Latest news with #FrancescaAlbanese
Days of Palestine
8 hours ago
- Health
- Days of Palestine
UN Experts Condemn Israel's ‘Medi-cide' in Gaza
DayofPal– Two United Nations human rights experts have issued a scathing condemnation of Israel's ongoing military campaign in Gaza, accusing it of deliberately dismantling the enclave's healthcare system. The experts describe the attacks on health sector as a calculated act of 'medicide', the systematic extermination of medical infrastructure and personnel. In a joint statement released Wednesday, Dr. Tlaleng Mofokeng, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, and Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said the Israeli army is 'deliberately attacking and starving healthcare workers, paramedics, and hospitals' in an effort to annihilate Gaza's capacity to deliver medical care. 'Alongside witnessing an unfolding genocide, we are also witnessing a 'medicide,' a sinister and intentional destruction of health systems that amounts to an act of genocide,' the experts warned. 'As human beings and UN experts, we cannot remain silent about the war crimes being committed before our eyes.' Their statement comes amid mounting international alarm over the collapse of Gaza's healthcare infrastructure after nearly a year of sustained bombardment, siege, and restricted humanitarian access. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), between October 7, 2023, and June 11, 2025, there have been 735 recorded attacks on healthcare facilities in Gaza, resulting in at least 917 deaths and 1,411 injuries. A total of 125 healthcare facilities have been affected, including the destruction or damage of 34 hospitals. Health workers have reportedly been detained, tortured, and starved, the experts said, highlighting that some have fainted from hunger while on duty. 'This is a grave violation of not only their own right to health, but of their patients' right to care,' they said. The rapporteurs also linked the attacks to what they describe as a broader Israeli policy of apartheid and occupation, clarifying that the targeting of Gaza's medical infrastructure is part of a pattern aimed at destroying Palestinian society. 'The disregard for the crimes Israel continues to commit in Gaza sends a stark message to the world that the lives of Palestinians do not matter,' the statement read. 'They are being denied their right to dignity, to existence, to food, and to safety.' The experts issued an urgent call for a ceasefire as a first step toward accountability and the restoration of basic human rights for Gaza's besieged population. 'There is a moral imperative for the international community to stop the carnage, protect what remains of Gaza's healthcare system, and prevent the extermination of its people,' they said. They also criticized the international community for its inaction, saying states have failed in their legal and moral obligations. 'Palestinians trapped in Gaza's hellscape are paying the ultimate price for that failure and indifference.' Both Mofokeng and Albanese serve as independent experts under the UN Human Rights Council's Special Procedures, an unpaid role independent of any government or UN body. Their mandate allows them to investigate and report on specific human rights issues around the world. While their views do not represent official UN policy, their findings contribute to ongoing international legal assessments and pressure on member states to take action. Shortlink for this post:
Arab News
a day ago
- Politics
- Arab News
Recognizing Palestine cannot distract from Gaza ‘genocide': UN special rapporteur
LONDON: International momentum toward recognizing a Palestinian state should not distract UN members from bringing an end to the 'genocide' in Gaza, Francesca Albanese has said. The UN special rapporteur for the Occupied Territories told The Guardian that the extended debate about Palestinian statehood has yielded no political progress, instead enabling the spread of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. 'The territory has been literally eaten out by the advancement of the annexation and colonization,' she said. Recognition of a Palestinian state is 'important,' but something so simple that 'it's incoherent that they've not done it already,' Albanese added. Renewed global attention toward statehood should not 'distract the attention from where it should be: the genocide,' she said, calling for a total arms embargo and a cessation of trade agreements with Israel. 'Ending the question of Palestine in line with international law is possible and necessary: End the genocide today, end the permanent occupation this year and end apartheid,' she added. 'This is what's going to guarantee freedom and equal rights for everyone, regardless of the way they want to live — in two states or one state, they will have to decide.' Albanese said growing worldwide angst over the destruction of Gaza is an 'ultimate struggle' and a matter of 'light and darkness.' Despite inaction by Western countries, she sees hope in the 'millions of people taking to the streets and asking for an end to the genocide.' She added: 'An entire new generation now speaks the language of human rights. For me, this is a success in and of itself.' Her most recent report focused on the corporate power — 'profiting from genocide' — behind Israel's actions in Gaza. 'The occupation is profitable, and so is the genocide, and this is shocking, but it is to be known in order to be seen and to be stopped,' Albanese said. 'The power is not just with the prime ministers or with the governments. The power is with us, and we can start choosing through our wallet.'
The Guardian
a day ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Recognising Palestinian state must not distract from ending Gaza mass deaths, UN expert says
The United Nations special rapporteur for the occupied territories has warned that moves to recognise a Palestinian state should not distract member states from stopping mass death and starvation in Gaza. 'Of course it's important to recognize the state of Palestine,' Francesca Albanese told the Guardian after several more countries responded to the mounting starvation in Gaza by announcing plans to recognize an independent Palestine. 'It's incoherent that they've not done it already.' But she argued that the prolonged debate around Palestinian statehood has so far yielded no political progress, and instead enabled the spread of illegal Israeli settlements in occupied territory which have all but precluded the possibility of a Palestinian state. 'The territory has been literally eaten out by the advancement of the annexation and colonization,' she said. This week, Australia joined the United Kingdom, Canada, France and other countries in pledging to recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations general assembly next month. The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, (no relation) described the two-state solution as 'humanity's best hope to break the cycle of violence in the Middle East'. But the special rapporteur cautioned that the renewed push for Palestinian statehood should not 'distract the attention from where it should be: the genocide'. She called for an embargo on all arms sales to Israel and a cessation of trade agreements – as well as accountability for the war crimes and crimes against humanity with which the international criminal court has charged top Israeli officials. She also called for a complete Israeli withdrawal from occupied territory by the 17 September deadline set by the UN general assembly. 'Ending the question of Palestine in line with international law is possible and necessary: end the genocide today, end the permanent occupation this year, and end apartheid,' she said. 'This is what's going to guarantee freedom and equal rights for everyone, regardless of the way they want to live – in two states or one state, they will have to decide.' In her three years as rapporteur, but especially since the beginning of Israel's war in Gaza following the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks, Albanese has become one of the most outspoken and recognizable advocates for Palestinian rights. Her technical reports accusing Israel of operating an 'apartheid regime' and committing 'acts of genocide' have often anticipated major international and Israeli rights groups reaching the same conclusions. Last month, the Trump administration sanctioned Albanese over her outspoken support for Palestinian rights and what US officials called her 'shameful promotion' of ICC action against Israeli officials. While Albanese has described herself as a reluctant 'chronicler of genocide', and others have called her 'the voice of the global conscience', she has also drawn condemnation and attacks – including accusations of antisemitism so persistent that she at one point sat down for a TV interview in which the first question posed to her was: 'Are you an antisemite?' 'Antisemitism and discrimination against Jews as Jews is gross,' Albanese told the Guardian in an earlier interview in December. 'But frankly I couldn't care less if Israel were run by Jews, Muslims, Christians or atheists… All I want is for Israel to conduct itself in line with international law.' Albanese described the growing global split over Israel's actions in Gaza as 'the ultimate struggle' and a matter of 'light and darkness'. She characterized the US's sanctions against her as a sign not of strength 'but of guilt'. 'The US is a country of contradictions, full of ideals and principles and still, plotting against democratic values,' she said. 'Those in power – Democrats or Republicans – have always been led by this kind of supremacist logic toward others, and this strategy is openly betraying the US values of democracy, of fundamental freedoms, and really leveling everything that they have been preaching.' She also criticized the UN secretary general, António Guterres, for failing to more forcefully condemn the 'unprecedented violation' of the privileges and immunities traditionally afforded to UN representatives. A spokesperson for Guterres said earlier that the sanctions against her set a dangerous precedent, but noted that Albanese does not report to him. The rapporteur's mandate is entrusted by the UN Human Rights Council. Albanese described the recent gathering of The Hague Group – a 30-nation conference held in Colombia to set out practical steps for UN member states to take measures in support of Israel ending the occupation, as 'an ethical force inside the system', which she said was 'premised upon a basic respect of international law and the honoring of multilateralism, which seems to me the basic ingredient to have a functioning international community'. That stands in contrast to a UN that Albanese believes is living a 'moment of existential crisis'. '[The UN] needs to decide whether to be a real, multilateral platform,' she said. 'We are no longer in the settler-colonial bloc kind of mentality that conceived the birth of the UN. Now there are 193 member states, and all of them have agency and all of them must be respected. Now is the time to cut the umbilical cord from the veto-power mentality and put the emphasis on the general assembly.' Albanese noted that Israel's 21-month war in Gaza had prompted a 'profound shift' in global views of the conflict, as well as 'brutal repression'. 'We see millions of people taking to the streets and asking for an end to the genocide, and they're being beaten and arrested and held on counts of terrorism, while those who are wanted by the ICC for war crimes are being received and allowed to fly over European and western space,' she said. 'This is absurd. This is the end of the rule of law.' International law, she added, 'is not a prophecy … It is a tool that must be used in order to fix things. And in fact, when people use it in court, they generally win.' But she sounded a note of optimism about the shifting discourse around Israel's actions. 'An entire new generation now speaks the language of human rights,' she said. 'For me, this is a success in and of itself.' The widening gap between those in power and millions of people that have taken to the streets worldwide in support of Palestinians is in part why her most recent report focused not on Israeli actions but on the global corporations that she says are 'profiting from genocide'. 'The occupation is profitable, and so is the genocide, and this is shocking, but it is to be known in order to be seen and to be stopped,' she noted. 'The power is not just with the prime ministers or with the governments. The power is with us, and we can start choosing through our wallet.' As for Palestinians, despite their monumental suffering and the ever-mounting death toll, 'they have already won the legitimacy battle,' Albanese said. 'Everyone knows what Israel has done to them for the past 77 years,' she said. 'They've already made history – and not through violence as some try to portray them – but with their perseverance and principles and trust in the justice system, which has not been their ally.'
The Guardian
a day ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Recognising Palestinian state must not distract from ending Gaza mass deaths, UN expert says
The United Nations special rapporteur for the occupied territories has warned that moves to recognise a Palestinian state should not distract member states from stopping mass death and starvation in Gaza. 'Of course it's important to recognize the state of Palestine,' Francesca Albanese told the Guardian after several more countries responded to the mounting starvation in Gaza by announcing plans to recognize an independent Palestine. 'It's incoherent that they've not done it already.' But she argued that the prolonged debate around Palestinian statehood has so far yielded no political progress, and instead enabled the spread of illegal Israeli settlements in occupied territory which have all but precluded the possibility of a Palestinian state. 'The territory has been literally eaten out by the advancement of the annexation and colonization,' she said. This week, Australia joined the United Kingdom, Canada, France and other countries in pledging to recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations general assembly next month. The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, (no relation) described the two-state solution as 'humanity's best hope to break the cycle of violence in the Middle East'. But the special rapporteur cautioned that the renewed push for Palestinian statehood should not 'distract the attention from where it should be: the genocide'. She called for an embargo on all arms sales to Israel and a cessation of trade agreements – as well as accountability for the war crimes and crimes against humanity with which the international criminal court has charged top Israeli officials. She also called for a complete Israeli withdrawal from occupied territory by the 17 September deadline set by the UN general assembly. 'Ending the question of Palestine in line with international law is possible and necessary: end the genocide today, end the permanent occupation this year, and end apartheid,' she said. 'This is what's going to guarantee freedom and equal rights for everyone, regardless of the way they want to live – in two states or one state, they will have to decide.' In her three years as rapporteur, but especially since the beginning of Israel's war in Gaza following the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks, Albanese has become one of the most outspoken and recognizable advocates for Palestinian rights. Her technical reports accusing Israel of operating an 'apartheid regime' and committing 'acts of genocide' have often anticipated major international and Israeli rights groups reaching the same conclusions. Last month, the Trump administration sanctioned Albanese over her outspoken support for Palestinian rights and what US officials called her 'shameful promotion' of ICC action against Israeli officials. While Albanese has described herself as a reluctant 'chronicler of genocide', and others have called her 'the voice of the global conscience', she has also drawn condemnation and attacks – including accusations of antisemitism so persistent that she at one point sat down for a TV interview in which the first question posed to her was: 'Are you an antisemite?' 'Antisemitism and discrimination against Jews as Jews is gross,' Albanese told the Guardian in an earlier interview in December. 'But frankly I couldn't care less if Israel were run by Jews, Muslims, Christians or atheists… All I want is for Israel to conduct itself in line with international law.' Albanese described the growing global split over Israel's actions in Gaza as 'the ultimate struggle' and a matter of 'light and darkness'. She characterized the US's sanctions against her as a sign not of strength 'but of guilt'. 'The US is a country of contradictions, full of ideals and principles and still, plotting against democratic values,' she said. 'Those in power – Democrats or Republicans – have always been led by this kind of supremacist logic toward others, and this strategy is openly betraying the US values of democracy, of fundamental freedoms, and really leveling everything that they have been preaching.' She also criticized the UN secretary general, António Guterres, for failing to more forcefully condemn the 'unprecedented violation' of the privileges and immunities traditionally afforded to UN representatives. A spokesperson for Guterres said earlier that the sanctions against her set a dangerous precedent, but noted that Albanese does not report to him. The rapporteur's mandate is entrusted by the UN Human Rights Council. Albanese described the recent gathering of The Hague Group – a 30-nation conference held in Colombia to set out practical steps for UN member states to take measures in support of Israel ending the occupation, as 'an ethical force inside the system', which she said was 'premised upon a basic respect of international law and the honoring of multilateralism, which seems to me the basic ingredient to have a functioning international community'. That stands in contrast to a UN that Albanese believes is living a 'moment of existential crisis'. '[The UN] needs to decide whether to be a real, multilateral platform,' she said. 'We are no longer in the settler-colonial bloc kind of mentality that conceived the birth of the UN. Now there are 193 member states, and all of them have agency and all of them must be respected. Now is the time to cut the umbilical cord from the veto-power mentality and put the emphasis on the general assembly.' Albanese noted that Israel's 21-month war in Gaza had prompted a 'profound shift' in global views of the conflict, as well as 'brutal repression'. 'We see millions of people taking to the streets and asking for an end to the genocide, and they're being beaten and arrested and held on counts of terrorism, while those who are wanted by the ICC for war crimes are being received and allowed to fly over European and western space,' she said. 'This is absurd. This is the end of the rule of law.' International law, she added, 'is not a prophecy … It is a tool that must be used in order to fix things. And in fact, when people use it in court, they generally win.' But she sounded a note of optimism about the shifting discourse around Israel's actions. 'An entire new generation now speaks the language of human rights,' she said. 'For me, this is a success in and of itself.' The widening gap between those in power and millions of people that have taken to the streets worldwide in support of Palestinians is in part why her most recent report focused not on Israeli actions but on the global corporations that she says are 'profiting from genocide'. 'The occupation is profitable, and so is the genocide, and this is shocking, but it is to be known in order to be seen and to be stopped,' she noted. 'The power is not just with the prime ministers or with the governments. The power is with us, and we can start choosing through our wallet.' As for Palestinians, despite their monumental suffering and the ever-mounting death toll, 'they have already won the legitimacy battle,' Albanese said. 'Everyone knows what Israel has done to them for the past 77 years,' she said. 'They've already made history – and not through violence as some try to portray them – but with their perseverance and principles and trust in the justice system, which has not been their ally.'
The National
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The National
Randa Jarrar on how her Fringe show tackles the Palestinian genocide
This is her first solo show, her first time in Scotland, her first time at the Edinburgh Fringe. Jarrar is part of Welcome to the Fringe, Palestine, a mini-festival at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe aiming to showcase Palestinian art 'with freedom and without censorship'. Her show is a sci-fi solo performance set in 2055, where a Palestinian woman wakes up to find she's the last person alive. 'I would not have thought to come to the Fringe if it were not for this fantastic group of theatre workers and volunteers who just have worked deeply with Palestinian artists in the past and feel passionate about Palestinian culture and art,' she says. 'They put out a call at the beginning of the year saying 'hey, if you would like to come, pitch us a show, tell us your ideas'. 'I hadn't written the show yet, but I love deadlines, I'm a Capricorn, so I was like, 'I want to do this'. I applied thinking, if I get it, that's a challenge.' In the show, the protagonist discovers an AI companion, which is modelled after UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese. Together they piece together how the world ended, and how people resisted before the end. We meet six different characters who are all played by Jarrar and share their stories. The show deals with genocide, survival and numbness, but never only as devastation. 'It's the severe pain and trauma of going through the genocide that has her, and her entire community, choose her to be the one they try to preserve,' Jarrar explains. 'It's my way of talking about the ways that Palestinians in Gaza [now] and historically have used their innovations and sense of inventiveness to survive these horrific circumstances and crimes that are imposed on them by outside forces.' Jarrar draws inspiration from Palestinian folklore which she describes as 'weird and futuristic and ancient all at the same time'. READ MORE: 'Double-edged': Gianmarco Soresi on identity, Israel, and his sold-out Fringe run She adds: 'These magical things happen and the impossible is not the impossible anymore. These folktales have a really big influence on me and rereading them over the past few years during Israel's attempt at annihilating the Palestinian people has brought me a very deep sense of comfort.' She also draws from speculative fiction writers like Octavia Butler, 'accessing women and queer stories and ideas of survival and the ways our communities have historically been able to survive through innovation and through mutual aid and working together'. Censorship and subsequent refusal have long shaped Jarrar's work. 'If you look at my history with censorship, my first novel, getting that published took a long time, almost five years and then in 2018 I dealt with a very extensive doxxing campaign begun when I called out Barbara Bush,' she explains. 'I dealt with a year-long attack by the right wing and newspapers, calling for civil speech instead of just celebrating what we all supposedly had in the US, which is the First Amendment.' In early 2024, she was physically removed from an event hosted by PEN America, who she had volunteered with for almost 20 years, after protesting the inclusion of pro-Israel celebrity Mayim Bialik. She continues: 'For them to platform a Zionist ... I thought I had the right to go there and protest. Of course, only certain people's speech is allowed. And so, I was escorted out of a free speech event. 'Censorship is a thing. And obviously, Palestinians pay with their literal lives. We have had more than 200 journalists, and we owe them a debt we will never repay as humanity. So, for me, I find that it's a privilege to deal with censorship and continue to live my life. So, I will not stop fighting against it.' More recently, she withdrew from the Edinburgh International Book Festival. It dropped Baillie Gifford as its sponsor last year after several visitors and authors threatened to boycott the festival due to the company's alleged links to Israel and fossil fuel firms. 'They invited at least two Zionist Israeli writers to come, and when I brought it up to them out of concern, especially about the one person I was concerned about who had been making statements about how what's happening in Gaza is not a genocide, I said I don't feel comfortable attending if he's there, and they said, 'Oh, you know, we're inviting him for his fiction',' Jarrar says. She adds that she was the first to withdraw, followed by Fady Joudah and Omar El Akkad: 'The person who I wanted to drop out, he also dropped out, which is a wonderful triumph for us – for me, personally.' For audiences, Jarrar wants to provide space, not just to witness, but to feel, to grieve and to move. 'I guess I want them to have an hour to immerse themselves in Palestinian art, culture and characters and to be entertained, but also have some ideas for what to do next,' she says. 'I would love for audiences to learn something new about Palestine and about being human and be given space to grieve with each other and with these characters what's been happening over the last few years, find joy in human resilience and the way humans can take deep, deep grief and anger and transmute it to comedy and art.' And for herself? 'Mostly I'm learning about the ways that people can really get together and make magic happen. That's the number one reason I'm going to Edinburgh – getting to sit for four days in one place and really enjoy Palestinian art and culture and the diversity of it. We're not just one story. We are so many different stories.' The Last Palestinian Alive is on Friday, August 15, 4pm at Portobello Town Hall. Tickets are available at and the full Welcome to the Fringe, Palestine programme can be found at
