Speaking on the vidcast Safe Space, Albanese described Israel’s bombardment of Gaza as ‘a genocide that is being ostentatiously repeated’, and argued that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ‘should be tried in The Hague for war crimes and crimes against humanity’.
Although she has faced strong criticism and attacks from both Israel and the United States, Albanese directed her criticism at the great powers, noting that ‘the powerful in the international system are the ones who support Israel’.
At the same time, she presented international law as a possible way out of the crisis in the Middle East.
‘You ask me if international law can help get out of this situation? Yes. International law offers a roadmap out: an end to the occupation, an end to apartheid and racial discrimination, and I would say accountability for the genocide,’ she said.
Referring to her experiences in Jerusalem, Albanese placed particular emphasis on the situation faced by children in the West Bank. She used the term ‘de-childisation’ to describe what she said was a reality of constant captivity and trauma. According to the figures she cited, approximately 600 to 700 children are arrested each year, while she also alleged that abductions are carried out even against children as young as five.
She also responded to the accusations of antisemitism that have been made against her, saying: ‘To hurl accusations of antisemitism around, as if it were a paper war, against the Pope, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, special rapporteurs or human rights defenders. Pity. I mean, this is a tactic to impose silence and to distract, to take attention away from the victim.’
She was also clear when the discussion turned to Hamas, emphasising that ‘Hamas’ first victims are the Palestinians themselves’.
Albanese also spoke about the personal cost she says she has borne because of her stance on the Palestinian issue. ‘It is a terrible price I have had to pay for my family, simply because I did what I was asked to do pro bono by the United Nations: to document, report and make recommendations on the violations of international law committed by Israel in the occupied Palestinian territories. That is what I did,’ she said.
The UN special rapporteur insisted that international law remains her main guide, even if, as she noted, this entails a form of ‘civil death’ for her.
Her answer was also striking when asked about the fact that many people on the Western left see her as a symbol because she openly clashes with powerful centres of power. ‘I don’t know how to take this, because I think that even people on the right would agree that slaughtering children, starving children, torturing children, raping their parents, is wrong. This is not something that belongs to a [particular] faction. This is basic humanity and I think that, regardless of where one sits in parliament, we should all agree that we have to stand against this, right?’
Albanese also addressed the arrest of two Global Sumud Flotilla activists by Israeli military forces off the coast of Crete, accusing the Greek government of acting in concert with Israel in an action she said amounted to piracy. She also appealed to Israel not to proceed with the trial of the two activists and to release them.
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