We have been spending the last two years looking at the planning and making of a genocide. And the genocide is not over. The genocide as the intentional destruction of a group as such is clearly unveiled. Now it’s been in the air for a long time and now it’s a full display. It’s been difficult to report the genocide. Al Jazeera knows better than anyone else in the media realm, because of all the losses, it does suffer as a media company.But no other people knows it better than the Palestinian themselves. The Palestinians have continued to narrate the deluge of conscience that fell upon them relentlessly.And this is a challenge, the fact that instead of stopping Israel, most of the world has armed [it], giving it political excuses, political sheltering, economic and financial support, this is a challenge. The fact that most of the media in the Western world has been amplifying the pro-apartheid, the genocidal narrative is a challenge. And at the same time, here also lays the opportunity.Because if international law has been stabbed in the heart, it’s also true that never before the global community has seen the challenges that we all face. We, who do not control large amounts of financial capitals, algorithms and weapons. We now see that we, as a humanity, have a common enemy, and freedoms, the respect of fundamental freedoms, is the last peaceful toolbox that we have to regain our freedom. But we need to stand up. We need to do the right thing, all of us in our individual sphere, being as lawyers, journalists, educators, students, ordinary citizens at home, we all have a role to play, and this role is changing our habits. From what we choose to buy, to consume, to read, to how we stand in front of power.We need to be able to speak up. We need to have the strength to look at each other and see our brothers and sisters, and see allies in them. And in this respect, I think the Al Jazeera has a bigger challenge than others, because it is to stay true through its core values, through to the mission that has made it known around the world its ability to produce true facts and march toward justice with them in their hands.I do believe that Palestine will be free. I do believe that we will all be free, because too much human rights conscience is rooted in today’s world after 80 years of preaching and teaching human rights. But we need to, we need to act. And the time is now. So, for a 26th of full commitment toward accountability and justice.
Francesca Albanese tried to clarify her “common enemy of humanity” remark by saying she wasn’t talking about Israel itself. She meant “the system that enabled the genocide in Palestine – the financial capital that funds it, the algorithms that obscure it, and the weapons that enable it.”
But that clarification does not soften anything. It actually demonizes Israel more.
Her whole speech is built on one claim: Israel is committing genocide. Everything else in the speech hangs off that. The “arming,” the “political shelter,” the “media amplification,” the “international law stabbed in the heart” – all of it is presented as support for Israel’s alleged crime.
So when she says the system that enables this is the “enemy of humanity,” she is not downgrading Israel’s role. She is building a hierarchy:
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Israel is the actor committing the alleged genocide.
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The system that enables Israel is the enemy of humanity.
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And anyone who will not join the indictment is implicated as part of that system.
The word “system” does not detract from the claim that Israel is uniquely evil. It is the opposite. It turns Israel into the paradigm of evil and then expands the blast radius outward to include everyone who refuses to treat Israel that way.
In short, if the system that allows Israel to exist is an enemy of humanity, all the more so is Israel itself. Calling the enablers “the enemy of humanity” does not make Israel less of an enemy. It makes Israel, logically, the central enemy of humanity — and it enlarges the category of "enemies of humanity" to include anyone who doesn’t treat Israel as a pariah - Americans, British, French, even her own Italian government.
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