “Genocide As Colonial Erasure.” Here are my brief summary notes:
Paragraphs 1-23: For those who have followed the legal and intellectual arguments classifying current events in Gaza as a genocide, much of paragraphs 1-16 will be familiar. For me, the report’s core content begins at paragraph 17. The section that runs from paragraph 17 to paragraph 23 is a synopsis of some of the most recent trends in Gaza, the systematic nature of the Israeli military’s destruction of people and infrastructure, and the ambitions that animate the violence. The key sentence for me came at the beginning of paragraph 17: “According to satellite imagery and other sources, Israeli soldiers have built roads and military bases in more than 26 per cent of Gaza, suggesting the aim of a permanent presence.”
Paragraphs 24-34: This section, entitled “Risk of genocide in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem,” approaches the West Bank both as a theater of violence and as a zone whose fortunes are deeply tied to those of Gaza. The numbers of arrests in the West Bank are especially striking - “9,400 [are] currently detained” (paragraph 27). The report cites various Israeli officials’ rhetoric, and particularly that of Finance Minister/Governor of ”Judea and Samaria” Bezalel Smotrich. Their rhetoric is explicit both in comparing the West Bank to Gaza and in promising destruction for Palestinians in the former. Although the death toll in the West Bank could be called relatively “low,” the report highlights a systematic and multi-faceted attack on property, healthcare, the economy, and more. The bottom line: “Genocidal conduct in Gaza set an ominous precedent for the West Bank. The deliberate strategy of Israel to render Palestinian life unsustainable has markedly intensified everywhere in the occupied Palestinian territory, with devastating consequences for Palestinian survival” (paragraph 34).
Paragraphs 35-53: These paragraphs return to legal arguments about the nature, definition, and determination of genocide. At this point I assume that anyone paying attention to the situation in Gaza has made up their mind on whether genocide is occurring. I also assume that those who believe genocide is occurring in Gaza will be very sympathetic to the argument that genocide is brewing in the West Bank. Personally, I am swayed by the reasoning of Albanese and others.
Paragraphs 54-74: Here the report lays out a “triple totality” framework which is a lucid way of thinking about what is unfolding in Gaza and the West Bank. I’ll quote paragraph 54 in its entirety: “The current intent to destroy the people as such could not be more evident from Israeli conduct when viewed in its totality. In this section, the Special Rapporteur applies the framework set out above to the totality of conduct targeting the totality of Palestinians, in the totality of the occupied Palestinian territory (‘totality triple lens’). She then analyses specific components of Israeli conduct: the broader context of the political project of Israel in the region; the nature of the destruction inflicted on the Palestinian people; and the motives obscuring the specific intent itself.” This “triple totality” approach provides a kind of clarity that one could miss amid day-to-day events. Thinking about “triple totality” is relevant not just to the legal thinker assessing whether genocide is happening but also for the political analyst trying to fit together events in Gaza and events in the West Bank - top Israeli officials clearly view the two theaters as interconnected, and so the analyst should seek out the connections too.
Paragraphs 75-82: These paragraphs probe whether genocidal intent, a key component necessary for the definition of genocide to be met, can be established at the level of a state, rather than just at the level of specific individuals. Here the report is concerned with the interactions among various institutions (including not just state institutions but also the media) and how those reinforce the systematic quality of the unfolding genocide. The argument here is most fully articulated later, in the conclusion (paragraph 86): “Individuals clearly identifiable as perpetrators should be prosecuted. However, it is the entire State apparatus that has engineered, articulated and executed genocidal violence, through acts which in their totality may lead to the destruction of the Palestinian people.”
Paragraphs 83-93: The conclusions and recommendations sections contain several striking lines. Perhaps the most noteworthy is the following recommendation (paragraph 91c), namely that UN member states should “support the deployment of an international protective presence throughout the occupied Palestinian territory.”
Given the centrality of the West Bank to this report, here are some suggestions for further reading on post-10/7 trends:
International Crisis Group, “Stemming Israeli Settler Violence at Its Root” (September 2024). The Crisis Group report does not use the language of genocide and tends to talk more about parallel developments rather than a transfer of mentalities and approaches from Gaza to the West Bank. Yet their conclusions are broadly compatible with those of the UN report: “Israel’s devastating war with Hamas in Gaza has diverted attention from systemic and growing violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. Increasingly, the settlers are acting in concert with the army or wearing army uniforms themselves. They enjoy the active support of far-right Israeli government ministers.” To me, the most important parts of the Crisis Group report are those on pp. 18-29 and especially the subsection on pp. 25-29 entitled “The Netanyahu Government’s Settler Credentials.” That subsection delves into detail about specific individuals and networks, and not just the well-known names of Finance Minister Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, but also advisers to Ben Gvir as well as various members of the Samaria Regional Council. I have yet to read, however, a think tank report that really systematically maps who “the settlers” are, what factions exist among them, how they are organized politically, etc.; there’s a tendency in much commentary to talk about them as an amorphous bloc.
Alison Killing, Chris Campbell, Peter Andringa, and James Shotter in the Financial Times (September 2024): “How Extremist Settlers in the West Bank Became the Law.” The title is self-explanatory. The importance of this piece comes in its multi-media aspect, including photographs, videos, maps, timelines, and more. The FT offers a sobering conclusion that also tracks with the UN document and with Crisis Group’s report: “While much of [the violence] is of a low-level, slow-burning kind, experts say that combined, it adds up to a systematic campaign to drive Palestinian villagers off their land.”
Al-Shabaka (February 2024): “The West Bank: Settler Colonial Spillover of the Gaza Genocide.” This is a roundtable featuring contributions from Fathi Nimer, Abdaljawad Omar, Basil Farraj, and Samia Botmeh. Omar’s contribution, titled “The Palestinian Authority’s Gamble of Inaction,” adds an angle that is missing in many other analyses. Omar concludes, “Amidst these pressures, the PA is biding its time; a relative victory for the Palestinian resistance in Gaza or a wider regional solution may bring it back from the sidelines. Until then, the PA hopes that its stasis will enable it to reap the benefits of the war without immersing itself in the battle.”
Isaac Chotiner has done several interviews for the New Yorker since 10/7 that deal with various aspects of the West Bank crisis. See his interviews with the human rights activist Hagai El-Ad (11/1/2023), the settler leader Daniella Weiss (11/11/2023), and the political analyst Ibrahim Dalalsha (1/4/2024).
Finally, here are some publications from before the 10/7 attacks that help give deeper context:
B’Tselem: “The Pogroms Are Working - The Transfer Is Already Happening” (September 2023) - note the date
Noam Shoked, In the Land of the Patriarchs: Design and Contestation in West Bank Settlements (University of Texas Press, 2023)
Nathan Thrall, A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy (Penguin, 2023)
Yael Berda, Living Emergency: Israel’s Permit Regime in the Occupied West Bank (Stanford University Press, 2017)
Adania Shibli, Minor Detail (2017; translated into English in 2020)