Sanctions against Francesca Albanese expose hypocrisy of the powerful on Gaza

New Straits Times

15-07-2025

IN a jarring move that sent shockwaves across the globe, the United States imposed sanctions on Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, accusing her of "systematic demonisation" of the US.
But behind this vague allegation lies a disturbing truth: Albanese's real "offence" was exposing the industrial economy of genocide — one fuelled not just by the Israeli government but by a vast network of corporations, hedge funds, universities, and pension systems across the West.
Her latest report, "The Economy of Genocide," laid bare the machinery of death behind the war on Gaza.
She revealed how weapons manufacturers, bulldozer suppliers, and construction conglomerates are not merely supporting genocide — they are profiting from it.
Construction contracts to rebuild illegal settlements flow rapidly. For every bomb dropped, there's a dividend earned; for every displaced family, a new high-rise emerges.
But what shocked the conscience of the global public was not merely her confirmation of genocide — it was the financial lifelines she traced.
Norway's government Pension Fund alone holds over US$122 billion invested in companies complicit in Israeli occupation and military operations. Similar financial trails lead to Sweden, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom.
Even Ivy League institutions like Harvard, Stanford, and NYU are enmeshed through opaque endowment investments and silent third-party fund managers.
These universities, while professing solidarity with Palestine in student forums, funnel capital into firms that supply arms and equipment to Israeli forces.
Albanese also painted an unflinching picture of Gaza's humanitarian catastrophe.
"More than 75 per cent of those killed in Gaza and the West Bank are women and children," she said, emphasising that these victims cannot be labelled 'militants' by any legal or moral standard.
"Their only crime is being Palestinian."
Albanese called Gaza "a living textbook of genocide," fulfilling every criterion under international law — deliberate killings, destruction of living conditions, forced displacement, and erasure of cultural identity.
Israeli raids have decimated Palestine's knowledge ecosystem: universities bombed, professors assassinated, students slaughtered, libraries turned to dust.
Gaza's last remaining research centres and cultural hubs have been wiped out. It is not only the bodies, but the collective memory and future of a nation being erased.
Shops, bakeries, factories, and schools have been obliterated. Gaza is left with no one to educate, to trade, or to heal.
The goal is clear: to reduce an entire people to dependency, silence, or oblivion.
This extermination campaign is not funded solely by Tel Aviv or condoned solely by Washington — it is driven by a war economy backed by multinational private contractors.
Security firms, tech companies, arms manufacturers, and logistics contractors turned Gaza into a testing ground and a profit centre. These corporations operate in sync with the Israeli military - IDF.
Private surveillance firms now work alongside Mossad, analysing data harvested by US-built platforms. Albanese warned: "This is not just a war — it's a joint venture. A business enterprise of destruction."
A faceless ecosystem of fund managers, politicians, and lobbyists keep the war alive.
Private defence contractors mint money; lawmakers receive donations; media pundits get scripts. Israel's military policy has become a business model.
And what especially rattled the US and Israeli establishments was Albanese's courage in naming these links as primary beneficiaries and drivers of genocide.
However, the sanctions on her backfired spectacularly. when she became an instant global icon. Her voice, exploded across media platforms.
She became a symbol of defiance, if telling the truth is punishable, —then justice is already dead."
She revealed she had contacted 48 of the entities named in her report, offering them a right of reply. Only 15 responded — most with evasive statements. None denied the facts.
In her concluding message, Albanese offered not just a diagnosis but a remedy.
She argued that only strategic, financial, and civic disassociation from genocide will force change.
Experts and former officials now agree: the key to stopping the Gaza genocide rests squarely with the United States.
A policy reversal by the White House — if backed by public will — could alter the tide. President Trump, or his successor, must face the moral and political reckoning of this complicity.
Many now identify Netanyahu's war-mongering policies as the root cause of perpetual conflict.
But there's a third force equally dangerous: the war economy itself.
Fuelled by private contractors, weapon lobbies, and pro-Israel institutions like AIPAC, this machine funds lawmakers, shapes coverage, and pressures legislatures globally to maintain the killing spree for profit.
Albanese showed us that genocide is no longer hidden — it's televised, monetised, and outsourced.
The question now is whether we will act.