A visiting United Nations Special Rapporteur from the Palestinian territories, has called for an embargo on arms supply to the Israel-Hamas war, singling out Australia as “complicit.”
Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur in the Palestinian Territories, warned there is a risk violence could escalate in the weeks and months ahead during a speech in Adelaide.
The UN official said she would discuss an arms embargo to prevent future violence during meetings with Australian lawmakers next week.
“(Australia) is complicit,” Ms Albanese told a crowd on Saturday night.
“I really need you to remind your political leadership they need to stop reciting the mantra of negotiation to end the conflict, the occupation must cease.”
Ms Albanese made the comments during the 2023 Edward Said Memorial Lecture for the Australian Friends of Palestine Association.
During the wide-ranging speech she also hit out at Western members of the UN who were “in the margins, muttering inaudible words of condemnation for Israel” over the conflict.
It comes days after pro-Palestinian groups launched legal action in the Federal Court seeking records of weapons exports granted by Defence Minister Richard Marles since October 7, when the conflict was reignited.
On Wednesday, a Melbourne shipyard ground to a halt as hundreds of protesters linked to the Trade Unionists for Palestine group blocked entry roads, preventing trucks accessing the area where an Israeli shipping line operates.
Several hundred supporters of Palestine also converged on Port Botany in Sydney on Saturday, later claiming that they forced an Israeli cargo ship to delay its arrival.
Ms Albanese is due to make several public appearances during her visit to Australia, including an address at the National Press Club in Canberra.
Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council executive director Colin Rubinstein talking to the Australian Jewish News (AJN) said it is “disappointing” the National Press Club is providing an “unfettered” platform to Albanese, “who has a documented history of publishing ugly tropes about Jews and extreme, virulent views about Israel, both before and during her tenure with the UN”.
“Francesca Albanese has made disgusting social media comments about the supposed power of the so-called ‘Jewish lobby’ and ‘the Israeli lobby’, has endorsed social media postings comparing Israel to Nazi Germany, and justified terrorism against Israeli civilians,” he told the AJN.
“Francesca Albanese has made disgusting social media comments about the supposed power of the so-called ‘Jewish lobby’ and ‘the Israeli lobby’, has endorsed social media postings comparing Israel to Nazi Germany, and justified terrorism against Israeli civilians,” Colin Rubinstein.
Ms Albanese who was appointed as Special Rapporteur in 2023 has faced on-going criticism for “bias”.
In 2022 Merav Marks, legal adviser for the Israeli mission to the UN in Geneva, said during the closing session of the Human Rights Council that Francesca Albanese was “unfit” to take the role of Special Rapporteur on Palestine.
“The newly appointed special rapporteur’s opinion expressed in numerous articles, events and media outlets endlessly voicing anti-Israel libel show that she is unfit to take up this role,” said Marks.
