«This Report is devoid of any credibility and impartiality. […] It blatantly exceeds its mandate, which does not include investigations into alleged violations committed by other states. […] And do you believe it helps the efforts for peace and reconstruction in Gaza?», said defiantly the ambassador of Italy to the UN, #Maurizio Massari#. Apparently, he does not know that, as Special Rapporteur «on the situation of human rights in Palestine,» Francesca Albanese does not deal with peace, nor with roads, or schools, or hospitals, but with justice.

She monitors compliance with international law, not ceasefires and negotiations.

And in Palestine, Israel is not «another state»; it is the ruling state—the Occupying Power.

The US ambassador, Danny Danon, was blunter. «She is a witch.»

On October 28th, Francesca Albanese, speaking on Zoom because she has been under American sanctions since last July— the only sanctions passed since 7 October—and so is banned from the #United States#, presented her new Report. This is the third since the Gaza war began. She was among the first to refer to a #genocide. And now, she is no longer alone. What was then a minority stance is now the analysis shared by the majority of the world’s legal experts. But despite the many orders issued by the International Court of Justice, which, starting on 26 January 2024, urgently called #Israel to halt its military operations and to reopen the Rafah crossing to aid, despite an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for Netanyahu and his minister of Defense, #Yoav Gallant#, issued on 21 November 2024, and in spite, most recently, on 16 September 2025, of the findings of a UN Commission of Inquiry that classified what’s going on in Gaza as genocide, so far Francesca Albanese has never, never received answers on the matter.

Only mockery and slander.

Only a witch hunt.

She monitors compliance with international law, not ceasefires and negotiations.

After Anatomy of a Genocide, on the IDF conduct in Gaza, and The Economy of Genocide, which examines the role of banks and corporations not only in the war, but more broadly, in the Occupation, this Report now widens its scope to the entire international community, defining genocide as «a collective crime». Actually, technically, genocide is always a collective crime because it is somehow the supreme crime. The crime of crimes. It falls within those widespread and systematic violations of #human rights# that cannot but engage, in a range of ways, all of a state apparatus, and often, as in #Rwanda, with the infamous Radio Mille Collines, which urged and fueled violence, a large segment of society. In an era of globalisation, yet of connections and interdependency, genocide now also implies the complicity and collusion of a large segment of the international community. «Framed by colonial narratives that dehumanise Palestinians, this live-streamed atrocity has been facilitated through third states’ direct support, material aid, diplomatic protection, and, in some cases, active participation.» The Gaza genocide is «an internationally enabled crime».

A genocide that would not have been possible without all of us.

Francesca Albanese singles out four «sectors of support». #Diplomacy, with initiatives, she says, that have basically normalised the Occupation, and since October 7th, have repeatedly fail to impose a ceasefire, which for a long time, in truth, was not the goal of the mediators, fully aligned with Israel’s narrative of self-defense; then, military cooperation, with transfers and sales of weapons and ammunition worth billions of dollars, a trade that has not decreased, but increased, since 7 October; the myriad obstacles facing UN agencies and NGOs, which in recent years have been gradually forced to suspend almost all projects, not only in Gaza, but in the #West Bank#, resulting in a collapse in Palestinians’ living conditions; and finally, business with Israel, as if nothing had happened: business that allows it to pay for the Occupation, and now, for the war. Or rather, the wars. #Lebanon, #Syria, #Yemen, #Iran. International law essentially prescribes five obligations. An obligation to the Palestinian people, who have the right, like all peoples, to freedom and self-determination, but also to the Palestinian state, which has the right to independence and territorial integrity. The obligation, then, is to stop the Occupation, genocide, #apartheid, and any form of territorial annexation. All crimes that breach not just any norms, but jus cogens norms: that is, peremptory norms that protect the core values ​​of the international community, its mainstays, and that every state has to abide by. Moreover, the obligation to ensure respect for the laws of war. For the norms on the means and methods of war. And, finally, the obligation not to aid these crimes, but to punish them, and above all, prevent them because they do not happen out of the blue. Quite the contrary. These are crimes committed in a context that takes shape over time – in Israel’s case, a 58-year Occupation. And therefore, they are absolutely predictable and avoidable.

These obligations are to be fulfilled «with all available means», Francesca Albanese reminds. Specifically: with forcible measures, through the UN Security Council, with arms embargoes, as provided for by the 2013 Arms Trade Treaty, with the adoption of sanctions, and, increasingly, with legal action. In international as well as national courts.

And instead, we had the opposite.

And Israel was not reined in, but actually supported by all available means.

A genocide that would not have been possible without all of us.

It should be said that the harsh remarks of the ambassador of Italy to the UN were also partly the effect of the rather eventful summer of Francesca Albanese. Now an icon of the pro-Palestine movement. Back home for the holidays, she joined all sorts of events, making all sorts of statements and often looking more like an activist than a jurist. And at times, in quite a questionable way. Like the day she mentioned #Liliana Segre#, a renowned #Auschwitz survivor who opposes the genocide thesis: an emotionally charged, and meaningless, opinion, according to Francesca Albanese, who believes that «to treat cancer, you don’t listen to the patients, but to the oncologists». Nor has there yet been any report on Hamas. At most, Francesca Albanese has tweeted about it. Including a tweet condemning the extrajudicial executions that followed the ceasefire, with alleged spies gunned down in the streets of Gaza, it sparked a storm, and Palestinians told her to mind her own business. And focus on Israel only. And it is true, above all, that her reports increasingly resemble the reports of #Amnesty International#, rather than those of a Special Rapporteur. For example, by denouncing «an unprecedented chasm between peoples and their governments», or by rejecting the Trump Plan, which is certainly not her job. And more generally, by a somewhat scholastic and abstract review of applicable law. Without any real analysis. Without any thorough examination of specific cases. But probably, there was no choice. Without this combative attitude and this overexposure, Francesca Albanese would hardly have had a voice and visibility. She would have remained anonymous and irrelevant, like so many other Special Rapporteurs, including all her predecessors.

How many of us could name one of them?

And yet, they are 85.

And from #Afghanistan to #Ukraine, they are assigned to conflicts no less influential.

Because complicity, as we know, is also the complicity of the media. As I write, Sky’s latest story appears in my newsfeed: «Defiance in the West Bank – despite encroaching threat from ‘unwanted neighbours’. For people living in the occupied West Bank, even basic tasks like visiting an olive grove can feel risky. And Sky’s crew was threatened with arrest as they drove around». A description of settler raids against Palestinians, backed by the IDF: without naming the settlers, the Palestinians, or the IDF.

Nor, for that matter, who is threatening Sky’s crew.

Ambassador Maurizio Massari concluded by listing the many initiatives Italy is contributing to peace. For example, the evacuation of the wounded, for which Italy is fourth in the world, with 16 air bridges, approximately 200 children, along with 800 family members. Currently, some 16,500 Palestinians are awaiting life-saving treatment abroad, out of a total of over 100,000 wounded. Then, 152 scholarships. For 90,000 students, and no universities are left. And the Food for Gaza program, of course. With 2,400 tons of food and medicine. Delivered, however, to the UN, not directly to Gaza. And therefore, subject to the aid blockade, like any other aid. Who is not fulfilling its obligations?

Who is truly not fulfilling its mandate?

If Francesca Albanese is wrong, and she is wrong, who is wrong even more?