UN Palestinian rights expert Francesca Albanese condemns US sanctions as mafia-style techniques to dirty her reputation over Gaza criticism.
JOHANNESBURG: The United Nations expert on Palestinian rights has denounced US sanctions against her as mafia-style techniques to damage her reputation.
Francesca Albanese stated that Washington imposed sanctions to dissuade her from continuing her work on justice issues during an interview with AFP.
She revealed that sanctions prevent her from travelling to New York to present her latest UN report, forcing her to deliver it from South Africa instead.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced sanctions against the UN special rapporteur in July, calling her criticism of the United States and Israel biased and malicious.
Albanese explained that her entire family suffers from the sanctions, including frozen assets and restrictions affecting her US-based daughter and husband.
She emphasised that the sanctions represent an affront not just against her personally but against the entire United Nations system.
The Italian expert compared the US actions to methods used by organised crime in her home country to silence critics through reputation damage.
Albanese stressed that her work focuses on defending people who are currently experiencing genocide in Gaza rather than personal concerns.
She has consistently accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, drawing criticism from Israel and some allied nations.
UN investigators and major human rights organisations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have made similar genocide allegations.
Israel denies these charges as distorted and false while accusing the authors of antisemitism.
In her new report titled Gaza Genocide: a collective crime, Albanese denounces a system of global complicity supporting Israel.
She calls on states to immediately suspend and review all military, diplomatic and economic relations with Israel.
The report argues that Western states continue providing Israel with military, diplomatic, economic and ideological support despite visible genocidal violence.
Albanese writes that these supporting countries could and should be held legally liable for their involvement.
She presented her report from South Africa, which she described as symbolic given the country’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
South Africa itself appears in her complicity report as a significant coal supplier to Israel.
Albanese described this inclusion as revealing the contradictions within the current global economic system.
She identified the existing financial architecture as the fundamental problem upholding current societal structures.
The expert stated that Israel has forced the world to confront its capacity to prevent genocide, with disappointing results so far.
She questioned whether the international community will prove equally unable to stop the ongoing genocide and punish the perpetrators.
Albanese will deliver the annual Nelson Mandela Lecture in South Africa on October 25 amid these ongoing controversies.
She maintains that her message continues despite reputation attacks aimed at silencing her criticisms.
The fragile US-brokered truce in the two-year Israel-Hamas war provides a critical testing moment for international systems.
Albanese believes the multilateral order faces its most significant challenge in responding adequately to the Gaza situation. – AFP
