​​​​​​​COPENHAGEN, Denmark

The UN special rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories said Saturday that nations are not permitted to contravene international law.

“Are states allowed to violate international law with impunity? No, they are not. International law is as strong as the will of the member states to enforce it,” Francesca Albanese, said at an event hosted by the European Palestine Network in Copenhagen.

The remarks were in response to Poland's controversial decision to shield Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from an international arrest warrant if he attends a commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz.

She said the international law is not different from domestic law. There are countries that are not enforcing it, perhaps, because of moral corruption, and these kinds of societies are more insecure and more prone to violence, she said, adding that she is shocked by the state of lawlessness at the international level.

“I am not surprised by the way Israel is acting, this is what settler colonialism when left unchecked leads to,” she said.

“Is it possible that the entire world is not capable to stand against this lawlessness which is today personified by these strong coalition between Israel and the United States of America?” she asked.

The UN official said the international consensus remains that at least in the 22% of Palestine, the Palestinians should have the exclusive right of self-determination in the form of statehood.

“If it doesn’t happen then there is no alternative. Palestinians need to have civil, political, cultural, social and economic rights and first and foremost the right of self-determination, meaning the right to exist as people in the land that is connected to the land who they are as people,” she added.