Als UN-Menschenrechtsbeauftragter für Palästina traue ich deshalb Trumps Gaza-Plan nicht

[Donald Trump’s](https://inews.co.uk/topic/donald-trump?ico=in-line_link) Gaza [peace plan](https://inews.co.uk/news/the-seven-flashpoints-in-trumps-gaza-peace-plan-3967291?srsltid=AfmBOooiGr-7eUfhRStDU6OjHx7b9W_r6gQS5SQ8atKov-a-B2LiRHre&ico=in-line_link) barely constitutes a ceasefire, the UN’s top investigator for [Palestine](https://inews.co.uk/topic/palestine?srsltid=AfmBOopq1K3l2opF5XbBES_NEK95RUS4fyc4T9Z5KWkjsdYA6c54aA1H&ico=in-line_link) has said, calling it the “worst affront I’ve seen in my life”.

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, said she had no confidence in [the deal](https://inews.co.uk/opinion/gaza-peace-deal-sham-3992456?ico=in-line_link), which came into effect at the start of this month, claiming that it would lead to the “ethnic cleansing” of people from [Gaza](https://inews.co.uk/topic/gaza?ico=in-line_link).

“I don’t trust this peace ‘process’ because I don’t trust the people involved. I don’t trust an agreement that is predicated upon the violation of international law,” she told *The i Paper*.

“The reconstruction plan [would] continue what the genocide has left unfinished – the ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip. Israel doesn’t want Palestinians in Gaza, they’ve been clear about this.”

Albanese has been an outspoken voice against Israeli conduct in the [war in Gaza](https://inews.co.uk/topic/israel-hamas-war?ico=in-line_link), and has long said Western governments are not doing enough to support Palestinians’ rights.

She was declared persona non grata by Israel’s government last year after she claimed that “the victims of the [October 7 massacre](https://inews.co.uk/opinion/protests-7-october-insult-jews-palestinians-3964058?ico=in-line_link) were not murdered because of their Jewishness, but in response to Israeli oppression”.

Almost 1,200 people were murdered by Hamas in its attack on Israel on 7 October, 2023, prompting Israel’s invasion of Gaza which saw more than 67,000 Palestinians killed in two years.

In July, Albanese was sanctioned by the US government following her support for the International Criminal Court (ICC) case against Israel’s alleged war crimes in Gaza. The court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu](https://inews.co.uk/topic/benjamin-netanyahu?ico=in-line_link) and his then-defence minister Yoav Gallant.

The US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, cited her engagement with the ICC “in efforts to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute nationals of the United States or Israel”, and claimed she had “spewed unabashed antisemitism, expressed support for terrorism, and open contempt for the United States, Israel, and the West”.

Albanese, an Italian lawyer and specialist in international human rights, has been vocal in calling for an end to what she describes as the “genocide” that Israel is waging in Gaza. A UN commission of inquiry found in September that Israel had [committed genocide against Palestinians](https://inews.co.uk/news/world/un-accused-israel-genocide-gaza-heres-what-need-know-3920315?srsltid=AfmBOoqskTu1UVQFAeXMTLXSvyXZ_A9D_za5L9bmGeN2viJz7bCfN_6W&ico=in-line_link). Israel and the US, which provides military support, deny that accusation.

Speaking to *The i Paper*, she dismissed the idea that the Gaza ceasefire could be called a ceasefire “because this was not a war between two countries with two armies” but an “assault against an occupied population that has been kept in a ghetto since 1948”.