\n
<\/p>\n
Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, has been among the most prominent and outspoken critics of Israel and its allies over the war in Gaza\u2014which she\u2019s described as a \u201cfull-fledged genocide\u201d\u2014and she\u2019s made powerful enemies because of it.<\/p>\n
The Israeli government in 2024 declared<\/a> Albanese, an Italian national and a human rights lawyer, to be persona non grata and banned her from entering the country. Albanese was also sanctioned<\/a> by the Trump administration this July for engaging with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in its \u201cefforts to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute nationals of the United States or Israel.\u201d U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused Albanese of antisemitism and said she\u2019s \u201cunfit\u201d for her role.<\/p>\n Top rights groups and the United Nations have condemned the U.S. sanctions against Albanese, describing<\/a> them as a blatant effort to silence a human rights expert for doing her job.<\/p>\n Though being sanctioned has had rippling and daily consequences for Albanese, she has not slowed down in pushing for Israel and its backers to be held accountable. She issued a report<\/a> in October that called out third-party states, and particularly the United States, for \u201ctheir own complicity in genocide\u201d in Gaza.<\/p>\n \u201cCourage\u201d is needed in \u201ca time of genocide,\u201d Albanese told Foreign Policy<\/em> in an interview at the Doha Forum in Qatar on Dec. 6. \u201cWhen human rights defenders get punished and the criminals are received with the red carpet, everyone has a problem and can become the next victim,\u201d she said, while urging anyone with an \u201counce of power\u201d to use it.<\/p>\n Albanese also discussed the cease-fire in Gaza, U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s 20-point peace plan for Gaza and her concerns over the U.N. Security Council\u2019s recent endorsement<\/a> of it, and what keeps her going despite the weight of the U.S. sanctions and frustrations with the international system.<\/p>\n This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n Foreign Policy:<\/strong> Since the cease-fire began in early October, over 350 Palestinians have reportedly<\/a> been killed in Gaza. As things stand, can we truly call this a cease-fire?<\/p>\n Francesca Albanese:<\/strong> No, but I\u2019ve said it from the very beginning\u2014actually, since even before the cease-fire was agreed upon\u2014in the sense that the preconditions to have the end of violence in the occupied Palestinian territory, and I would say in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory, is to follow the law.<\/p>\n The International Court of Justice has spoken and said Israel must withdraw the troops and put an end to the occupation, which is unlawful. So, why is Israel still occupying 54 percent of the Gaza Strip and fighting Palestinians? Combatants, rebels, terrorists\u2014it doesn\u2019t matter how Israel qualifies them, the Palestinians at this moment and for the past two years have not represented any threat to Israel. It\u2019s the other way around.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t think that a cease-fire can work, because Israel doesn\u2019t want it. Israel has already said that the Palestinians have to move out of Palestine, and it\u2019s doing that. The Palestinians, in as much as they are devastated, they are not asking to be evacuated en masse. They don\u2019t want it, because they know that this is the last piece of land of Palestine that remains to them.<\/p>\n FP:<\/strong> So, you think expulsion is still Israel\u2019s overall goal?<\/p>\n FA:<\/strong> Ethnic cleansing is the overall goal of Israel. And it\u2019s not just Israel. Palestinians are a thorn in the side, not just of Israel. They really represent and embody the resistance, and like it or not, this is something that not many other states encourage. We are not in the decolonization era.<\/p>\n So, the Palestinians have to be tamed somewhat or put in their place, as it has been said many times by Israeli leaders and member states\u2014the United States, first and foremost, but also European states and some states in this region [the Gulf] as well who are facilitating this. The U.S. is implementing it, and others are facilitating it.<\/p>\n FP:<\/strong> You\u2019ve been quite critical of the 20-point Gaza peace plan pushed by Trump and the recent U.N. Security Council vote endorsing the plan. What are your biggest concerns about this plan?<\/p>\n FA:<\/strong> The euphoria around this plan reminds me\u2014in a much more tragic landscape\u2014of the immediate post-Oslo euphoria, where people were talking peace, peace, peace. But in the first two, three years, it was clear there would not be peace and that the matrix of control in the occupied Palestinian territory would get tighter and tighter. And this is yet another step. People speak of peace as they did 30 or 35 years ago, but there is no peace without the end of the occupation, the end of Israeli rule over Palestinian life. They can keep on pretending and impersonating who they want in this horrific farce, but it\u2019s a farce.<\/p>\n What really affects me, also as a lawyer, is that the Security Council resolution is against international law as it has been established\u2014the right of self-determination. There is no reason to establish any force that is not decided by the people, where the people are not consulted. Yes, there is the buy-in of the Palestinian Authority. But the Palestinian Authority, we know that it\u2019s more coerced than involved. There is a representation deficit that can only be filled when there are elections. But in order to have elections, there shouldn\u2019t be occupation.<\/p>\n What remains critical is the realization of the right of self-determination for the Palestinian people, the right to exist in a place free as a people, and this is not going to happen through this resolution. But of course, it\u2019s a Security Council resolution. As a lawyer, and many of us have this dilemma right now, how do we look at this? Because it\u2019s a Security Council resolution, and at the same time, it\u2019s a betrayal of 80 years of development of international law.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n FP:<\/strong> Are there any redeemable aspects of this plan? Some of its critics have effectively said, \u201cLook, it\u2019s not perfect, but we\u2019ve at least seen a reduction in fighting\u2014tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed, and we needed to move in that direction.\u201d<\/p>\n FA:<\/strong> This is the perfect example of how cynical and dehumanizing the debate is. As you just said, 350 Palestinians have been killed. And this is normal. We call it a cease-fire. Imagine if 350 Italians or French people or U.S. citizens or Israelis had been killed in less than 60 days. The world would be in shock. But they are Palestinians, and so they are doomed to die.<\/p>\n It\u2019s very perverse logic, and it reminds me of what made the genocide of the Jewish people, the Roma and Sinti, the disabled, the homosexuals who were killed by the Nazi fascists possible. It was normal to persecute people who had been already so dehumanized\u2014the Jewish people, first and foremost. And I, as a European, I have it in my DNA: I cannot accept this nonsense, not in 2025. Also, because I know that this nonsense is just to camouflage economic and financial interests. This is yet another human sacrifice so that someone can become richer.<\/p>\n FP:<\/strong> What realistic paths are there in terms of holding the parties to this conflict accountable, including the third-party states that you\u2019ve highlighted, who\u2019ve helped fund this war, who\u2019ve sent billions of dollars of arms to Israel, like the United States?<\/p>\n FA:<\/strong> First of all, we should stop calling it a conflict, because it\u2019s not, unless we call it a settler colonial conflict. Like the Native Americans against the European settlers. I\u2019m not even talking of Israel as a whole. I\u2019m talking of Israel in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem. Israel is a colonizer. And it\u2019s a system of exploitation of Palestinian resources, as the International Court of Justice has said.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, member states must stop transferring weapons and trading with Israel, because there is an obligation under the law of state responsibilities that says that member states have an obligation not to assist a state that is committing international wrong. In this case, Israel is committing international crimes that have already been identified as of January 2024 by the International Court of Justice, who recognized the plausibility of justice.<\/p>\n There is no way out other than respecting international law as the only possibility to have peace, not just for the Palestinians, for the Israelis, but really for all of us. Because this is the beginning of a decline that is going to be very, very fast, and it\u2019s going to lead into a new world that all of us have nothing to gain from.<\/p>\n FP:<\/strong> The United States has sanctioned you over your work and has also sanctioned ICC judges. How have these sanctions personally affected you, and what kind of message does it send when the world\u2019s most powerful country uses its economic might against people who work in human rights?<\/p>\n FA:<\/strong> Sometimes I see it as David versus Goliath, but I don\u2019t use it very often, because I think that the David are the Palestinians. The Palestinians are fighting against so many Goliaths, and I\u2019m just one example of collateral damage around this, because I\u2019ve been punished simply for doing my work, for documenting and reporting the violations of international law committed by Israel. But also look at how weak the system is and how fragile it feels that it needs to punish an individual for a report she\u2019s written, or the International Criminal Court for doing its job and investigating alleged war criminals.<\/p>\n So, what does it say? It says that the system is weak and scared because an awakening of conscience might mean change. And I see that in my own country in Italy, where for the past two months, all of a sudden, people are mobilizing, while before they were just students or individuals here and there. Now, lawyers are getting together to sue the companies and government officials who are complicit with crimes. Workers are organizing<\/a> massive strikes and are calling for strikes in Europe \u2026 because, like so many others, they don\u2019t want to carry the weight of the genocide that we are all connected to, and they don\u2019t want to be part of a process that exploits them.<\/p>\n FP:<\/strong> When we talk about what\u2019s happened in Gaza, it\u2019s clear that a lot of people feel that there\u2019s been a culture of impunity and that the international system is broken. You continue to work and participate in this system but are obviously very critical of it. How do you remain hopeful in the process?<\/p>\n FA:<\/strong> I\u2019m not sure I stay hopeful. I stay committed, I stay put, because the fact that the system is ugly and ineffective for the many, not for the few, is a call to stay put even more. Of course, I\u2019m enduring sacrifices, because the fact that the sanctions have transformed me into a non-persona, I cannot interact through anything that has a financial component. And it\u2019s incredible. They\u2019ve pushed me out. I\u2019ve been financially censored, like the judges and the prosecutors of the International Criminal Court and Palestinian human rights organizations. Why? When human rights defenders get punished and the criminals are received with the red carpet, everyone has a problem and can become the next victim.<\/p>\n But how do I stay convinced that we need to keep on fighting for a more just system? For our children, for the next generations. We keep on believing, we keep on behaving as if we\u2019ve inherited all this from our ancestors. No, we are borrowing it from the younger generations, and we owe them better. Anyone who has an ounce of power should use it\u2014their voice or their financial privilege. This is the time to get together as a humanity in solidarity.<\/p>\n I do see that this is happening because there are many courageous people, many people showing courage. And in a time of genocide, this is what you need, not intelligence, but courage. Journalists doing their job, academics protecting their students, parents joining their kids when they go to demonstrate. And holding governments accountable, especially in the West, where democracy is in a bad state but still exists. There will be a moment where we will regret not to have been more engaged in preventing the total collapse. There will be a moment where we will miss human rights when we don\u2019t have them anymore.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n