Gaza rhetoric is meaningless when there is zero action

What makes Albanese so compelling is her willingness to bypass the language of academia and speak plainly and clearly about issues. Picture: Atilgan Ozdil/Anadolu Agency/Getty

To the tens of thousands of people who follow Francesca Albanese in academia and on social media, the Italian international lawyer and scholar is nothing short of a force of nature.

Since October 7, the UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories has been one of the most prominent and accessible voices educating people on both the reality of what is happening on the ground in Gaza, and the history that made it inevitable. Albanese’s candour has seen her pilloried by the pro-Israeli lobby and challenged constantly by a western media she regularly labels as complicit at worst and ignorant at best. Far from being deterred, she appears emboldened by every smear. “It has been tough,” she says, acknowledging the pressures of the mandate she’s filled for two years.

“But now, the pain I harbour comes from elsewhere.”

Albanese is in Galway to give a lecture at the Irish Centre for Human Rights at the University of Galway alongside Palestinian academic Maha Abdallah. The primary focus of the lecture is the implications of South Africa’s Genocide Case at the International Court of Justice, but, speaking exclusively to the Irish Examiner, she is willing to talk about anything related to the situation in Gaza and the occupied territories, from Irelands positive rhetoric but regrettable inaction, to the deafening silence of western academic institutions.

“Because Israel has violated the interim order of the International Court of Justice, it’s appalling that meaningful measures have not been taken.

There’s this tendency to be very supportive with rhetoric, as Ireland has, but when it comes to taking concrete actions, there is zero. Not a little. Zero. The countries that have been most outspoken, like Ireland, what have they done in practice? Nothing. And this is shameful. It is disgraceful.

What makes Albanese such a compelling voice is not just her depth of knowledge and experience as both a lawyer and scholar, but her willingness to bypass the often-exclusionary language of academia and speak plainly and clearly about issues others seem determined to make confusing.

“There is a tendency in academia to use language as constructive ambiguity. I think I am different in my ability to communicate more directly because I came to this a little later in life after spending years working with humanitarian organisations, so I needed to simplify things to answer the questions I had myself. More importantly, I think it’s important to speak a very clear language because international law is so clear and simple.”

That international law is failing the people of Palestine in the most abject ways imaginable, she said.

“I find it shameful that this is one of the “conflicts” that has been the most written upon, probably the most researched, and all that it has resulted in is the normalisation of apartheid, not just by the legal orthodoxy, but by the UN and others in the humanitarian community, who have been there knowing there is apartheid but have made strategic assumptions on whether to use the word apartheid because they might lose their donors. This is unacceptable.”

The same dereliction of duty applies to western academic institutions, too, who, Albanese claims, are failing their student populations with their tepid silence. Last month, the University of Galway became the first Irish third level institution to announce a review of its relationship with Israeli institutions in a statement to staff and students from university president Prof Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh that, under any other circumstance might be considered placatory, but in the context of the broader omerta, is an outlier.

“There is also a good degree of cowardice among the intellectual community and academic institutions regarding the question of Palestine. This existed before October 7. There are two reasons behind this. One is the pro-Israel lobby groups being so influential; the other is that general sense of cowardice I speak of amongst academic leaders. Universities are not just where you get a degree. It’s a place where you train your conscience, especially in legal faculties. You grow as a citizen, and you learn to engage on questions of social justice.

It’s absolutely shocking to see how poor the reaction has been among human rights and the legal community within academia. The efforts of the good people here in Galway are encouraging, but it’s not enough. I could count on two hands the academic voices that have spoken up in Europe, but what is just as shocking as their silence has been the justification, especially in the first weeks, of Israel’s military assault on Gaza. I’ve seen the gymnastics of how they justify war crimes, arguing proportionality and military necessity. 

This is why I’m happy to speak at a university in Ireland that is trying to do things differently. One of the people who have spoken up is Professor Shane Darcy, a principled man, and an exceptional scholar. But there are too few.”

Regarding what needs to happen, the Italian scholar is adamant the prospect of a temporary ceasefire holds no sway as a progressive first step.

“I do not agree that a temporary ceasefire is the solution. The first step is a proper ceasefire, and an end to the blockade, and finally the end of the military occupation. This can only be the start. Without these three things, nothing will change.”

Albanese stops to draw a rare breath before sounding a sombre warning.

“In Gaza, the worst is yet to come. I trust every person who comes out of there. They are traumatized to a point I’ve never seen. Israelis, too, have been taken away by a collective madness. This is a society that is turning genocidal. And Israel holds the ultimate answer, alongside the US. The US is fully complicit. They are enabling the crimes Israel is committing. My fear as a scholar of forced displacement is that this pier they are building, a pier in a place that had no roads because they are all destroyed, will be the place that celebrates the forced displacement of the Palestinian people out of Gaza. This is pure depravity.”