Francesca Albanese Calls for a Moral Front against Genocide in Gaza, from Cape Town’s Pulpit

By Nurah Tape - The Palestine Chronicle

UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese in Cape Town. (Photo: Nurah Tape, Palestine Chronicle)

A guest of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, Albanese said that “intervening for Palestine is not an act of charity,” but one of “united struggles.”

UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese has said that the “brutality and inhumanity” unleashed against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip as well as the occupied Palestinian territories, is a “collective crime that has been enabled exactly because no one has respected the law.”

Addressing a packed interfaith gathering in Cape Town on Sunday, Albanese emphasized that “intervening for Palestine is not an act of charity,” but one of “united struggles.”

“No one has done what was supposed to do; cutting ties with Israel, no more weapons, no buying weapons, no more diamonds, no more juice, no more fruits, nothing. You cut economic trade, you cut everything to Israel. You cut (the) partnership,” she stressed.

Nationals who have fought in the Israeli army should be “considered suspect” and investigated, she said, noting that “If there is evidence that they have committed crimes, they have to be prosecuted … and convicted.”

Right to Resist

Asked about the provisions in international law regarding the right of an occupied people to resist and defend themselves, Albanese explained that the “right to resist is considered controversial because the right to resist has been codified thanks to the colonization process.”

However, today, “we are not in the era of colonization and as I said, even states that have invoked and used the right to resist to free themselves from oppression are looking away while Palestine gets completely crushed.”

In the post-9/11 era, Albanese pointed out, “every freedom fighter, more than ever, is considered a terrorist on a global scale.”

She continued, “Do oppressed people have the right to resist? Yes. Is it practical for people to use the right to resist? Absolutely not.”

But for the Palestinians, she said, it should be easier, because “the right to resist is to a people what the right to self-defense is to a state.”

Israel an Occupying Power

Albanese explained that it was already confirmed under international law in 2004 that Israel, as an occupying power, “cannot violate the right of self-determination of the Palestinian people and cannot use the argument of self-defense … even when there are security concerns, it cannot invoke the right of self-defense, meaning it cannot wage a war against the Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory.”

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2024, she stressed, said Israel maintains an unlawful occupation “not because it arrests children, practices apartheid and racial segregation, or because it violates the rule that governs the conduct of an occupier.”

“But the court says this occupation has become the vehicle to annex land. So it’s a form of aggression. So yes, the Palestinians have the right to defend themselves from the occupier. Of course,” she continued.

Albanese said it was in Israel’s interests to ensure that it complies with international law.

This means “withdraw the occupation, withdraw the troops, dismantle the colonies, stop exploiting Palestinian resources, make reparations and allow the refugees from 1967, this is what the court says, to return. We have to start somewhere. So for me, this is the first step to then advance justice for the Palestinians displaced since 1947.”

Albanese, however, emphasized that “the law is as strong as the will of states to enforce it.”

Grassroots Mobilization

Since states seem to have no real intentions to apply the law, she continued, “it falls upon us” to ensure that the government hears, listens and acts.

Therefore, she stressed “grassroots mobilization, conscientization, sharing and agreeing upon strategy is absolutely necessary now more than ever because the Palestinians are facing an existential threat, they might be really fully ethnically cleansed from the little that remains of their land.”

The special rapporteur warned that what is happening in Palestine will not stay in Palestine.

“All the weapons that have been tested and perfected on the Palestinians are going to be used against us next. It’s already happening,” she said, adding that “my government for sure is buying the drones to be used against the migrants, but increasingly against its own citizens. So, this is why I’m saying it’s for them, but it’s also for us.”

The Hague Group

Albanese highlighted the Hague Group, a global bloc of states committed to “coordinated legal and diplomatic measures” in defense of international law and solidarity with the people of Palestine, formed earlier this year.

She said the organization “gives me hope because it’s a sparkle of new multilateralism that can happen. But we need to keep on sustaining it and and states have to continue to give meaning to it, otherwise it will deflate and become yet another betrayed promise in the long in the long of betrayed promises of our history.”

Albanese, who received a standing ovation and rapturous welcome at the venue for her discussion on ‘Palestine and the Crisis of International Law’, arrived in South Africa last week as a guest of the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture

On Saturday evening, she delivered the 23rd Nelson Mandela annual lecture under the theme “Enhancing Peace and Global Cooperation”. Mbongiseni Buthelezi, CEO of the organization, said in a statement that “Francesca’s expertise and commitment to human dignity make her a fitting voice for this year’s lecture.”

Addressing an audience of 3,500 people at the Sandton Convention Center in Johannesburg, Albanese said, “The laws created to stop states from destroying each other are now being used to justify that destruction.”

Her recent UN report, From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide, investigated the corporate machinery sustaining Israel’s “settler-colonial project of displacement and replacement of the Palestinians in the occupied territory.”

“The machinery of genocide is not only made of weapons,” Albanese stated. “It is designed, financed and insured.”

Attempt to Serve Papers

Following her lecture, it emerged that there had been an attempt at the venue by a sheriff to serve Albanese with court papers reportedly linked to a US lawsuit by pro-Israel groups.

South Africa’s Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, Mmamoloko Kubayi, said in a statement that she noted “with regret the unauthorised letter issued by an official in the department of Justice and Constitutional Development that led to a Sheriff approaching” Albanese, to serve her with court papers.

She said “the service of process was effected without the knowledge or approval of either the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development or the Director-General.”

“Neither the Director General nor the Minister gave effect to the above request for service of the process, which was a request purportedly made by the Christian Friends of Israeli Communities, Christians for Israel, USA.”

Kubayi extended “an unconditional apology” to Albanese and said an internal investigation will be instituted regarding the incident.

US Sanctions

In July, the US imposed sanctions on Albanese, saying she has “directly engaged with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in efforts to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute nationals of the United States or Israel, without the consent of those two countries.”

In a statement, the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, claimed Albanese “spewed unabashed antisemitism, expressed support for terrorism, and open contempt for the United States, Israel, and the West.”

(The Palestine Chronicle)

– Nurah Tape is a South Africa-based journalist. She is an editor with The Palestine Chronicle.