Francesca Albanese tells The i Paper she doesn’t ‘trust the people involved’ in the Israel-Hamas ceasefire
Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan barely constitutes a ceasefire, the UN’s top investigator for Palestine has said, calling it the “worst affront I’ve seen in my life”.
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, said she had no confidence in the deal, which came into effect at the start of this month, claiming that it would lead to the “ethnic cleansing” of people from Gaza.
“I don’t trust this peace ‘process’ because I don’t trust the people involved. I don’t trust an agreement that is predicated upon the violation of international law,” she told The i Paper.
“The reconstruction plan [would] continue what the genocide has left unfinished – the ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip. Israel doesn’t want Palestinians in Gaza, they’ve been clear about this.”
Albanese has been an outspoken voice against Israeli conduct in the war in Gaza, and has long said Western governments are not doing enough to support Palestinians’ rights.
She was declared persona non grata by Israel’s government last year after she claimed that “the victims of the October 7 massacre were not murdered because of their Jewishness, but in response to Israeli oppression”.
Almost 1,200 people were murdered by Hamas in its attack on Israel on 7 October, 2023, prompting Israel’s invasion of Gaza which saw more than 67,000 Palestinians killed in two years.
In July, Albanese was sanctioned by the US government following her support for the International Criminal Court (ICC) case against Israel’s alleged war crimes in Gaza. The court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his then-defence minister Yoav Gallant.
The US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, cited her engagement with the ICC “in efforts to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute nationals of the United States or Israel”, and claimed she had “spewed unabashed antisemitism, expressed support for terrorism, and open contempt for the United States, Israel, and the West”.
Albanese, an Italian lawyer and specialist in international human rights, has been vocal in calling for an end to what she describes as the “genocide” that Israel is waging in Gaza. A UN commission of inquiry found in September that Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians. Israel and the US, which provides military support, deny that accusation.
Speaking to The i Paper, she dismissed the idea that the Gaza ceasefire could be called a ceasefire “because this was not a war between two countries with two armies” but an “assault against an occupied population that has been kept in a ghetto since 1948”.
Albanese criticised the Israelis’ involvement in the Trump-brokered ceasefire deal and wider peace process, comparing it to Hutu involvement in the future of the Tutsi people after the Rwandan genocide of 1994.
“Can you imagine discussing with the Nazis the future of the Jewish people? It’s such an insult.”
Her remarks came after the US Vice President, JD Vance, claimed that the ceasefire was “going better than expected”, having held up since it came into effect on 10 October. Albanese, however, pointed out that 100 Palestinians had been killed since it came into effect.
South Africa has brought a case of genocide against Israel at the International Court of Justice. Albanese, who was in Johannesburg to deliver the 23rd Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture this weekend, told the audience: “Supporting Palestinian self-determination is not an act of charity. It is a legal obligation. The occupation is illegal and must be dismantled.”
The modern state of Israel was established in 1948, prompting the first Arab-Israeli war when more than half of the Palestinian population was displaced in what is known in Arabic as the Nakba, or “catastrophe”.
“It’s unconscionable that the state brought before two international tribunals for war crimes and crimes against humanity and genocide is still involved in deciding the future of the Palestinians,” she said.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation revealed that it had faced pressure to drop Albanese for its annual lecture.
Brent Bozell, Trump’s new ambassador nominee to South Africa, this week said one of his key aims if confirmed “would [be to] press South Africa to end proceedings against Israel before the International Court of Justice”.
“Imagine how sad it is that the foreign policy of a state is about destroying the multilateral system, preventing victims to have justice after a genocide. How sad that the United States has reduced itself to that,” responded Albanese.
