Albanese calls for global action to stop the "genocide" in Gaza.

The UN Special Rapporteur on Gaza and the occupied West Bank, Francesca Albanese, said on Tuesday that it is time for countries around the world to take concrete action to stop what she described as "genocide" in Gaza.

Albanese spoke to delegates from 30 countries gathered in the Colombian capital to discuss Israel's war on the devastated and besieged Gaza Strip and ways countries can try to stop it. Many participating countries have described this violence as genocide against Palestinians.

"Every country must immediately review and suspend all relations with the State of Israel... and ensure that its private sector does the same," said Albanese, who was sanctioned by the United States last week, coinciding with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Washington. "The Israeli economy is designed to prop up an occupation that has now devolved into genocide."

Most developing countries are participating in the two-day conference, co-organized by Colombia and South Africa, although the governments of Spain, Ireland, and China also sent delegates.

Israel strongly rejects the accusations of genocide against it. Analysts say it is not clear whether the countries participating in the conference have enough influence over Israel to force it to change its policies in Gaza, where more than 58,000 people, most of them women and children, have been killed in the brutal war on the Strip, which has been ongoing for nearly two years.

Omer Bartov, a genocide scholar at Brown University, said in a lengthy opinion piece published in the New York Times on Tuesday that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, explaining: “Israel’s actions can only be understood as carrying out the stated intention to make the Gaza Strip uninhabitable for its Palestinian population. I believe the goal was—and remains today—to force the population to leave the Strip entirely, or, given that there is nowhere else for them to go, to weaken the Strip through bombing and severe deprivation of food, clean water, sanitation, and medical assistance to the point that it is impossible for the Palestinians in Gaza to maintain their existence or rebuild as a group. My conclusion has become unavoidable: Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people.”

The United Nations and other international organizations consider the Gaza Health Ministry's figures the most reliable statistics on war casualties. "The United States has so far failed to influence Israel's behavior... so it is naive to think that this group of countries can have any influence on the behavior of (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu or on the Israeli government," Sandra Borda, a professor of international relations at the University of Los Andes in Bogota, told The Associated Press. However, she said the conference will enable some countries in the Global South to clarify their position on the conflict and make their voices heard.

The conference is co-chaired by the governments of South Africa and Colombia, which last year suspended coal exports to Israeli power plants, and includes members of the Hague Group, an eight-nation alliance that pledged earlier this year to sever military ties with Israel and comply with the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant against Netanyahu.

The participating countries affirmed their efforts to comply with the International Court of Justice's opinion issued last year, which declared Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories illegal. There is also a UN General Assembly resolution issued last September demanding that Israel withdraw its army from Palestinian territories and calling on member states to halt arms sales to Israel.

"It is important that we defend the rule of law in a meaningful way," said Crispin Phiri, spokesperson for South Africa's Department of International Relations, who is attending the conference in Bogota. "The notion that international law only applies to countries in the Global South is no longer tenable."

For decades, South Africa's ruling African National Congress has compared Israel's policies in Gaza and the West Bank to its history of oppression under the brutal apartheid system of white minority rule, which confined most Black people to their "homelands," or Bantustans, before ending in 1994.

Albanese also raised this comparison while speaking to delegates at the conference, urging them to impose sanctions on Israel until it withdraws from Gaza and the West Bank.

"I ask you to look at this moment as if we were sitting here in the 1990s, discussing apartheid in South Africa," Albanese said. "Would you propose selective sanctions on South Africa for its conduct in individual Bantustans? Or would you recognize the criminal system of the state as a whole?"

This meeting comes as the European Union is considering various measures against Israel, including a ban on imports from Israeli settlements, an arms embargo, and individual sanctions against Israeli officials found to be obstructing a peaceful solution to the conflict.

Colombian Deputy Foreign Minister Mauricio Jaramillo said on Monday that the countries participating in the Bogota meeting, which also includes Qatar and Turkey, will discuss diplomatic and legal measures that can be taken to increase pressure on Israel to stop its attacks. The Colombian official described Israel's behavior in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank as an affront to the international order. "This is not just about Palestine, it's about defending international law... and the right to self-determination," Jaramillo said at a press conference.