The Bullet, November 8, 2024

As Jewish organizations and groups, we express our support for Francesca Albanese, the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territories occupied since 1967.

Ms. Albanese has been under relentless attack from politically motivated organizations like ‘UN Watch’, which have been waging toxic smear campaigns to silence her and to harm her human rights mandate. Those organizations have one objective: shielding the Israeli government from international criticism and legal accountability.

Regrettably, representatives of some Western governments have been giving a strong tailwind to these smear campaigns, by accusing Ms. Albanese of antisemitism. We reject such allegations, which are unfounded and recklessly incite against Ms. Albanese, at the risk of endangering her personal safety.

Speaking out in defence of more than two million civilians in Gaza whose lives are existentially threatened, including by deliberate starvation, Ms. Albanese has been denouncing the political collusion and military complicity of Western governments in Israel’s annihilation of Gaza. Instead of stopping Israel’s war crimes, some of those governments are attempting to silence the messenger.

As Jews committed to justice, equality and universal human rights, we strongly condemn the shameful diplomatic and military support that many Western governments, in particular the United States and Germany, have offered to Israel’s ongoing campaign of mass killings of Palestinian civilians and its barbaric destruction of all foundations of Palestinian life in Gaza.

By extension, we condemn the escalating instrumentalization of antisemitism in this regard, specifically through the highly controversial IHRA definition of antisemitism, which is also being weaponized against Ms. Albanese and the United Nations more broadly.

Shielded by the US and European governments, Israel has killed tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians in the name of ‘protecting Jews’. In addition to the catastrophic civilizational failure that the international toleration of those killings represents – this horrific violence and cruelty will not deliver safety to Jews. On the contrary, the inaccurate and ill-fated conflation of the State of Israel with the Jewish people actually exposes and endangers Jews.

Guided by the long humanist Jewish tradition and the universal lessons from the Shoah, we are rising up to stop the Israeli government in its genocidal attack on Gaza. We strongly deplore that the established Jewish organizations, which claim to represent Jewish communities in Europe and Northern America, have chosen to maintain their blind support of the Israeli government – despite its horrific war crimes in Gaza and the escalating violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

As deplorable is the fact that multiple ‘national coordinators on combatting antisemitism’ have become accomplices to this immoral and misguided approach, through their close cooperation with the Israeli government and their obsessive promotion of the IHRA definition. They could not do a greater disservice to the fight against antisemitism that is cynically fuelled by right-wing politicians they tend to ignore.

The only path towards safety and stability for all is a human-rights based approach and the reaffirmation of the international legal order through the consistent enforcement of international law – precisely what Ms. Albanese stands and calls for.

We commend the exceptional moral steadfastness of UN Human Rights Rapporteur Albanese amid the unspeakable suffering of the Palestinians and in the face of the malign attacks against her and her UN mandate. •

Signatories:

• A Different Jewish Voice (Netherlands)
• Antizionist Jewish Alliance in Belgium (Belgium)
• Boycott from Within (Palestine/Israel)
• Decolonizer (Belgium)
• Een Andere Joodse Stem (Belgium)
• European Jews for a Just Peace (Europe)
• European Jews for Palestine (Europe)
• IfNotNow Toronto (Canada)
• Independent Jewish Voices (Canada)
• International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (Argentina)
• International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (Spain)
• International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (UK)
• Israelis Against Apartheid (Israel/Palestine)
• Jewish Call for Peace (Luxemburg)
• Jewish Voice for Labour (UK)
• Jews for Justice for Palestinians (UK)
• Jews for Palestine (Ireland)
• Jøder for Retfærdig Fred af 5784 (Denmark)
• Jødiske Stemmer for Rettferdig Fred (Norway)
• Judeobolschewiener*innen (Austria)
• Judeus pela Paz e Justiça (Portugal)
• Jüdische Stimme für Demokratie und Gerechtigkeit in Israel/Palästina (Switzerland)
• Jüdische Stimme für gerechten Frieden im Nahen Osten (Germany)
• Junts Associació Catalana de Jueus i Palestins (Spain)
• MARAD, Collectif juif decolonial (Switzerland)
• Nahlieli – Jews For Justice In Palestine (Finland)
• Tsedek! (France)
• Union des progressistes juifs de Belgique (Belgium)
• Union juive française pour la paix (France)
• United Jewish People’s Order (Canada)