Romana Rubeo
The Palestine Chronicle / June 26, 2026
Addressing the Second Jewish Anti-Zionist Congress, Francesca Albanese argued that Palestine has exposed the world’s failures while inspiring global resistance.
DUBLIN – Addressing the Second Jewish Anti-Zionist Congress via video link from Palermo on Friday, UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese argued that the genocide in Gaza has evolved into far more than Israel’s war against the Palestinian people.
Instead, she said, it has become the clearest expression of a global political and ideological system that has normalized Palestinian dispossession while exposing the failures of international law, democratic institutions and the post-war international order itself.
The destruction of Palestinians
Describing Palestine as both “a revealer” and “a mirror,” Albanese urged participants to view the current moment not only through the lens of Israel’s actions but through the responses—or silence—of governments, institutions and societies across the world.
“We are now in the third year of the genocide,” Albanese said, arguing that the violence imposed on Palestinians could no longer be understood as the responsibility of Israel alone.
Today, she contended, Israel operates with the ideological, political and military support of a broad international network that extends well beyond its traditional Western allies.
“There is hardly a corner of the world untouched by Zionism as a political ideology,” she said, pointing to the role played not only by Western governments and private institutions but also by several Arab states and religious organizations that have helped normalize and disseminate the ideology internationally.
While acknowledging that Zionism has carried different meanings throughout its history, Albanese argued that its contemporary political expression had become inseparable from the ongoing destruction of Palestinian life.
“I think we should all be able to agree on one point,” she said. “Today, more than ever, Zionism has become predicated upon the destruction of the Palestinian people and the seizure of what little remains of their homeland.”
For Albanese, the consequences extend well beyond Palestine itself. Zionism, she argued, has evolved into an ideology that increasingly destabilizes the broader region.
“Today, Zionism is no longer only about the destruction of Palestinians,” she said. “It has become an ideology contributing to the destruction of entire societies across West Asia.”
Palestine as the world’s mirror
Throughout her address, Albanese returned repeatedly to the idea that Palestine has fundamentally altered how the world understands itself.
“Palestine has become a revealer,” she said before listing what the Palestinian struggle has exposed: “the Nakba… the colonial nature of the Zionist project… apartheid… and genocide—which is still ongoing.”
Yet Palestine, she argued, has not merely revealed the structures underpinning Israeli policies. It has also become “a mirror,” reflecting the moral choices made by individuals, governments and international institutions.
“I have often said that Palestine has also become a mirror,” Albanese explained, “a mirror reflecting who we are—as individuals, as societies and as states.”
Drawing one of the speech’s most striking historical parallels, Albanese argued that comparisons with the Holocaust should not be understood as competitions over suffering but as a way of understanding how atrocities become internationalized through the participation—or acquiescence—of others.
“There is one comparison with the Holocaust that I believe can and must be made,” she said. “This genocide, like the Holocaust, possesses a transnational dimension. It is sustained not only by those who commit it directly but also by those who enable it.”
For Albanese, the tragedy of Gaza lies not only in the crimes themselves but in the fact that they are unfolding within an international legal system specifically designed to prevent such atrocities.
Instead of preventing genocide, she argued, many governments have chosen to facilitate it by rendering Palestinians invisible while normalizing their dehumanization.
Yet even amid that failure, Albanese insisted that Palestine has generated an unprecedented political awakening.
“A minority of humanity now sees what many others still refuse—or are unable—to see,” she said before rejecting the idea that meaningful political change requires majority support.
“Revolutions are never made by majorities,” Albanese argued. “They are usually made by ten percent of society.”
Looking at the global solidarity movement that has emerged over the past two years, she concluded: “Today, we are more than ten percent.”
For that reason, she said, “Palestine has ignited a global revolution.”
From international law to political action
While much of Albanese’s work has centered on international law, she cautioned against viewing legal mechanisms as sufficient on their own.
“International law provides us with a roadmap,” she said, emphasizing that it clearly requires Israel to end its occupation, dismantle apartheid, halt the genocide and hold accountable not only those directly responsible for these crimes but also those who have profited from them.
Yet law without ethics, she warned, remains powerless.
“Without ethics, it becomes powerless,” Albanese said, pointing to the growing gap between overwhelming legal evidence and the unwillingness of many governments to act.
That disconnect, she argued, explains why civil society has become indispensable in enforcing international norms that political leaders refuse to uphold.
For Albanese, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement represents one of the clearest examples of that principle in practice.
Rather than viewing BDS simply as a protest campaign, she described it as “a practical method for implementing international law through collective action” and “an expression of integrity.”
Her own work, she explained, has focused primarily on accountability, insisting that those responsible for crimes against Palestinians—as well as those enabling them—must ultimately face justice.
“The violations themselves must end,” she said, adding that the increasing attacks on investigators, judges, prosecutors and human rights defenders demonstrate how threatening accountability has become to those invested in maintaining impunity.
But Albanese also urged supporters of Palestine to engage more directly with electoral politics.
“For many, politics has become a business,” she observed. “For honest people, politics is a sacrifice.”
“We must reclaim it,” she continued. “We must restore democracy to its true purpose.”
At the same time, she warned against what she called “political purism,” arguing that movements often waste energy speaking only to those who already agree with them.
“We need to abandon political purism,” Albanese said. “Too often we speak only to those who already agree with us.”
Instead, she urged activists to reach those who remain undecided because “if they cannot see Palestine, they cannot act in its defense.”
As her remarks drew to a close, Albanese rejected the widespread feeling that public mobilization has failed to produce meaningful change.
Many people, she acknowledged, ask whether years of demonstrations have accomplished anything.
Her answer was unequivocal.
“If nothing were changing, there would not be so much repression,” Albanese said, arguing that the growing criminalization of activists, investigators and international legal institutions reflects precisely the effectiveness of the solidarity movement.
“Our pressure works,” she said. “It makes governments uncomfortable. It makes those profiting from genocide nervous.”
Concluding on a personal note, Albanese thanked anti-Zionist Israeli activist Ronnie Barkan for his persistence in ensuring she could participate remotely despite numerous obstacles.
“If everyone in this room possessed the perseverance that Ronnie Barkan showed in making sure I could participate in this Congress,” she said with a smile, “Palestine would already be free.”
“So be like Ronnie,” Albanese concluded. “Persevere.”
Romana Rubeo is an Italian writer and the managing editor of The Palestine Chronicle
