Francesca Albanese, my nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize, in action:
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
There are links to this blog's glossary in the above post that explain technical terms used in it. Follow them for more explanations.
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
Buy me a coffee!
Thank you, Richard.
Mine, too. May be an alternative people’s prize should be awarded to her. Perhaps at a ceremony outside the official one. I reckon local sympathisers could organise without much ado.
Richard and readers may not be aware of how the BBC and Grauniad try to ambush her, hoping to then scream anti-semite, at press conferences. The BBC and Grauniad are complicit.
Last year, Albanese spoke in Sydney. A Grauniad Australia hack tried it on. The footage is on X etc.
Thanks for putting this up. You’re doing great work. We’re living in truly awful times…
She is my second -very worthy-choice. I think the prize can be awarded to a group or institution.
My nomination is the medics of Gaza who have worked for almost two years without proper supplies, the destruction of the hospitals and the continuing trauma of being unable to do more and having to watch patients die when they could be saved. Also seeing colleagues and family abducted or killed.
Such resilience of the Human spirit deserves the commendation of the world.
Fair…
Thank you, both.
I agree.
It’s been disappointing, disgusting even, to hear that the new pope has discontinued the daily evening call with Catholics in Gaza and, a couple of weeks ago, met some settlers in occupied Palestine.
Speaking as a Catholic, I’m also outraged that chants by Orange Order thugs of death to Catholics and the Irish and attacks on places of worship during this long marching season have not received MSM coverage. The BBC has excused them as cultural events. WTF?!
WTF indeed
It was Irish civil rights that made me very aware of the issues I now campaign on when I was still only a boy
Thank you Richard for posting this. Very impressive and forceful.
What more is there to say?
Thank you.
From your French base, and that goes for Geof, too, what’s the local reaction.
I note Villepin swatting away zionist ambushes and trying to avoid division. I’m a socialist, but, if eligible, could vote for him.
The reappearance of Dominique de Villepin after almost 20 years of absence from the political scene is a surprising development which I will be following with interest.
But as to the local reaction, I doubt I know more than you as my only information to date comes from the press and TV. As I’m sure you are aware, he received an ovation at the ‘Fete de l’Humanité’ (!) and obtained the largest percentage of favourable opinions (54%) among a large list of politicians in a recent opinion poll. While this may well change if and when he declares himself as a Presidential candidate for 2027, the fact that he scored so highly, including among supporters of the left (over 60% favourable opinions vs 70% among supporters of Macron’s party), makes him worth watching.
For the benefit of others here (who may not know or have forgotten), de Villepin was PM under Jacques Chirac. He was – and remains – a ‘Gaullist’ of the traditional right, but has become extremely disillusioned by what his former party has since become (which he sees as now little different from the National Front on many subjects) and has just launched a new party:
https://www.ouest-france.fr/politique/lance-pour-la-presidentielle-de-2027-dominique-de-villepin-est-il-encore-de-droite-b4cf1a22-581d-11f0-bfe7-b5be353361db
It’s early days, but as things stand, I too (as a socialist/ecologist) could well imagine voting for him (and unlike you I am eligible to vote and do so). IF what I read in the press is an accurate reflection of his views, he ticks all the right boxes for me on the big issues of the day. It is a fact that, as Foreign Minister in 2003, he intervened at the UN to oppose the war in Irak and it appears that he now defends the Palestinian cause. He is said to support firm action on the pressing climatic and ecological issues and to denounce the excesses of Capitalism.
Me too Richard, ‘appreciate you posting this.
I hated doing so – because it would be betetr that none of this is happening and we have a choice – face up to it, or ignore it.
I cannot ignore it.
Francesca Albanese speaks the truth very powerfully.
Yet, those in power knowing all of this, and more, do nothing to stop the genocide. Instead they support it in every way they can.
How devastating it has been knowing that fellow humans are happy to exterminate unarmed men, women and children. Some treating it as a sick sport.
Even more devastating that they will probably face no consequences for their actions.
A friend of mine wrote to his Labour MP urging him not to vote to proscribe PA.
This was part of his response:-…..The Foreign Secretary and the Prime Minister have been clear that the UK Government wants an immediate cessation of hostilities. We must avoid this conflict spiralling out of control.
He didn’t elaborate on what an out of control situation would look like!
So, the message is to everyone: This could happen to anyone.
All that has to happen is that you have something ‘they’ want. And then they no longer see you.
Shocking.
This is what happens when we let capital get to big for its boots, when it takes over. This is why we must tax wealth – because the money goes to its head and it gets pleonexia.
Capital is terminally ill and it is taking us all with it.
But what do the benefactors of all this think they are doing? Will the Palestinians end up like the Armenians, a vestigial community without recourse?
I cannot see this being settled ever like this. I cannot see the Palestinians going quietly or forgetting. And why should they? Once again we make an enemy of our futures but it will be ordinary people who suffer, not well the protected persecutors and benefactors.
Thank you Richard for posting this, which I have shared. The degree of complicity of governments and corporations is breathtaking and makes me realise how brave Francesca Albanese is in her unfaltering opposition to this evil.
She delivers this with such courage and dignity, when all I want to do is weep with rage.
A brave woman indeed, if only someone was listening…..
I have nothing new to add to what this incredibly brave woman has said. It is just so important that we stand with her and tell our tragic, incompetent, morally bankrupt and spineless world leaders that one day they will be held to account. International law prevail.
I agree.. Albanese has been steadfast in her opposition to the ongoing genocide.. as have others at the UN like Guterres but she has been very courageous and should get the Nobel Prize rather than that horrible man in the white house.. if he gets it.. which apparently he is hoping for it will forever taint the prize. How can a person who has been supplying weapons for a genocide, supporting an international criminal, deporting and imprisoning immigrants, bombing a country supposedly because they have nuclear weapons ( while maintaining the farce that Israel doesn’t) even be considered! The sycophantic Netanyahu continues to reveal more and more layers of awfulness every time I see him reported! Ugh.
I find it utterly sickening that Trump and his his bunch of sycophantic bastards as well as Starmer and his equally sycophantic bastards are actively supporting the Israeli genocide in Palestine.
Let’s hope that history remembers these cowardly acts and calls these creatures to account in The Hague.
Just got back from giving a talk about U-boats, part of which was the effect of the blockade on Germany and the suffering of the children in particular. I ended with a slide of a starving baby in Gaza. I asked the question -as we are a non-political organisation – what do they hope to achieve by this? Have we learnt anything in the last 100 years.
Tuned on the laptop to find she has BEEN SANCTIONED BY THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c70rllxr0kyo
Thanks
Whilst the U.S has just put sanctions on her. What will the U.S do next, maybe they’ll use military force against the ICC invoking the American Service-Members’ Protection Act “Hague Invasion Act”.
[…] linked Albanese's report on the economics of genocide in Gaza […]
Chris Hedges’ Report (10 July 25) is headed The Persecution of Francesca Albanese – The sanctioning by the Trump administration of Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur.
He writes ‘This is ‘an ominous harbinger of the end of the rule of international law’
‘Albanese, who regularly receives death threats and endures well-orchestrated smear campaigns directed by Israel and its allies, valiantly seeks to hold those who support and sustain the genocide accountable. She announced that if true, as has been reported, that the former British prime minister David Cameron threatened to defund and withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC) after it issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant, which Cameron and the other former British prime minister Rishi Sunak could be charged with a criminal offense for, under the Rome Statue. The Rome Statue criminalizes those who seek to prevent war crimes from being prosecuted.
She has called on top European Union (EU) officials to face charges of complicity of war crimes over their support for the genocide, saying that their actions cannot be met with impunity. ‘ [www youtube.com/watch?v=wbakVaOGgOk&t=12s Starvation and Profiteering in Gaza (w/ Francesca Albanese)]
Thanks
My heart aches whenever Gaza comes up on the news. And screams with rage at what Israel is doing to the people of Palestine. How can we allow our government to support this genocide? We should stop sending anything to Israel – not just arms. Boycott! Of course loathsome Starmer won’t do anything at all other than continue supporting a genocidal state.
Anyway, I thought you might be interested in this, spotted on BlueSky.
https://www.declassifieduk.org/israeli-fighter-pilots-training-with-uk-equipment/
I second that nomination. Francesca Albanese stands out as one who unrelentingly speaks truth to power. The cowards and psychopaths hate her truth and don’t know how to deal with it. I am totally in awe of her.
I agree the doctors and other heroes of Gaza and All of Palestine also deserve recognition. Give two Nobel Peace Prizes. However, I’m sure the Palestinian heroes and Ms. Albanese would forgo recognition to see the war criminals held accountable.