International Law

In J’Accuse, Albanese intelligently frames the Gaza war in its proper historical context going back to the Balfour Declaration of November 1917, when the British government announced its support of a “national home for the Jewish people.” She focuses on the period beginning in 1948 with Israel’s founding — for the Palestinians, the Nakba, or their catastrophe. Another chronological focal point concerns Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories beginning in 1967. Israel’s sixteen-year blockade of Gaza also comes in for extended analysis as background for the current war.

The book proceeds as an interview of Albanese by journalist Christian Elia. They begin by discussing terrorism. Albanese notes that there is no agreement on the meaning of this term; indeed, over 150 definitions have appeared in print. Terrorism is generally understood to be criminal or immoral violence in pursuit of political aims — but who gets to determine the rightness or wrongness of such behavior? The victors in war and politics historically have had the inside track in differentiating terrorists from freedom fighters.

Avoiding the term terrorism because of its politically charged biases, Albanese evaluates the events of October 7 according to the international law enshrined in conventions adopted at Geneva and The Hague. On that basis, she condemns Hamas for slaughtering innocent noncombatants and taking civilian hostages. She repeats these charges several times in the book.

By the same legal standards, Israel’s indiscriminate military attacks against the defenseless Palestinian civilian population in Gaza also constitute war crimes. Hamas’s crimes should have been prosecuted by an independent tribunal, not punished by unleashing Israeli firepower against civilians. Moreover, immediately following the Hamas attack, Israel’s then–defense minister, Yoav Gallant, declared that essential humanitarian aid would be cut off. This meant no electricity, food, gasoline, and water for Gazans. Israel had found itself combatting “human animals,” Gallant declared, and would respond accordingly.

J’Accuse captures the Palestinians’ dehumanizing existence under Israeli rule, also in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. They suffered varying degrees of torment by the government and vicious colonizers in the Israeli settlements. She quotes UN Secretary-General António Guterres: Hamas’s depredations “did not come from nothing.” Fifty-six years of merciless occupation prepared the way for October 7. Guterres, too, condemned Hamas for its crimes against innocent civilians, but no one should have been surprised by the inevitable explosion of resentment arising from Israel’s illegal occupation and its nightmare system of military checkpoints.

The Palestinians manifestly lived under apartheid conditions, with Jewish citizens enjoying special laws and privileges. Two different legal systems operate in the Palestinian territories: civil jurisdiction for the settlers and soldiers but military jurisdiction for the Palestinians. Even Arab Israelis living in Israel proper do not have the same rights granted to the country’s Jewish citizens. For Albanese, there is no rational alternative to dismantling Zionist hegemony in favor of a real democracy — which would mean guaranteeing equal rights for all.

Albanese took up her UN job the year before the Hamas attack. She had witnessed “an alarming intensification of the frequency and brutality of military assaults by Israel.” She allows the two most fanatical ministers in Benjamin Netanyahu’s government — Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich — to speak for themselves about their illegal activities involving the expansion of settlements and plans for outright annexation of the Palestinian territories.

Israel defines its security in terms of justifying the permanent absorption and racial domination of all the land from the river Jordan to the sea. Jewish supremacism, always implicit in the Zionist project for Palestine, now presents itself unambiguously as Israel’s official creed.

Long before the ever-expanding horrors following the Hamas attack, Gaza had been the ninth circle in the hell of Israel’s occupation. It had been the epicenter of the first intifada in 1987. Then came one military invasion after another punctuating the daily afflictions of the blockade. Albanese quickly brings her Gaza account up to the present, noting that in the immediate aftermath of October 7, the Israeli government arrested thousands of Palestinians without due process. They, too, should be considered hostages. Albanese’s book stops there.

In a postscript, philosopher Roberta De Monticelli carries the story into the early stages of the Gaza war. “Gaza is no more,” she writes. “It is only a mass of misery and ruins.” International law and the West’s vaunted stable order also lie under the rubble of Gaza, because of the failure to condemn Israel for its war crimes. She recounts the violent defamatory campaigns against Albanese in Italy. There Israel receives overwhelming support from both government and media — much as the West generally has responded to the slaughter of over sixty thousand Palestinians, most of them women and children.

Intimidation

Since J’Accuse was published, Albanese has been unrelenting with her reports for the UN, lectures, social media posts, and interviews calling for an immediate ceasefire and warning about the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians in Gaza and throughout the occupied territories. In “Anatomy of a Genocide,” her report released on March 25, 2024, she became the first person to provide the UN with a detailed analysis of Israel’s intention to wipe out the Palestinians in Gaza. In a report the next year, she asserted that this genocide had continued in part because it was lucrative for business corporations, including Microsoft, Google, and Amazon.

At this point, the Trump administration vented its fury against Albanese with Executive Order 14203. Sentiment in the United States’ halls of power had been building against her since February 2023, when eighteen members of Congress called for Albanese to be removed  from her UN position because of anti-Israeli bias. In 2024, after Albanese’s online declaration of support for the view that Netanyahu merited comparison with Adolf Hitler, the United States’ then–ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield — a Joe Biden appointee — sought her removal from office. Thomas-Greenfield had repeatedly blocked measures opposed to Israel on the grounds of its right to self-defense. The Trump administration would bring increased zeal and rhetorical force to America’s support for Israel in the UN, but Washington’s devotion to Israel remained essentially the same, whichever party was in power.

Weeks after the US sanctions against her this summer, Albanese spoke in Bari, southern Italy, where the local mayor honored her for exposing the Palestinians’ tragic plight. For her, the sanctions weren’t just a symbolic gesture. Her financial assets would be frozen, and she no longer could enter the United States to do her work at the UN. Severely interfering with her professional relationships, these measures merited comparison with the Mafia’s techniques of intimidation.

Albanese professed herself honored and overcome by the proceedings in Bari. She then issued a warning to the international community: “Palestine is asking us for help, it is showing us a future without legality. And the fact that Italy remains silent must not fool you; we are behind, we are truly the tail-end of the [colonialist and imperialist violence] which remains of the last century’s history. . . . A reawakening of conscience is required.” Not just Italy but the international community must be stirred from the crisis of its morally anesthetizing double standards — one for partners and allies like Israel and another for designated enemies like Russia.

Flotilla

On August 31, the Global Sumud Flotilla (sumud means “steadfastness” in Arabic) — eventually comprising more than forty boats — departed from Barcelona to bring humanitarian aid to Palestinians and break Israel’s blockade of Gaza. Albanese resolutely supported this initiative. At every opportunity, she appealed to European governments to provide protection for the flotilla and to confront Israel over its campaign of genocide in Gaza.

The more than six hundred activists on board included humanitarian workers, doctors, political figures, and artists representing forty-four countries. The Israeli government denounced them as Hamas sympathizers. Israel’s ambassador to Italy even claimed to have proof that Hamas had been directing the flotilla all along. This proof has not yet been forthcoming.

The Global Sumud Flotilla came under drone attack on September 9 in Tunisian waters. The main vessel, Family Boat, was hit, and a fire broke out. Fortunately no injuries and little damage occurred. Activist Greta Thunberg later spoke on the staircase of Tunis’s municipal theater. She accused Israel of mounting the attack in order to stop the flotilla’s peaceful and lawful mission. Newspaper accounts of the event carried a photograph of Albanese hugging and kissing Thunberg.

At 2 a.m. on the night of September 24, drones again attacked the flotilla, then off the coast of Crete. Fourteen boats suffered damage from flash-bang stun grenades and unidentified chemicals. Two people sustained minor injuries. Albanese immediately posted on X:  “!Alert! @gbsumudflotilla has been attacked 7 times in a short span! Boats hit with sound bombs, explosive flares, and sprayed with suspected chemicals. Radios jammed, calls for help blocked. Immediate international attention AND PROTECTION required. Hands off the Flotilla!”

While the Italian government supports Israel, Albanese was not alone in her condemnation. In the first of two general strikes, one million people throughout Italy demonstrated in support of Palestine and the flotilla, demanding an end to the arms trade and commercial ties with Israel. Authorities responded to the protesters by using water cannons against them. The protests also reflected a wider anger in Italy over homegrown social issues like the lack of an economic future for young people and the wealth gap between the rich and the poor. Palestine, however, provided the catalyst.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, then in New York for the UN General Assembly’s discussion of Israel’s war in Gaza, lashed out at the organizers of the flotilla, labeling them irresponsible crisis-mongers. The right-wing Italian leader and Trump favorite criticized Israel for excesses in Gaza — but directed her anger at the flotilla activists, calling on them to end their mission.

On October 1 in an NBC News interview, Albanese damned those UN member states who urged the flotilla to turn around. Instead, they should be intervening to stop Israel. They should provide protection for the flotilla and themselves break the Israeli blockade of Gaza. Most of the delegates, especially from the Global South, had shown their support for the Palestinians by not attending Netanyahu’s speech at the previous week’s UN General Assembly meeting or by walking out on him. Clearly, Meloni had no such moral courage.

That same day, at a legal conference in Milan, Albanese declared that the Italian government stood in violation of the country’s constitution, which expressly called for obedience to international law. By that requirement, Meloni should be condemning Israel, not the activists. We are witnessing, Albanese added, “not only the return of the right-wing parties; it is the return of fascist attitudes, and I see it even in the way that the forces of order comport themselves with the populace, with whoever protests.”

That same night, the Israeli Navy intercepted and boarded the Global Sumud Flotilla in international waters and arrested the activists. More protests erupted in Italy to the cry of, “If they touch the Flotilla, they touch all of us; if they attack it, we block everything.”  The Arab News website announced that an “Italian intifada” had taken place. Other European countries witnessed pro-Palestinian outbursts of a similar kind, but nothing like developments in Italy.

Blocking Everything

A second general strike intensified the chaos in Italy for the next three days. “Blocchiamo tutto” (We’ll block everything) became the order of the day as train tracks, port facilities, and highways were forced out of service. Vast numbers of Italians marched in processions and chanted slogans of solidarity with the people suffering in Gaza: “Free Palestine,” “Zionist Israel: Terrorist State,” “We Are All Palestinians,” “Stop the Genocide,” “Free the Heroes of the Flotilla.” Insults against Meloni’s government reverberated through the streets and piazzas of Italy.

Reports about Israeli mistreatment of the flotilla detainees further inflamed the protesters in Italy as elsewhere. Far-right Israeli security minister Ben-Gvir called the activists “terrorists,” saying that if they thought they would “receive a red carpet and trumpets, they were mistaken.” They merited the harsh treatment given them in Israel’s Ketziot Prison, notorious for its abusive conditions. He said that it would give them pause before setting out again on such a misconceived mission.

Albanese remained a constant source of controversy. On October 2, a news story erupted about an event involving Albanese on Sunday, September 28, in the northern city of Reggio Emilia. Once again, she had received a high civic honor. At the ceremony, the mayor praised Albanese for her stellar promotion of human rights. She had done noble work that deserved the highest recognition. Such proceedings ordinarily wouldn’t make headlines.

The mayor, however, also had said that the release of the Israeli hostages from their Hamas captivity would advance the cause of peace in the Middle East. Albanese put a hand to her face and grimaced as the mayor uttered these words about the Israeli hostages. She contradicted him: “The mayor is wrong: he has said something that is not true. But I pardon him. Peace does not have conditions.” The pro-Palestinian audience jeered and whistled at the mayor.

Italian political and media figures furiously debated Albanese’s reaction to the mayor’s comments about the Israeli hostages. Her defenders agree that peace should come immediately — with no preconditions about the hostages or any other issue. Opponents denounced her as blinded by a hatred for Israel, in dismissing what they called the mayor’s sensible plea to liberate the hostages.

Albanese had also been in Reggio to present her new book, Quando il mondo dorme: Storie, parole e ferite della Palestina (While the World Sleeps: Stories, Words, and Wounds of Palestine). Her account of daily life based on the experiences of individuals who embody the tragedy of the occupied territories appeared in May 2025. This book translates into individual human terms her legal analysis of the crimes recounted in J’Accuse. It quickly went through nine printings.

The Real Issue

Albanese made headlines once again on October 5 by walking out of an Italian television program after an in-studio clash over the issue of genocide in Gaza. She could not stand the way some of the participants denied the genocide in Gaza. Two days later, the second anniversary date of the Hamas massacre, the announcement of her name in connection with a meeting in Genoa about Palestine caused an outburst of condemnations from irate Jewish groups: “Have it [this event] but do it another day,” they protested.

Speaking that same day, Albanese tried to deflect attention from her notoriety. The real issue, she said, was that “Palestinians are dying of a genocide.” From this central moral issue of our time, she did not want to be a distraction. She also had wept for the Israeli civilians killed by Hamas. Both sets of victims had died as a result of intertwined historical forces locked in a mortal struggle that began in 1917.

Albanese alluded here to the overriding theme in J’Accuse: the vital importance of the deep historical background for understanding the Palestinian-Israeli crisis of today. Where in such a tangled history might the true origin of this crisis be found? Its first cause peers out at us in the middle of the fateful Balfour Declaration of 1917. There, the British government promised a national home for the Jewish people, “it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine. . . .”

Francesca Albanese. Public Domain. Via Wikimedia Commons.

The ceasefire for the war in Gaza and the plan for peace signed at Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt on October 13, made no mention of this first cause in the Palestinian-Israeli crisis. At the signing ceremony, no representative of Hamas participated. It remains to be seen how a peace agreement from which one side is missing can hold. Netanyahu even declined to support a postwar role in Gaza for Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the anti-Hamas Palestinian National Authority and still has not agreed to meet with any Palestinian interlocutor.

Phase Two of the peace plan involves the creation of a government that will lead the Gaza Strip into the future, plans for reconstruction, and the de-militarization of Hamas. All the work for removing these huge stumbling blocks to enduring peace remains to be done. Faced with a ceasefire that daily threatens to dissolve into the ghastly reflux of war, Albanese continues to cry out for equal rights and equal security, but also equal de-radicalization and demilitarization of Israel. Until the promise of the full civil and religious rights of non-Jewish communities in Palestine comes to pass, nothing fundamental will change in the Middle East.

Reprinted from Jacobin with the author’s permission.