Yanis Varoufakis: ‘My ridiculous prosecution must be seen within the wider, west-wide surge of an insidious new form of fascism.’ Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
Greek leftwing intellectual and former minister says his indictment is indicative of far-right turn in western politics
Yanis Varoufakis, the leftwing firebrand who briefly served as Greece’s finance minister, has criticised his “ridiculous prosecution” for allegedly promoting the use of recreational drugs after his public admission that he once took an ecstasy pill almost 40 years ago.
The 64-year-old, who reminisced about the experience on a podcast, was charged on Wednesday with “inciting others in the illegal use of narcotics”. If convicted he faces a prison term of at least six months and up to €50,000 (£44,000) in fines. A court hearing has been scheduled for December.
On Friday, Varoufakis described the indictment as indicative of the far-right turn in politics across the west.
“My ridiculous prosecution must be seen within the wider, west-wide surge of an insidious new form of fascism,” he wrote on X, highlighting what he claimed was the appointment of “neo-fascists” to top posts in the centre-right Greek government.
“In this context, I am honoured by their determination to persecute me – as it grants me the privilege of calling upon people of good conscience, from around the world, to stand together, to oppose them.”
A Lockheed Martin F35B Lightning II demonstrates it’s STOVL (Short Take off Vertical Landing) function during the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford, July 2016
ANTI-ARMS campaigners have urged the government to “correct the record” and end arms sales to Israel after the country’s use of F-35 jets — worth billions to supplier Lockheed Martin — throughout the Gaza genocide was confirmed.
Tel Aviv’s ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, said that Israeli pilots’ flight hours on the F-35 were “greater than that of all the pilots of the other foreign countries that were partners in developing the aircraft.”
He added: “When I visited there a few weeks ago, [Lockheed Martin’s] CEO told me that Israel’s information and developments ‘are worth many billions to my company’.”
The comments completely contradict the British government’s insistence that Israel is a “minor customer” of the global F-35 programme, the Campaign Against Arms Trade (Caat) pointed out.
Britain makes 15 per cent of the warplane. Israel has 48 F-35s, with 27 more on order.
Genocide denying UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspending 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government’s support for Israel’s Gaza genocide and the UK government and military’s active participation in genocide.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.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.
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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.
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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.
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Israeli forces detain Palestinians following an explosion in Tulkarm, West Bank, on September 11, 2025. ( Nedal Eshtayah – Anadolu Agency )
Israel has arrested around 22,000 Palestinians in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, since the start of what has been described as a war of genocide, according to the Ramallah-based Palestinian Prisoner’s Club.
The rights group said the figure covers all cases of arrest during this period, including those who remain in detention and those who were later released. It described the number as an unprecedented record for arrests over just two and a half years.
The Prisoner’s Club stressed that the total does not include arrests in the Gaza Strip, which it said amount to thousands, nor arrest campaigns in the territories occupied in 1948.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the group added that arrest operations in the West Bank are continuing at an increasing pace. It said that at least 40 Palestinians were arrested between Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, including four women, one of them a child, as well as former prisoners.
The organisation said the arrest operations have been accompanied by what it described as serious and unprecedented violations. These include severe beatings, organised intimidation against detainees and their families, widespread damage to homes, and the seizure of vehicles, money and gold jewellery.
It also accused Israeli forces of destroying infrastructure, demolishing the homes of prisoners’ families, taking relatives hostage, using detainees as human shields, carrying out field executions, and using arrest campaigns as cover to expand settlements in the West Bank.
The Prisoner’s Club further stated that extensive field interrogations have affected thousands since the start of the war, adding that soldiers committed abuses during these interrogations which it said were no less serious than torture carried out in official detention and interrogation centres.
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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.
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Israeli soldiers are seen as Israeli military mobility continues on the Gaza border, in Nahal Oz, Israel on December 13, 2023 [Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu Agency]
More than 2,000 British nationals served in the Israeli military during its genocide in Gaza, according to new data published by Declassified UK.
The investigative outlet reported that figures obtained through a Freedom of Information request submitted to the Israeli army show that 1,686 British-Israeli dual nationals and a further 383 individuals holding British, Israeli and at least one additional nationality were serving in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) as of March 2025. The combined total stands at 2,069 UK nationals.
The British contingent forms part of a much larger group of foreign nationals serving in the Israeli military. The data indicates that 43,194 dual nationals and 3,913 multi-nationals were enlisted in the IDF, amounting to 47,107 soldiers holding Israeli citizenship alongside at least one other nationality.
The largest cohort comes from the US, with 12,135 US-Israeli dual nationals and 1,207 US multi-nationals — a total of 13,342 Americans. France follows with 6,127 dual nationals and 337 multi-nationals. Significant numbers were also recorded from Russia (5,067), Germany (3,901), Ukraine (3,210), Romania (1,675) and Poland (1,668).
The findings have prompted renewed calls for the UK authorities to examine whether British nationals serving in the IDF were involved in violations of international law during Israel’s military campaign assault in Gaza, which has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians and is the subject of proceedings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for genocide.
Last year, a 240-page dossier naming ten British nationals was submitted to the Metropolitan Police’s war crimes unit by the Public Interest Law Centre and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights. The complaint alleged involvement in the targeted killing of civilians and aid workers, as well as indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas.
Human rights barrister Michael Mansfield said at the time that “no one is above the law”, while solicitor Paul Heron stressed that where credible evidence exists linking British nationals to grave breaches of international law, authorities have a duty to investigate.
The UK Foreign Office declined to comment on the data, according to Declassified, and confirmed it does not collect information on the number of Britons serving in the IDF.
The publication of the figures also raises wider legal questions. In January 2024, the ICJ stated that there was a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza and reminded states of their obligation to prevent such crimes. In July 2024, the court further advised that UN member states must refrain from assisting Israel in maintaining its unlawful occupation of Palestinian territory.
Legal observers have also pointed to the Foreign Enlistment Act of 1870, which prohibits British citizens from fighting for a foreign state at war with another state with which the UK is at peace. Campaigners argue that the scale of British participation revealed in the data warrants urgent legal scrutiny.
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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.
A Lockheed Martin F35B Lightning II demonstrates it’s STOVL (Short Take off Vertical Landing) function during the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford, July 2016
