“Israel Demands My Dismissal Because…” (Image: Twitter/Francesca Albanese)
Francesca Albanese, the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, has once again went on discussion rounds as she expressed the reasons behind the Israeli demand of her dismissal from the UN. Ms Albanese on Friday took to her official X (formerly Twitter) handle and pointed five reason that prompted the government of Israel for an ultimatum of her dismissal.
Israel demanded the dismissal “not because of my alleged anti-Israeli mindset, but because I expose Israel’s violations of international law”, she wrote. The move came after Ms Albanese said against the Australian government’s reluctance to openly criticise the brutal crimes unleashed by Israel on Gaza as “unacceptable” and “dangerous”. “Australia should be consistent with its international law obligations”, she added then.
According to her, Australia has a responsibility to “prevent atrocity crimes” including genocide. She also held a meeting on the matter with the Australian Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs Tim Watts on Wednesday and expressed her concern “as strongly as she could” about what she saw as Australia’s inadequate response to the escalating bloodshed in Gaza, reported the Guardian.
Israeli gov. demands my dismissal NOT bcs of my alleged “anti-Israeli mindset”, but bcs I expose ISR”s violations of Int”l Law, including:
-Settlements as war crimes
-Apartheid
-The “forever occupation” as quintessentially illegal
-War crimes, CAH & the risk of genocide in Gaza. https://t.co/cmO5Lwcx03— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) November 16, 2023
Israel is amidst of a war, which they declared against Hamas on last month, after Hamas led an unprecedented attack on an Israeli desert music camp, killed more than thousand and took hundreds captive as hostages. Hamas is a Palestinian Islamist political and military organisation governing the Gaza Strip of the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.
In the counterattack initiated by Israel defence forces with the help of American artilleries and vocal support of its Western allies, at least 11,470 Palestinians were killed in two months, and among them almost half are women and children. The Strip is witnessing the worst period of humanitarian catastrophe and a lack of fuel had hit the Gaza leading the shutdown of all internet and phone networks on Thursday, said the major Palestinian telecom provider. The besieged territory is thus effectively cut off from the outside world, where thousands were already headed to south, observing Israel’s evacuation order from the North.
According to Ms Albanese, the government of Israel demands her dismissal not just because of her alleged anti-Israeli mindset, but because she exposed Tel Aviv’s violations of international law to the global community. She listed out the violations also: “Settlements as war crimes, Apartheid, the “forever occupation” as quintessentially illegal, War crimes, CAH, and the risk of genocide in Gaza”, she took to X.
Ms Albanese is an Italian international lawyer and academic. It was on May 2022, she was appointed as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories on a three-year term. She is regarded as a strong opponent of the Israeli occupation of Palestine, and also recommended the UN member states to develop “a plan to end the Israeli settler-colonial occupation and apartheid regime”, on her very first report after joining the position.
