In a withering address to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, has wiped the floor with misogynistic Israeli representatives and called out UN member states to their faces for enabling and participating in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Speaking from Cape Town after delivering the Nelson Mandela Lecture in Johannesburg, Albanese reminded UN delegates of South African apartheid and compared it to Israel’s crimes in Gaza. And, she called out the culture of intimidation that Israel uses to try to intimidate critics into silence.
Albanese persists despite smears from Israel
Albanese is a relentless and formidable advocate for Palestine who in the spring saw off desperate Israeli attempts to oust her from her Special Rapporteur post. And, she has accused UK PM Keir Starmer directly of collaborating in Israel’s genocide whilst remaining undeterred by the Trump regime’s punitive sanctions on her for her criticism of Israel – which prevented her travelling to New York in person to deliver her report. As she connected online with gathered delegates she made it clear:
constitute an assault on the UN itself — its independence, its integrity, its very soul.,
Israel scraping through barrel-bottoms in their rants at the UN is nothing new, but it might have been a new low when Israel’s representative accused Albanese of “witchcraft” – and was promptly rinsed by Albanese’s intelligent and principled response:
If I had the power to make spells I’d use it to stop your crimes once and for all.
Small wonder the genociders are so desperate to silence her.
Featured image via YouTube screenshot/UN Human Rights Council
