In Canada, UN expert slams Israeli cleansing of Gaza: ‘They said it, and they’ve done it’

Despite a snubbing by government officials unlike any she has seen, Francesca Albanese says she was “uplifted” by her visit to Canada.

Over the course of a week, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories attended several community events, and did not hold back from scathing criticisms of Israel’s 13-month assault on Gaza. 

Albanese, an Italian academic and lawyer who has held the voluntary UN position since 2022, had been invited to meet with government officials, as well as make a scheduled appearance at a parliamentary foreign affairs committee. Both events were cancelled a week before her arrival. 

But Albanese still spoke to large gatherings of workers, academics, and students in Ottawa, Montreal, and Toronto. She identified Canada as part of a small group of countries who have “continued to allow and nurture the arrogance that is at the origins of Israeli behaviour today.”

Albanese has written two reports on Israel’s current military campaign in Gaza, which started after Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023. Her most recent, Genocide as Colonial Erasure, concludes that Israel’s devastation of Gaza is “part of a century-long project of eliminatory settler-colonialism in Palestine, a stain on the international system and humanity, which must be ended, investigated and prosecuted.”

Journalist and author Desmond Cole sat down with Albanese on the weekend to discuss Canada’s role in Palestinian suffering and Israeli military aggression. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Desmond Cole: Francesca Albanese, thank you so much for joining me today for a conversation. I really appreciate it.

Francesca Albanese: Thank you so much, it’s my pleasure.

You are the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories. But you mentioned yesterday at a public event that you’re not actually an employee of the United Nations. Can you explain how that works?

Yeah, people are surprised, because these roles are normally voluntary, honorary positions. They’re very prestigious, but they come as an extra responsibility that normally academics or people who have already a job take, and it was my case when I got into this position. And so I’ve been working as a lawyer with an Arab think tank, and then I’ve been teaching. This is what I was doing. 

I had to reduce my job significantly since I took on the functions of Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian territory. But then I had to go on a sabbatical since October last year, and it has been like that since. I need to go back to work, but with the devastation that is occurring in the occupied Palestinian territory, what else can one do?

I want to talk about that, of course, today. But I also want to talk about Canada, about where we are right now and the work that you’ve been trying to do in this country. Since 2011, Canada has voted “no” more than 150 times at the United Nations on resolutions regarding Palestinian rights. That includes calling for Israel to withdraw from Palestinian occupied territories, and reaffirming Israeli settlements are illegal and an obstacle to peace. Canada has been one of Israel’s strongest backers after the United States. What do you make of this pattern of our voting at the United Nations?

Let me put this in context first, and then we will analyze what I see happening in Canada. If you look at voting patterns of Western countries, primarily the settler colonial states, the U.S., Canada, New Zealand, New Zealand, with some differences, but Australia, and increasingly so European states, have been voting in a way that protects Israel, that shelters Israel from full accountability, even when there is agreement that the colonies are illegal and must be dismantled.

Still, countries like Canada continue business as usual with their dealings with Israel as it has maintained, for 57 years, an unlawful occupation with continuous annexation of Palestinian land, expropriation, exploitation of Palestinian natural resources. Maintaining its free trade agreement, not stopping its aid and assistance of a state that commits serious violations of international law— like the continuous assault on Gaza, the forced displacement of Palestinians, on top of the colonies, the mass arrest and detention of Palestinians, including children as young as 12. 

In the face of all this, not only does Canada not cut its relations with Israel, doesn’t impose sanctions, doesn’t work to impose sanctions, it also allows its citizens to live in the occupied Palestinian territories. So, being part of an unlawful endeavour. The thing that shocked me the most is that I learned that there are Canadians and Canadian organizations who sell Palestinian properties in the occupied Palestinian territory, property that has been expropriated from the Palestinians, from Toronto, from Montreal. I learned that the pension funds, or the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec [Québec Deposit and Investment Fund] have billions of dollars invested in illegal businesses.

I learned that Canadian charities are basically used, according to a report that was issued yesterday by Independent Jewish Voices, as a money laundering system for the apartheid regime that Israel maintains. On the one hand, there is this and then, on the other hand, this country is no different from what happens in the rest of the West. They repress solidarity with Palestine. And it doesn’t matter who’s involved, Muslim, Christian, Jews, it’s all the same.

You mentioned some of the organizing that’s happening here. The Palestinian solidarity movement in general in this country has been able to, for example, force the Liberal government to freeze new permits for weapons exports to Israel, and to suspend some of the permits that had previously been issued. But we’re still allowing 90 per cent of those exports to go ahead. And more importantly, there is a big loophole for allowing unreported and unregulated export of weapons via the United States to Israel. The loophole, for instance, allows companies to provide essential components for the U.S. made F-35 fighter jets that Israel is using right now. What does international law say about these kinds of weapon transfers?

It’s crystal clear. We are not in normal times as of January this year. Without even mentioning my two reports, without even mentioning the independent experts of the United Nations, and the eminent scholars from legal and history disciplines that have concluded Israel is committing genocide, there is the International Court of Justice, the highest judicial order of the United Nations, which in January this year has concluded that without even going into the merits, that there is a “plausible” risk that Israel is committing acts of genocide. 

Therefore, Israel had to take a number of measures. Now there are two proceedings for genocide before the International Court of Justice, one against Israel, initiated by South Africa, and one initiated by Nicaragua versus Germany. And in the latter, the court reminds member states of their obligations not to assist a country which is plausibly committing genocide, including by stopping in its entirety arms transfers.

It’s direct and indirect, and it concerns any materials, including fuels, including any strategic service, even intelligence that can be used for military purposes. So I hear the concern of many responsible Canadian citizens who do not who do not want to be part of this, who do not want to see their taxes funding genocide.

You had a meeting scheduled with the Prime Minister’s Office, and then it was canceled, as I understand?

Not with the Prime Minister, with the Foreign Ministry.

Right, with Mélanie Joly’s office.

She had not responded with the head of the human rights and MENA [Middle East and North Africa] section. That is not normal. When a Special Rapporteur, when independent experts of the United Nations, go to a country, he or she is received either by a minister or by the deputy of a minister. There have been cases where I’ve been received by the president of the state. 

There are cases like here where there has been a lot of pressure on the government not to receive me. In that case, you have not the minister himself, you might have a lower-level staff meeting the Special Rapporteur. I decided to go ahead nonetheless, because for me, it was important to have this opening from the government. And still, after accepting the visit eagerly, at the beginning of October, after three weeks, the section withdrew the invitation to meet me.

Has something like this happened to you before?

No, it has not.

I’m surprised. I thought you were going to tell me that in other countries, maybe there’s been a reluctance to engage with you and with your work. But nothing like this?

Look, I cannot name countries because I do not want to expose anyone, but even countries who do not have a relationship with this mandate, there are officials who have reached out to me, who have met me, and off-the-record there has been a frank discussion. This country has been special.

But also what I find really appalling, and this is something that I will not forget, is that there has been a defamatory campaign against me mounted by the usual suspects here. I keep on saying there is an genocide, and there is an army of genocidal minions working to shelter Israel from responsibility, to create an alternative reality hiding what is happening, the fact that Israel has killed 45,000 people, 70 per cent of whom have been women and children.

Now, the fact that people do not react to these numbers is because there is a racial bias. Palestinian life is less worthy. Palestinian life counts less, but 17,000 children is a monstrosity. It’s something that is staining our conscience forever. And in the face of this, there has been a defamatory campaign against me, as usual, accusations I don’t even want to get into, but never to engage with the substance of my report. And following this, the government has backtracked. 

There is the permanent mission of Canada, in Geneva, who has issued a defamatory statement against me, and together with France, Germany, the U.S., and, of course, the other states who are frankly supporting Israel as it’s committing genocide, and this needs to be retracted.

What do you make of the recent announcement by the IDF that they will not allow anyone to return to northern Gaza after everything else that we have witnessed?

My answer is, “I told you.” On Oct. 14, 2023, I issued a statement when Israel released a mass evacuation order, which is a monstrosity in and of itself. It cannot be legal under any circumstances, because you need to ensure safety, shelter, food, access to medical assistance to people you evacuate. It has to be for a purpose, for military necessity, for a short period of time. 

What Israel has done is kicked out 1.1 million people out of their homes, including elderly persons, persons with disabilities, pregnant women, while they were being bombed, and they’ve been sent to places which were also being bombed. This is all documented, not just by me, but forensic experts, the United Nations, Israeli lawyers themselves. Twenty-two hospitals have been part of this evacuation. Now, whomever didn’t leave was considered a terrorist affiliate, an associate. 

One or two days after the siege began, I said this is going to be the largest mass evacuation of Palestinians since the Nakba. And so it was, because I’m a scholar. My scholarship has been on forced displacement of the Palestinians. So I know that Israel, under the fog of war, takes the opportunity to forcibly displace the Palestinians in order to take the land. And they said it, and they’ve done it.

There is a lot of misinformation about the siege on Gaza and there’s a lot of information coming solely from the Israeli government that cannot be verified in any other way. Of course, foreign journalists are not allowed into Gaza. How do you receive and vet up-to-date information? What are the sources that you trust and that others should be trusting to receive the most accurate information about what’s happening?

Humanitarian organizations still have their personnel on the ground. Me, my predecessor, Professor Michael Lynk and others, have been working with these organizations for decades. They are reliable sources. They are investigators and monitors. There are other international organizations—and I won’t name anyone, because they are in danger—and they are there. And they do confirm, validate. I do receive information on a regular basis. Sometimes I learn things from the media, and it takes hours before anyone can confirm or not, and in general, they confirm. And in general, it turns out to be worse than the first notice.

People are not lying. People are trying to tell us they are dying, and they keep on sending out these messages like, “see us, please don’t forget us.” But look, the very sad thing is that Indigenous peoples recognize this, and suffer so much for what’s happening to the Palestinians. Because even if it’s different, it’s what Indigenous peoples have suffered before—the killings, the blaming, the smears, and being told they are terrorists. They have seen all this before.

The taking of the land is at the end of any settler colonial project. And Israel is no different. And it’s appalling that in a country like Canada that claims to be reckoning with the past, it is not really happening. I mean, in genuine honesty and coherence. A country like this is taking a side, is providing support to the country, Israel, which is fomenting the first genocide of this century, and hopefully the last one.

My last question is, what are you taking away from your time in this country?

I loved it. I was received with such warmth. I know that people tend to focus on the few officials in Ottawa who didn’t have the time to meet with me. That’s okay. I think that the backlash has been felt across the country because people were saying, “why are you not listening to her?” 

The point is that there’s also been a lot of media coverage. There have been many public encounters where the rooms were packed in these places, where we have grieved together, while also talking of how things should be if we lived in a just world where international law is not just something that you learn in books, but something that you can practice with us.

What has really uplifted me is to see how much people are ready to pick up the message and run with it. My very visit to this country is testament to the bridges that have been built. I’ve seen people from Muslim communities working hand in hand with Independent Jewish Voices and other Jewish groups who have so much wanted my visit and and then, as I was saying, the Indigenous people coming in and really embracing me and others who have been part of this journey. But also students coming together with workers, and workers coming together with scholars, it’s beautiful. We have this momentum to change the course of history, and we have a bit of hope. This is the only thing that remains in this darkness, and we need to follow it, hoping that we can make a difference. We don’t know if we will succeed. Probably not, but we have to try. We must try for the Palestinians, for the Israelis, and for us.

Thank you for taking the time to speak with me today.

Thank you, Desmond, it’s a pleasure.

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