Israeli forces as they approach vessels traveling as part of the Global Sumud Flotilla, organized by humanitarians to bring life-saving aid to Palestinians in Gaza. (Photo: Screengrab/Global Sumud Flotilla)
“Shame on European governments who are not acting to stop Israel!” said UN expert Francesca Albanese. “When will Israel’s impunity end?”
Israel’s raid on a peaceful flotilla of international vessels attempting to bring humanitarian aid to the besieged Gaza Strip was described Monday as an act of brazen piracy and condemned by human rights activists and experts who say the world should no longer stand by in the face of such criminality.
Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, called the operations by Israel “yet another act of piracy by the Israeli army in international waters” that must be condemned by the global community.
Noting that the flotilla is “carrying basic necessities to a desperate population in Gaza,” Albanese said: “Shame on European governments who are not acting to stop Israel! When will Israel’s impunity end?”
RED ALERT!
Military vessels are currently intercepting our fleet and IOF forces are boarding the first of our boats in broad daylight.
We demand safe passage for our legal, non-violent humanitarian mission. Governments must act now to stop these illegal acts or piracy meant to… pic.twitter.com/4RmPuswZNo
— Global Sumud Flotilla (@gbsumudflotilla) May 18, 2026
A dispatch was issued by the Global Sumud Flotilla—which has repeatedly tried to break the siege of Gaza—shortly after 10:30 am local time, which said that their vessels off the coast of Cyprus were “currently surrounded and under active interception by Israeli naval warships in international waters, approximately 250 nautical miles from the coast of Gaza.”
The Israeli forces reportedly boarded a number of the more than 50 vessels traveling in the flotilla and began detaining those aboard.
“By intercepting the flotilla at a perimeter of 250 nautical miles today and in Cyprus’ SAR zone,” said the Flotilla in its statement, “the Israeli regime continues to demonstrate a systematic disregard for international maritime law, freedom of navigation on the high seas, and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).”
Thiago Avila, a Brazilian activist who was detained and imprisoned by the Israelis for several days after being kidnapped off a boat on a previous attempt by humanitarians to reach Gaza with relief supplies, said in a video statement on Monday that now was the time for the international community to act.
“Do something,” pleaded Avila. “Take to the streets. The world cannot stand a genocide. The world cannot stand a country that violates international law, to continue killing children, assassinating children out of hunger, killing people with drones.”
“They want you not to talk about what’s happening in Gaza,” he continued. “There’s no real ceasefire. Seven months of people getting killed, aid still being hindered, more than half the land being taken away, and their plans are the worst for that area—it is complete ethnic cleansing and genocide. We need to stop that.”
Ann Wright, a retired US Army colonel who has long been a leading anti-war activist and is currently serving as a member of the support team at the Flotilla’s Crisis Center stationed in Istanbul, Turkiye, called the operation to deliver aid the “largest civilian flotilla in the history of support for Palestinians in Gaza” to date.
“Stop the genocide, not the flotilla,” said Stephen Bowen, executive Director of Amnesty International Ireland.
Independent journalist Alex Colston, embedded with the flotilla activists and on one of the vessels approached by Israeli forces, reported that he could confirm “people on intercepted boats are being moved to one, maybe two, military prison frigates,” though it was not clear where exactly those detained would be taken.
Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an obviously insane, xenophobic Fascist.Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese gives a press conference at the UN City in Copenhagen, February 5, 2025
FRANCESCA ALBANESE has been awarded Spain’s highest civilian honour for her work “documenting and denouncing violations of international law in Gaza.”
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez presented the Order of Civil Merit to the UN’s special rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territory at a ceremony in Madrid on Thursday.
In a post on social media Mr Sanchez said: “Public responsibility also entails the moral obligation not to look the other way.
“It is an honour to award the Order of Civil Merit to a voice that upholds the conscience of the world.”
Ms Albanese said: “Thank you, Mr President, for this recognition, for championing a Europe that belongs to its peoples, in accordance with international law — not above it or in defiance of it — and for solidarity, the lifeblood of the human family.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/Donald Trump sings and dances, says that it’s fun to kill everyone …
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Israeli settlers seize 13 apartments belonging to Palestinians in the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem on March 25, 2026. [Mostafa Alkharouf – Anadolu Agency].
“This is not incidental violence. It is the architecture of settler-colonialism, built on a foundation of dehumanisation and maintained by a policy of cruelty and collective terror.” The concluding sentence to the summary of UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese’s report to the UN Human Rights Council on torture and genocide succinctly sums up how Israel has been using torture as part of its gradual annihilation of the Palestinian people. Since October 2023, torture has become a weapon in Israel’s genocide.
Albanese notes that while torture is a crime under international law, the Genocide Convention describes torture as an underlying act of genocide “when inflicted with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a protected group “as such”. Genocide, Albanese explains from the legal framework of the Genocide Convention, “many be committed through sustained practices that break bodies, minds and collective resilience.”
The historical realities of torture since the British Mandate contextualises the current torture practices Israel inflicts on Palestinians today. British torture practices were incorporated by Israel after 1948. In 1987, the Landau Commission effectively ruled in favour of torture “on a person suspected of involvement in terrorist activities.” With impunity assigned a foundation, what happens when a settler-colonial entity which treats Palestinians as legitimate targets for annihilation, blatantly considers all Palestinians as terrorists?
Torture becomes normalised, and because the international community has already subscribed to Israel’s security narrative, there is no opposition to a practice that, as Albanese illustrated, also constitutes an underlying act of genocide.
It is not Israel’s torture of Palestinian detainees since October 2023 that catches attention when reading the report, but the analysis of how Israel uses genocide as a means of torture. Albanese’s report illustrates how mass displacement, the destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure and cultural sites, the erasure of collective memory through such destruction, the destruction of the healthcare system, starvation, permanent disabilities, as well as Israeli weaponry used against Palestinians in Gaza all constitute forms of torture. The same applies to the occupied West Bank, where sophisticated surveillance and military incursions, the destruction of refugee camps and agricultural land, all constitute forms of torture and genocidal violence.
Having prioritised Israel’s security narrative over rights, both the Knesset and Israel’s judiciary have normalised torture. Albanese writes, “Torture has thus become a collective enterprise,” showing how the entire fabric of Israeli society renders itself a participant in torture practices through the settler-colonial narrative. “by targeting the totality of the people, across the totality of the occupied land, through a totality of conduct, genocide has become the ultimate form of torture: continuous, generational and collective.”
Justice, Albanese stated, should “confront torture not as an isolated crime, but as a foundational pillar of the genocidal project aimed at the complete erasure – physical and psychological destruction, displacement and replacement – of the Palestinian people.” Torture as state policy has ensured that no aspect of Palestinian life is immune. The report illustrates what statistical data omits – the price Palestinians are paying in their daily lives for the international community’s complicity with colonialism and genocide.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Keir Starmer explains that UK is participating defensively in Trump and Israel’s criminal war for Israel’s genocidal expansion in Iran and states that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/Donald Trump warns against following the https://onaquietday.org blog, says that it’s easy atm, she only needs to report war crimes supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion.Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
“The US and Israel should stop waging and expanding wars, and considering themselves as above international legality.”
A dozen United Nations experts on Thursday denounced the United States and Israel for waging wars of aggression against Iran and Lebanon, a statement that contrasted sharply with a UN Security Council resolution adopted hours earlier condemning Iranian retaliation without mentioning the US-Israeli bombing campaign.
“The US and Israel should stop waging and expanding wars, and considering themselves as above international legality,” said the group of experts. The statement’s signatories include Francesca Albanese, special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territory and a target of US sanctions; Balakrishnan Rajagopal, special rapporteur on adequate housing; and Michael Fakhri, special rapporteur on the right to food.
The experts decried US President Donald Trump’s push for the Iranian government’s “unconditional surrender” and regime change, warning that such demands could “lead to prolonged war and enormous human suffering.”
“No violations of human rights in Iran or elsewhere provide any legal or moral justification for an unwarranted interference with the sovereignty of a UN member state and an illegal attack,” the experts said. “Any loss of life in an illegal war is a violation of the right to life.”
UN experts denounce aggression on Iran & Lebanon, warn of devastating regional escalation: "U.S. and Israel should stop waging and expanding wars, and considering themselves as above international legality”.https://t.co/yYhNfFUMvNpic.twitter.com/8Qv4OSeVEr
The statement came as evidence of US-Israeli war crimes in Iran and Lebanon continued to mount and the humanitarian crisis sparked by the regional war intensified, with millions already displaced and around 2,000 killed—including many children.
On Wednesday, the UN Security Council adopted by a vote of 13-0 a resolution condemning “in the strongest terms the egregious attacks by the Islamic Republic of Iran against the territories of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan,” countries that host US military installations. Russia and China abstained from voting on the resolution, which did not condemn or mention the ongoing US-Israeli bombing.
Amir Saeid Iravani, Iran’s ambassador to the UN, told reporters at UN Headquarters in New York on Thursday that “yesterday was a shameful day for the Security Council.”
“Those members, especially Western, who constantly assert their commitment to protecting civilians, especially children, proved that these claims are little more than empty rhetoric,” said Iravani. “They were unwilling even to condemn—or express concern over—the heinous crimes committed by the United States and Israel against innocent people in Iran, including the massacre of 170 girl students at a school in Minab.”
Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an obviously insane, xenophobic Fascist.Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn’t bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine Francesca Albanese holds a press conference at the lower house of the Italian Parliament, the Chamber of Deputies, to present her new report titled “Genocide in Gaza: A Collective Crime” in Rome, Italy on February 03, 2026. [Barış Seçkin – Anadolu Agency]
Francesca Albanese has become one of the most polarising figures in contemporary diplomacy, not because she commands armies or signs treaties, but because she insists on describing what she sees. Since assuming her mandate as United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories in 2023, the Italian jurist has delivered reports that cut through diplomatic euphemism with the precision of a scalpel.
In her October 2024 report to the General Assembly, pointedly titled Genocide as Colonial Erasure, she concluded there were ‘reasonable grounds’ to believe that Israel’s conduct in Gaza met the legal threshold of genocide and formed part of a ‘century-long project of eliminatory settler-colonialism’. Few phrases in international law carry such moral weight. Fewer still are uttered so plainly in the marble halls of New York and Geneva.
The reaction was immediate and ferocious. Israeli officials labelled her ‘one of the most antisemitic figures in modern history’. France, Germany, Italy, Austria and the Czech Republic publicly called for her removal after a February 2026 address to a Doha forum in which she condemned ‘the planning and making of a genocide’ in Gaza and decried the complicity of states that had armed and politically shielded Israel since October 2023 (a speech later distorted through a truncated clip that falsely claimed she had labelled Israel “the common enemy of humanity,” a narrative she categorically rejected).
The edited clip of that speech ricocheted across social media, falsely suggesting she had called Israel ‘the common enemy of humanity’. She responded with weary clarity: the ‘common enemy’, she said, was the system — financial capital, algorithms and weapons — that enables atrocities, not a people or a state.
The United Nations moved swiftly to defend the independence of its mandate.
Special rapporteurs, a spokesperson reminded reporters, are not political appointees but independent experts commissioned by the Human Rights Council and protected by UN privileges and immunities.
Reuters noted there is no precedent for removing a rapporteur mid-term, and diplomats privately concede such an attempt would likely fail. Yet the calls for her resignation were not merely procedural skirmishes.
They were signals — about who is permitted to speak, and how far the language of international law may stretch before it snaps under political strain.
What makes Albanese’s work so unsettling to some capitals is not only the gravity of her conclusions, but the breadth of her analysis. In her 2025 Human Rights Council report, she traced what she termed a shift ‘from economy of occupation to economy of genocide’, mapping the corporate and financial networks that sustain settlement expansion and military operations.
She placed Western governments within that ecosystem, arguing that political cover and arms transfers had ‘stabbed international law in the heart’.
Amnesty International echoed this concern, warning that silencing her would distract from ‘Israel’s genocide in Gaza, its system of apartheid and unlawful occupation’.
Whether one agrees with her characterisation or not, the data underpinning the crisis are sobering. By late 2025, Gaza’s health authorities and UN agencies reported tens of thousands of Palestinians killed since October 2023, with vast swathes of housing, hospitals and water infrastructure destroyed. The World Bank estimated economic contraction in Gaza exceeding 80 per cent. UNICEF described levels of child malnutrition unseen in decades. These figures are not rhetorical flourishes; they are the raw arithmetic of devastation.
They form the backdrop to South Africa’s genocide case before the International Court of Justice and to repeated UN General Assembly resolutions demanding a ceasefire and humanitarian access.
Across global capitals, the language of a “rules-based order” is spoken with conviction. Yet those words hollow out when rules are applied selectively. If international law binds adversaries but spares allies, it ceases to be law and becomes leverage.
The strength of the global system rests on independent scrutiny. When UN experts can be undermined through doctored clips, coordinated outrage and political pressure, the foundations of accountability begin to shake. Today it is Gaza. Tomorrow it could be Ukraine, Myanmar, Sudan, or any conflict where truth unsettles power. Disinformation does not respect borders. Precedents travel fast. If the world tolerates the silencing of inconvenient investigators, it signals that multilateralism is conditional — firm in rhetoric, fragile in practice.
Trust erodes. Cynicism grows. The Global South watches and remembers.
Defending independent mandates is not an attack on any state. It is a defence of the very order governments claim to uphold. If the guardians of international law bend it when tested, the damage will not stay confined to one region. It will echo wherever justice depends on courage rather than convenience.
There is, of course, genuine sensitivity in Europe, shaped by the Holocaust and by the resurgence of antisemitism. Albanese herself has apologised for past remarks that were widely criticised. These complexities demand care.
Yet conflating sharp legal criticism of a state’s conduct with hatred of a people risks trivialising real antisemitism and impoverishing serious debate. The joint statement of 116 human rights organisations condemning what they described as a ‘targeted smear campaign’ warned that such tactics threaten freedom of expression and the integrity of UN mechanisms.
The UN human rights office has observed an alarming rise in personal attacks and misinformation directed at independent experts.
International relations theory offers several lenses through which to view this moment. Realists see states defending allies and interests. Liberals see institutions under strain. Constructivists note how narratives of historical trauma and identity shape policy reflexes. Yet beyond theory lies a simpler question: can the international system tolerate uncomfortable truths when they implicate powerful actors?
Albanese’s language is undeniably stark. She speaks of apartheid, of settler colonialism, of genocide. For some diplomats, such words close doors. For others, they are the only vocabulary adequate to the scale of suffering. History suggests that terms once dismissed as inflammatory — apartheid in South Africa, ethnic cleansing in the Balkans — can become anchors for accountability.
The 1963 UN Special Committee against Apartheid was once derided as politicised; it later formed part of the scaffolding that supported global sanctions and eventual transition.
The future of Gaza and Palestine will not be secured by rhetoric alone. Reconstruction will require tens of billions of dollars, credible governance reform within Palestinian institutions, security guarantees for Israel, and a political horizon that restores dignity and agency to Palestinians. A common argument is that the absence of a viable political process will simply harden cycles of violence. Sustainable development in the region hinges on accountability and inclusion; impunity breeds instability.
There is space here for Australian diplomacy — measured, principled, pragmatic. Supporting humanitarian ceasefire efforts, backing the independence of international courts, conditioning arms exports on compliance with international humanitarian law, and investing in Palestinian civil society are not radical steps. They are consistent with long-stated commitments. A middle power need not shout to be heard; it must simply be consistent.
Francesca Albanese’s tenure has illuminated an uncomfortable paradox. The United Nations is often criticised as toothless, yet when one of its independent experts speaks with legal bluntness, the reaction suggests that words still matter. Attempts to sideline her have so far failed, not because she is beyond reproach, but because the mandate she holds embodies a principle larger than any individual: that human rights scrutiny must not bend to political convenience.
For a global audience weary of endless conflict, the path to a better future for Gaza and Palestine lies not in silencing dissenting voices but in confronting evidence with honesty. The credibility of the international system — and of those states that claim to steward it — depends on that courage.
In the end, the debate is less about one rapporteur than about whether the promise of ‘never again’ retains meaning when tested by the tragedies of the present.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAKeir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese gives a press conference at the UN City in Copenhagen, February 5, 2025
