Francesca Albanese: the woman who will not shut up

By Phakamisa Mayaba

By inviting Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, to deliver the 23rd annual Nelson Mandela Lecture, organisers at the former stateman’s Foundation seem to have given a veiled message: we will do what few countries are stupid enough to do. The term ‘Palestinian’ in her job description alone is already enough to redden faces.

And surely, when you are a Foundation on what The Economist once dubbed the ‘hopeless continent,’ ravaged by its endemic afflictions – poverty, hustling for money, poor governance, and rampant corruption — the last thing you want is to rub the geopolitical grand slammers up the wrong way.

The last thing you want is to attract the tariffs, the sanctions, the fascist-like hounding of your multinationals or diplomatic envoys, the humiliation of kissing Uncle Sam’s boot inside the Oval Office and constantly having to glance over your shoulder because the clock has struck thirteen and Big Brother is watching.

You grow paranoid that your every move is being monitored by invisible men in black suits. That your phones are bugged and sensitive IT networks infiltrated. How could the country not worry? There are the obvious matters of South Africa’s cosy associations with Brics, the phone calls to Putin, the Lady R covertly docking at Simon’s Town, the landmark trip to the ICJ when much of the world were murmuring in hushed tones about the war in Gaza – collective indicators that Mzansi simply had to be reminded of her proper place in the world.

So just when it seemed like South Africa couldn’t possibly be stupid enough to be any more offensive, the Mandela Foundation just had to invite Albanese to address inarguably the one lecture that still remains substantive in a landscape otherwise marked by lame discourse and talk shops.

They must’ve known that this would be tantamount to stirring the proverbial hornet’s nest. If there was one individual who was not going to backtrack on her stance, it is ‘the first UN expert …to receive sanctions by any state’.

In the face of the harassment and attacks on her person, it was Albanese — ‘a witch’, according to Israel’s representative to the UN, Danny Danon — who looked this particular detractor through a webcam from the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation without flinching.

Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Image: Wikipedia.

Her spontaneous response to the name-calling – as she remotely delivered yet another unapologetic 24-page report to the UN General Assembly Third Committee on Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Issues this Tuesday – is perhaps the very reason why she strikes fear in the hearts of most men:

‘That the best thing that he resorts to is accusing me of witchcraft. So be it. You’re the one accused of genocide. If the worst thing you can accuse me for is witchcraft, I take it. But rest assured that if I had the power to make spells, I would use it not for vengeance, I would use it to stop your crimes once and for all and to make sure that those responsible end up behind bars. And that would make sure that everyone from the river to the sea, Jewish people, Muslim people, Christian people and secular people lived in freedom and enjoying their rights.’

In this latest report, Gaza Genocide: A collective crime, she writes: ‘Even as the genocidal violence became visible, States, mostly Western ones, have provided, and continue to provide, Israel with military, diplomatic, economic and ideological support, even as it weaponised famine and humanitarian aid. The horrors of the past two years are not an aberration, but the culmination of a long history of complicity.’

In it, she notes how in the aftermath of 7 October 2023, ‘most Western leaders parroted Israeli narratives, disseminated by State and corporate media, repeating debunked claims and erasing core distinctions between combatants and civilians. Israelis were depicted as “civilians” and“hostages”, and Palestinians as “Hamas terrorists”, “legitimate” or “collateral” targets,“human shields” or lawfully detained “prisoners”.

She mentions how the US used its veto power in the UN Security Council seven times post-October 2023 ‘providing diplomatic cover for the Israeli genocide.’ Furthermore, she mentions how ‘a bloc of Western states – Australia, New Zealand and Canada, sometimes joined by the UK, Germany or the Netherlands – appeared at times ready to pressurize Israel, such as in December 2023, when their statements added momentum for a ceasefire. Yet their introduction of the term “sustained ceasefire” produced a diluted UNSC resolution that delayed action.’

Needless to say, Israel has vehemently denied carrying out a genocide in Gaza, instead justifying its severe prosecution of the war as an inherent need not only to protect itself but to ensure the survival of what it has termed ‘the only democracy in the Middle East’.

As for Albanese, she has openly come out strongly in support of humanitarian initiatives that seek to cast the spotlight on the people of Gaza, not least of which were the two Flotilla missions that were intended to break the siege on the Strip and bring aid to the people living there. The most recent of those, the Global Sumud Flotilla, saw the capture of all activists aboard, including Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and Mandla Mandela, our former president’s grandson.

While most of the world knew that this doomed act of activism would never achieve its desired goals, Albanese was one of those who prominently applauded the effort and the attention it had brought to the Palestinian plight.

But long is the arm of those set on her personal ruin. She’d barely concluded her Mandela lecture when drama unfolded. A sheriff of the court served papers on her. The Justice department later came out apologising for the ‘unauthorised letter’ which, however, didn’t quite explain the myriad questions that the rogue move aroused, not least because the request was purportedly made by a foreign body, the Christian Friends of Israeli Communities, Christians for Israel, USA.

Neeshan Balton, executive director of the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, saw it as a ‘calculated move to embarrass Albanese but to also embarrass the South African government. We hope that this is some standalone action and is not linked to the American Embassy given some of their past utterances and actions in this country.’

Be that as it may, Albanese may be persona non grata in some countries, but then again South Africa’s decision to take Israel to the ICJ means it too has found itself sometimes flung to the periphery. So, one outsider to another, Albanese found herself treated to an exceptionally warm welcome, complete with a standing ovation. Seen as someone who encapsulates Madiba’s dogged commitment to freedom and equality, despite the criticism levelled against her by at least one local body, she didn’t shy away from praising the country’s initiative at the ICJ.

‘This act,’ she said. ‘has rekindled faith in international law, so thank you, South Africa! as a symbolic restoration, a quiet revolution in the history of international law. And in doing so, you prove again who you are, heirs of Nelson Mandela, in this conviction that justice must be lived, not merely spoken.’

Despite the assaults on her, also in our own media, Albanese continues to speak. Although she couldn’t deliver her latest report before the UN General Assembly, the world listened to her from South Africa. Despite the attempts to silence her, the woman just won’t shut up.

FEATURED IMAGE: Francesca Albanese delivers the 23rd annual Nelson Mandela Lecture at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg. (CNN on Youtube)

This is an edited version of an article that first appeared on Phakamisa Mayaba’s website, eParkeni. Used with permission.