While Israel continues its relentless genocidal campaign in Gaza for the 385th day—marked by mass killings, forced displacement, widespread destruction, enforced disappearance, torture, and starvation— it, with backing from Western allies, has escalated its targeted attacks and smear campaign against Francesca Albanese, the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territory Occupied since 1967.
This escalated attack against the mandate holder coincides with the presentation of her new report to the UN General Assembly and represents a cowardly attempt to deflect attention from Israel’s relentless colonial violence and silence a crucial voice that is mandated to report on Israeli international crimes, including genocide, to UN.
The United States, Canada, and certain European states, by aligning with this campaign, are engaging in a calculated strategy to obscure their own complicity in these ongoing atrocities, seeking to evade accountability for their role in Israel’s genocide, settler-colonialism and apartheid.
This assault on Albanese’s work is yet another example of the lengths to which Israel and its allies will go to maintain control over the narrative and conceal a truth that has become unmistakable to the world.
At the same time, Israel further continues to oppress and silence Palestinian voices. In the Gaza Strip, Israel continues to intentionally target Palestinian journalists and social media activists who are reporting on the ongoing genocide.
Elsewhere in historic Palestine, Palestinians are being arbitrarily and brutally arrested and detained, including for merely posting about the ongoing genocide on social media platforms. The clear reality of the situation is that Palestinian voices and that of truth and justice has been suppressed by Israel for decades.
That being said, decades of systematic silencing have not concealed Israel’s crimes; today, the ongoing genocide in Gaza is the first live-streamed genocide in history. No amount of intimidation will mask the truth.
This campaign against Albanese is not just an attack on one individual; it is an affront to all those who defend human rights and the values enshrined in international law.
Albanese, along with other UN Special Rapporteurs, stands at the forefront of defending human rights and upholding principles of international law; holding firm where many states have chosen to abandon their legal obligations and be complicit in the ongoing genocide.
The international community must understand that attempts to silence advocates for Palestinian rights and justice will only strengthen our commitment to promoting and defending human rights. The Israeli-led attack on Albanese is another form of attack on the UN, that falls in line with the deligitimisation campaign against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and the designation of the UN Secretary-General as persona non grata.
We stand firmly with Francesca Albanese and express our profound condemnation for the continued inaction and complicity of Third States, including those that had joined the Israeli-led campaign against the mandate holder.
We remind these states that their legal obligation is to uphold international law, not to support campaigns that seek to dismantle it. Instead of making baseless accusations against Albanese, those states should allocate their efforts and resources to uphold their legal obligations, and take long-overdue, concrete and effective measures to ensure that Israel fully complies with the three provisional measures orders issued by the International Court of Justice and ends its ongoing genocide in Gaza, including by imposing sanctions and a two-way arms embargo on Israel.
Endorsing organisations:
- Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council (PHROC), comprising of:
- Al-Haq
- Al Mezan Center for Human Rights
- Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
- Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association
- Al Dameer Association for Human Rights
- The Center for Defense of Liberties and Civil Rights “Hurryyat”
- The Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center (JLAC)
- Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCIP)
- Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR)
- Muwatin Institute for Democracy and Human Rights
- Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO) represents over 132 Palestinian civil society organisations in the West Bank and Gaza.
- Sabeel Center
