EU President Should Be Tried for Complicity in Israel’s War Crimes, Says Top UN Expert on Palestine
EU President Should Be Tried for Complicity in Israel’s War Crimes, Says Top UN Expert on Palestine
“I’m not someone who says, ‘History will judge them’ — they will have to be judged before then,” Francesca Albanese said in an exclusive interview.
As the International Court of Justice takes its next steps on investigating and prosecuting war crimes in Israel’s war on Gaza, the top expert on Palestine at the United Nations is pushing for even more international accountability.
In a wide-ranging exclusive interview with The Intercept, U.N. special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese, called for top European Union officials — including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen — to face charges of complicity in war crimes over their support for Israel during its 18-month assault on Gaza.
“The fact that the two highest figures of the EU continue business as usual engagements with Israel is beyond deplorable,” Albanese said. “I’m not someone who says, ‘History will judge them’ — they will have to be judged before then. And they will have to understand that immunity cannot equate with impunity.”
Why? The only arguments made in it, are that she talks with the Israelis and that she does not stop arms sales to Israel. Foreign policy including banning arms sales requires all members to agree, which is not going to happen. Von der Leyen and no EU offical for that matter can do that. So her only crime is that she continued to have diplomatic relations with Israel, which is also the case for most other countries in the world.
The argument to charge her for that crime seems to me to be incredibly weak.
"everyone else also did it" didn't seem to protect the Nazis during their prosecution so I think that's a garbage argument to make.
she could've done the bare minimum of making a public statement and try to sway EU members to stop the arms sales. instead, she encourages everyone to intensify the genocide. that's reason enough for an ICJ case.
“everyone else also did it” didn’t seem to protect the Nazis during their prosecution so I think that’s a garbage argument to make.
Nazis also eat bread like everybody else. Sometimes everybody else doing something is just because it is the normal thing to do. Talking with a Nazi, does not make you a Nazi.
she could’ve done the bare minimum of making a public statement and try to sway EU members to stop the arms sales. instead, she encourages everyone to intensify the genocide.
She does call for immediate ceasefires, humanitarian breaks and so forth pretty often, has increased EU aid to Gaza and supported placing EU sanctions on Israeli settlers. Not exactly the sort of stuff happening in a genocide.
that’s reason enough for an ICJ case.
Von der Leyen is not a country, so the ICJ has jurisdiction over her. The ICC could do that, but so far they only went against Netanyahu and Gallant for crimes against humanity and war crimes. Most of those were related to Israel blocking food into Gaza, which von der Leyen actively opposed.
I'm not sure if I believe her to be guilty of supporting genocide, but I would like to see a judge decide on that. On the other hand, we can't send all political leaders to court at the time.
I would like to see a judge decide on that.
Pff based on what? That's like saying you'd want a judge to decide whether I walked a red light yesterday in a city I wasn't even in.
Von der Leyen doesn't have executive power, she is incapable of being complicit in Israel war crimes from her position in EU even if she wanted to.
We have a president??
Oh, the Commission president. Another article written by somebody who has no idea how the EU worls and what the people in it do. I would have expected someone in the UN to have at least a faint idea how a relatively important international body was governed.
are you under the impression that Albanese wrote the article? she doesn't have editorial control over what the title is.
The Germans were once tried for war crimes against the Jews. Now they are once again tried for war crimes, this time for the Jews.
The Jews and the Israeli government are two different things, i think it is important to make that distinction because there is plenty of Jewish people who do not support the genocide.
Yes, and both times they were driven by economical interests. Pecunia non olet.
The antisemitic dogwhistle of saying "the Jews" instead of Israel.
The whole article is a pathetic attempt at propaganda against EU. They have nothing to show that she or EU did anything wrong.
Albanese said she is working on a report which will expose
They have nothing except throwing slander around.
Also Von der Leyen has no executive power.Let's not forget genocide enablers with Germany in front.
It would be just.
It was baffling how politics, politicians, and governments openly and actively continued to support Israel despite the information and images we saw.
continues supporting* in present continous
Shouldn’t you start with the UN then? Seems to be more within your control
what would've you liked her to do at the UN? are you under the false impression that she's not also applying internal pressure on the UN member states causing the genocide? is Israel not losing their shit at UN meetings every single time a UN official calls them out?
Yes, that is absolutely right. Active support for genocide is also a crime against humanity and must be prosecuted.
To finally do this at all levels is also absolutely in the interest of the voters, because the majority of them are of the opinion that Israel must of course be held accountable for all its terrible misdeeds. Despite all the one-sided reporting by the obviously partisan media, it is absolutely clear that Israel commits mass murder, completely disregards international law and constantly commits the worst war crimes. Yet these disgusting opportunists who are supposed to be our representatives simply disregard the will of the people - they must also be held personally accountable.
I am truly ashamed of the behavior of the German government. It is outrageous and simply inexplicable to me how almost all parties in Germany still cling to their unconditional support for the criminal regime in Israel.
It is simply absurd to even supply weapons to a government against some of whose highest representatives arrest warrants have long been issued by the International Criminal Court. Unlike the USA, which has never recognized this institution for obvious reasons, decisions of the International Criminal Court are binding for Germany. And yet: not a word of criticism of Israel, instead even active support for genocide. I can only explain this with massive corruption at the highest levels.
Germany's historical responsibility is not to Israel, but to all persecuted groups. In this sense, it is precisely Germany's responsibility to resolutely oppose Israel's crimes. But no, our politicians continue to stand by the side of the most horrible monsters and even take the liberty of justifying this with the very historical responsibility they are mocking. It is disgusting.
As I said, as a German I am ashamed of Germany's actions.
Do genocide don, genocide bibi and genocide putin first, that would solve 95% of the problems to start with.
Looks like russians are busy resetting their disinformation campaign on VdL (this is the left-wing of it, the right wing exists as well among antivaxxers and other communities), because apparently Europe is not letting Ukraine fall even if trump doesn’t care. https://meduza.io/en/feature/2025/04/19/imagined-common-enemies watch out for the “Eurofascism” buzzword.
But it’s pathetic, VdL has no real executive power and the EU decision making is too decentralized to demonize single figureheads with their hamfisted attempts, like it worked with genocide joe.
Germany supporting Israel is an example of fascism, just because reality vaguely aligns with Russian propaganda which incorporates kernels of truth to be effective doesn't mean Europe isn't complicit in genocide. this sounds like conspiratorial thinking to me.
in order for Ursula to be demonized, Albanese's facts would have to be untrue which you haven't proven yet. are you just defaulting to trusting Israel every time over the UN saying these are crimes against humanity?
By that criterion, Xi Jinping and the Iranians are also complicit in Ukrainian genocide and boom, you've just emptied international arrest mandates of any meaning while demonizing VdL who has even less responsibility in the matter as mostly a figurehead, but the russians act like she is the ruler of Europe and uninformed people in Europe and the US believe it. It's a pathetic giveaway, like that time a republican started talking about warm water ports.
Even if you are generous with Albanese, and you understand that she is desperately shooting in every direction hoping to hit someone who she actually has leverage over to stop the killing, ultimately these weak accusations detract from the prosecution of actual war criminals and their direct helpers and supporters e.g. genocide trump. That's who you should be focusing your efforts on.
There is no such thing as a EU president.
Don't worry, all possible proof will "accidentally" get deleted.