Francesca Albanese defies vicious attacks

The scene itself would be bad enough: A United Nations special rapporteur is insulted by a government representative in the temple of diplomacy. But it is even worse when this rapporteur is Italian and is disavowed by the country where she was born and raised. On 28 October, during her presentation of her report Genocide in Gaza: A collective crime, Francesca Albanese, who is trained as an attorney, was the target of a series of interventions that left much of the plenary session of the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, chaired by Cherdchai Chaivaivid, Thailand’s ambassador to the UN, dismayed.

Israel described her as a “failed witch,” Italy questioned her integrity and impartiality, and Hungary, in a class by itself, invoked “President Trump’s peace line,” accused Albanese of “blind and anti-Israeli bias,” and once again brought up the usual slander of complicity with Hamas.
  The most important thing to note in this is that Israel, Italy, and Hungary are now on the record as the only three countries that rejected Albanese’s latest report. She has been in South Africa since 25 October for the Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture and a series of meetings with the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation. Due to US sanctions, she was unable to travel to New York and, so, addressed the UNGA via a video link.
  In the large hall of the Third Committee, delegates listened to the lawyer’s lengthy presentation, in which she explained the findings in her 24-page report: a detailed analysis of the responsibility of 63 states for the devastation of the Gaza Strip, which she described as “strangled, starved, shattered.” Albanese also indicted “a resilient colonial world order sustained by a global system of complicity.”
  The first to speak was Israel’s permanent representative, Danny Danon, a member of Likud, the rightist party of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who railed against the rapporteur in an offensive, intimidating and derisive tone:

Ms Albanese’s report is not about human rights. It is not about peace. For years, Ms Albanese has spread anti-Semitic rhetoric and blood libels.[…] She has defended terrorists and shown unambiguous, and vile contempt for Israel, the United States, and the West.

Then came the sentence that froze the room: “Ms Albanese, you are a witch. And this report is another page in your spell book … Every accusation a charm that does not work because you are a failed witch.”
  The Israeli politician and diplomat then smugly referred to the recently declared US sanctions against Albanese, adding: “Now she directs her curses towards other nations, our allies, partners, and friends who stand for democracy and the rule of law. […] We can only hope that her witchcraft fails again. May her curses continue to backfire …”
  Shortly afterwards, Maurizio Massari, Italy’s permanent representative, spoke in more restrained terms than his Israeli counterpart, but no less disturbingly:

The report presented today by Special Rapporteur Albanese is entirely devoid of credibility and impartiality. As Italy, we are not surprised. The content of the report blatantly exceeds the specific mandate of the Special Rapporteur, which does not include investigations into alleged violations committed by other states or entities, nor judgements on cooperation between third countries and ICC [the International Criminal Court] Even more concerning is the complete disregard … for the Code of Conduct for Special Rapporteurs, which includes common sense principles such as integrity, impartiality and good faith.

While Massari was speaking, Cherdchai Chaivaivid, the Thai ambassador, [now the Chair of the Third Committee for the 80^th Session of the General Assembly], muted the microphone: For a few seconds, the delegate continued to speak into the void, unaware that the chamber could no longer hear him.
  There was, therefore, no sign of support for the rapporteur from Italy – neither in response to the sanctions recently imposed on her nor in the face of the foregoing insults. This lack of solidarity revealed more than political criticism: It revealed the diplomatic subordination that Rome wants to impose on the Italian lawyer.
  The third dissenting vote came from Hungary, whose UN representative, Fanni Pálházi-Nagy, described the report as “the result of a blindsided and anti-Israel bias” and defended “President Trump’s commitment to ending the war in Gaza which offers a way out of this devastating conflict …” This formal statement served only to reaffirm Budapest’s alignment with the new US administration.
  Francesca Albanese responded to these remarks in a firm but restrained voice. She is worth quoting at length.
  Her first response was directed to Danon:

First of all, my first comment goes to … the representative of the state of Israel, who finally, after three years, honoured this mandate with his presence. Look, it is grotesque and, frankly, delusional that a genocidal state can’t respond to the substance of my findings. And the best thing he resorts to is accusing me of witchcraft. So be it. You’re the one accused of genocide. If the worst you can accuse me of is witchcraft, I take it. But rest assured that if I had the power to make spells, I would use it not for vengeance, I would use it to stop your crimes once and for all and to make sure that those responsible end up behind bars. And that would make sure that everyone, from the river to the sea. Jewish people, Muslim people, Christian people, and secular people lived in freedom and enjoyed their rights, not just privilege for [the] few …

Albanese then added:

Hungary is wrong: It is not true that I have not condemned Hamas ... but I regret you and the representative of Italy made allegations that I find unsupported.… You should have mentioned some examples…. Otherwise, both of you seem [to be] reciting the talking points of the Israeli ambassador.

Albanese then addressed all the assembled delegates and warned:

We must be honest about what we are confronting. What Israel has built is not at all exceptional. It’s the colonial order continued and refined. This is racial domination and dispossession, updated for our century and enforced with the weapons and technologies of this century. And South Africa demonstrates that what seems today invincible can in fact be broken when law, will, and courage align. And even the strongest walls fall. And in this darkness, millions are resisting. Sparks of hope.
  Shame on those calling themselves liberal democracies [while] failing to restrain the powers of their police that try to silence conscience, or to support the hundreds of citizens from all over the world who continue to risk their lives in the forms of a flotilla or a global march, breaking the genocide instead of anticipating that breaking the siege and stopping the genocide is an obligation that is upon the member states. As the global anti-apartheid movement of our time demonstrates, it’s states that stay silent and complicit.
  The people united are rising. Workers are striking worldwide. The BDS movement [Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions] is gaining new momentum, with more consumers boycotting strategically, businesses divesting, and institutions from banks to universities slowly but steadily correcting their practices. The question is no longer if Israel’s apartheid and the global system of complicity that supports it will end. It is a matter of when and how.

Finally, Albanese had a message for the Palestinians:

From the harshness of occupation to wherever exile has taken you, watching or suffering the genocide, your struggle is seen, your resilience is honoured, and the world is awakening with you and will stand with you, as it has done with South Africa, until your liberation.

These words were received with long applause in the committee room. •

Source: Il Fatto Quotidiano of 29 October 2025;
https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2025/10/29/onu-francesca-albanese-genocidio-gaza-israele-italia-meloni-ungheria/8177241/

(Translation Current Concerns)