FRANCESCA ALBANESE has been holding up a mirror for such a long time now. The
United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Territories of Palestine, the
feisty, Italian legal scholar and expert on human rights law just
began her second three-year appointment with the UN. Wearing her trademark
dark-rimmed glasses, she has, for the last three years, written reports, and given
speeches and interviews in support of Palestinians and their right to
self-determination and for a homeland. Her most recent report, “From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide” examines how the Israeli economy functions within its apartheid system of unequal laws and tiered citizenship
rights. She shines a light on the private sector, and “[w]hile political
leaders and governments shirk their obligations, far too many corporate
entities have profited from Israel’s economy of illegal occupation, apartheid
and now, genocide.” (“Summary”)
SHE WRITES of
Israel’s domestic industries, tech “start-ups”, and security firms, and how they enable and profit from Israel’s wars of aggression and genocide, using Gaza and other conflict zones
to test new weaponry, spy tech, drones, surveillance software, and so on. Outside Israel there are similar benefits for those investing in Israel's lucrative economy. And, industries and tech firms throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and
advanced economies, with familiar names like Microsoft, Google, Boeing, the Banks,
financial institutions, universities, NGOs, and governments, as long as they continue to bankroll and sell their wares to Israel, or buy Israeli treasury bills, or maintain institutional and cultural ties with the Zionist state, then they are complicit
in its war crimes. [For starters, Israel should have its UN membership revoked and the BDS (Boycott, divestment, Sanctions) movement should become a global effort. Ed.]
GETTING DOWN to brass tacks: All of them, by not turning their backs and walking away from Israel, and by not treating it like the pariah state it has become, then they enable Israel in its ethnic cleansing and genocide of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip (and the West Bank and East Jerusalem). As long as the world continues to trade
with, invest in, arm and equip, and give political “cover” to Israel in international forums
like the United Nations Security Council; as long as the global community's public and private sectors continue to take their profits from Israel, and move chess pieces around geopolitical game boards using Israel as their pit bull--as long as they ignore their responsibilities under the UN charter and deny ethnic cleansing and mass murder by Israel is even occurring, then Israel
will continue to do what it has been doing since October 7/23 (and really since
its founding in 1948.) Albanese’s report excoriates the global community’s
complacency, its crass profit-taking and self-serving politics, all while the
world’s first live-streamed genocide takes place before our eyes. She holds up a
mirror to us, and it is a wonder it doesn’t crack with shame and shatter into a thousand shards of broken glass. If we fail to stop Israel now, we can expect more such live-streamed horrors in the decades ahead.
Free! Free! Palestine!
YOU KNOW, IT
MUST BE NICE to be a world hegemon and to throw your weight around, sanctioning every Tom,
Dick and Harry you don’t like or disagree with.
By sanctioning Albanese,
the United States shows its contempt for the UN, its charter and related systems of
international law and justice. The complaint against her stems from her advocacy
with the ICC (International Criminal Court) urging the Court to bring forward arrest warrants charging U.S. and Israeli officials, business executives, and others with complicity
in Israel’s genocide in Gaza. In response, the American Secretary of State,
Marco Rubio, says he is imposing sanctions+ on the UN Rapporteur for
her, “…illegitimate
and shameful efforts to prompt the International Criminal Court action against
US and Israeli officials, companies, and executives.”
As a result,
she will probably will not be allowed into the United States and won’t be able
to fulfill her UN obligations in New York. Her bank accounts and property in the United States may
be frozen or seized. Rubio has also sent a letter to the United Nation's Secretary General, Antonio Gutterres, calling on him to remove her from her post on the Human Rights Council. We'll see if Rubio is successful in further degrading the relevance of the UN and its "daughter" organizations in a few days.
👉WE LIVE IN A
TIME when international law and human rights are being eroded. The United
States and its partner-in-crime, Israel, ride roughshod over institutions like
the ICC, the ICJ and UN itself, de-legitimizing and in some cases de-funding those same institutions the U.S. once played such a seminal role birthing after WWII. Today, Albanese’s brave
stance against Israel’s abominable acts in Gaza will stand the test of time and
she will be seen on the right side of history, while cowardly governments and
indifferent or culpable citizenry will face global scorn when the history of
this sad era is written.1
Cheers,
Jake. ____________________________________
* Or as some commentators say, the “Zionist
entity”.
+ Recall that
ICC judges were sanctioned last year for issuing international arrest warrants
against Netanyahu and his former defence minister for crimes against humanity.
1. Journalist and author Chris Hedges
says it better than I ever can:
“The attack
against Albanese presages a world without rules, one where rogue states such as
the U.S. and Israel, are permitted to carry out war crimes and genocide without
any accountability or restraint. It exposes the subterfuges we use to fool
ourselves and attempt to fool others. It reveals our hypocrisy, cruelty and
racism. No one, from now on, will take seriously our [the U.S.] stated commitments to
democracy, freedom of expression, the rule of law or human rights. And who can
blame them? We speak exclusively in the language of force, the language of
brutes, the language of mass slaughter, the language of genocide…Those that
defend the oppressed, such as Albanese, will be treated like the oppressed." (Hedges, Sheerpost)
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