In a World Gone Nuts.. UN Special Rapporteur calls rescue of 4 hostages 'genocidal'

 

United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese criticized Israel for the operation in which Noa Argamani (25), Almog Meir Jan (21), Andrey Kozlov (27), and Shlomi Ziv (40), four of the hostages who were kidnapped from the Nova music festival on October 7, were rescued.

"Relieved that four hostages have been released," Albanese wrote on X, using the word 'released' instead of the more accurate 'rescued.'

However, she claimed, "It should not have come at the expense of at least 200 Palestinians, including children, killed and over 400 injured by Israel and allegedly foreign soldiers, while perfidiously hiding in an aid truck."

Albanese called the rescue 'humanitarian camouflage' at another level".

"Israel has used hostages to legitimize killing, injuring, maiming, starving and traumatizing Palestinians in Gaza. And while intensifying violence against Palestinians in the rest of the occupied territory and Israel," she claimed.

"Israel could have freed all hostages, alive and intact, 8 months ago when the first ceasefire and hostage exchange was put on the table. Yet, Israel refused in order to continue to destroy Gaza and the Palestinians as a people," Albanese claimed.

According to Albanese, the rescue "is genocidal intent turned into action. Crystal clear."

The four hostages were rescued alive from two apartment buildings during a daring operation in Nuseirat on Saturday morning. The forces faced heavy resistance from terrorist forces as they attempted to leave with the rescued hostages.

Hamas claimed that over 200 people, including many women and children, were killed in the raid, a figure Albanese unquestionably cited despite the inability to independently verify it.

Albanese has a long record of anti-Israel bias and antisemitism. In March, she and six other UN officials published a letter blaming Israel for the trampling incident that occurred when a humanitarian aid convoy was swarmed in northern Gaza in February and for all of the fatalities during the incident. A few weeks later, she submitted a report accusing Israel of "genocide."

She has supported Hamas in the aftermath of the terrorist organization's massacre of over 1,200 people on October 7, denying that the massacre was antisemitic in nature as well as Israel's right to defend itself. She called a demand that Hamas release the youngest hostage, Kfir Bibas, who was less than a year old at the time, "unacceptable."

Less than two months after the massacre, Albanese published a book co-opting the phrase used to call out the antisemitism behind the trial of Alfred Dreyfus in 1898, 'J'Accuse.' The purpose of the book was to shift the blame for the massacre Hamas committed from the terrorists who committed the atrocities to their Israeli victims.

In 2022, past comments of Albanse were revealed in which she railed against the "Jewish lobby," engaging in classic antisemitic tropes of Jewish power.