The Electronic Intifada Podcast 16 June 2025
She praised grassroots efforts and said UN member states must take action to stop the genocide. Europeans in particular need to “pop the colonial bubble and to be different,” she said.
But Albanese finds the silence and complicity of Arab states “jaw-dropping.”
”If you don’t stand against this slaughterhouse, you are complicit,” she tells them.
The Madleen flotilla – which Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, French Palestinian European Parliament member Rima Hassan and others participated in – “has achieved as much as no one else – other than the Palestinians,” according to Albanese, “in shedding light on what’s happening to Gaza.”
The thousands who attempted to deliver aid to the besieged territory with the Global March to Gaza and the Sumud Convoy were “proof” of what she has thought for years: “Palestine has triggered a global revolution.”
Albanese urged states to follow the lead of the Madleen and send ships to Gaza with “food, baby formula, medicines, doctors and nurses,” adding that politicians could go themselves to eliminate any perceived threat to Israel.
“What is at stake is not Israel’s security. It’s Israel’s impunity,” she added.
Corporate complicity in genocide
Albanese has written two official UN reports over the past year on Israel’s genocide against Palestinians.
Her forthcoming report, set to be released in July, will identify companies that have been profiting from the genocide.
She could not reveal more at this stage, but she did share her thoughts on one particular private company: the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. “ It’s humanitarian just in name because in reality it’s a joint criminal enterprise,” Albanese said.
Executive director Ali Abunimah asked Albanese about the role of the Palestinian Authority in the current situation.
“ You are the first person who asked me that in – I think – over 600 interviews,” she responded.
Albanese praised some individuals who work within the PA and the Palestine Liberation Organization, particularly representing Palestinians on the international level.
But she made clear: “The Palestinian Authority is not there institutionally to serve the Palestinian people in terms of protection. This is a fact.”
Rather, the PA works with Israel, including on “security” issues, and “ operates within the perimeter given by Israel.”
Outspoken and fearless in her advocacy for Israel to be held accountable under international law, Albanese is a high-profile target for the Israeli government and its lobby groups, which constantly smear her and demand her removal from her independent UN role.
She also faces intense harassment online, sexist remarks from journalists and other forms of abuse.
Asked what keeps her motivated in the face of these attacks, she referred to her southern Italian background and said she is “incredibly romantic.”
“There is no one in life I love more than my children… And I don’t think that the Palestinian children or the Israeli children are less worthy than mine,” she explained.
Albanese has long wondered how the Nazi Holocaust of the Jews, Romani, Sinti and others could have been possible in Europe.
“Now I don’t ask myself the question anymore,” she said. Dehumanization is “infectious” and “It’s necessary to speak out – whoever has an inch of visibility.”
Israeli special forces hit by deadly ambush
“While everything is framed as … destruction and defeat – we’re not seeing that from the resistance,” contributing editor Jon Elmer observed.
He counted 50 resistance operations in the previous week, calling it the costliest period for the Israeli military since it resumed full-scale war in March.
That included one operation which got lots of coverage in Israeli media: At least four Israeli soldiers from the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit were killed in a house booby-trapped with an improvised explosive device in Bani Suheila, near Khan Younis.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli army chief Eyal Zamir and Abu Obaida, the spokesperson for Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades, all commented on the operation.
Zamir urged Israeli soldiers to move slowly to avoid encountering the resistance – a recognition of how little control Israel actually exercises in Gaza despite its relentless destruction and killing there.
Abu Obaida said, “The enemy public has two choices: force their leadership to end this genocidal war or prepare to receive more of your sons in coffins.”
You can watch the program on YouTube, Rumble or Twitter/X, or you can listen to it on your preferred podcast platform.
Tamara Nassar produced and directed the program. Michael F. Brown contributed pre-production assistance and this writer contributed post-production assistance.
Past episodes of The Electronic Intifada livestream can be viewed on our YouTube channel.
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