They tried to silence her – they failed
JVL Introduction
The Free (sic) University of Berlin cancelled a presentation by Francesca Albanese, entitled “Conditions of a life to be destroyed. Legal and forensic perspectives on the ongoing Gaza genocide”. Ms Albanese is the UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories. The reason given by the University management for the cancellation was “incalculable security risks”. Another venue was found and it was livestreamed to c 2,700 people. The session was facilitated by Wieland Hoban from Jüdische Stimme für gerechten Frieden in Nahost (Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East), our sister organisation in Global Jews for Palestine.
This is just over one hour of a wide ranging discussion; this recording looks at many aspects of international law, genocide, Germany’s history of antisemitism, racism, Germany’s current reaction, University links with Settlements and more.
LL
This article was originally published by YouTube on Thu 20 Feb 2025. Read the original here.
They Tried to Silence Her They Failed | Francesca Albanese’s Berlin Keynote on Gaza Genocide
“Despite police intimidation and last-minute venue changes, Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, delivered a historic speech in Berlin, at an event organised by DiEM25, Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East, Eye4palestine and the Gaza Committee Berlin. After the original venue was pressured into canceling the event, Junge Welt stepped in at the last minute to ensure this critical discussion could take place. But those who sought to silence it failed. Over 2,700 people tuned in live throughout the 8 hours of proceedings as Albanese exposed the brutal reality: the genocide in Gaza is undeniable, Germany is complicit, and free speech and international law are under attack. This is a must-watch for anyone who believes in justice and refuses to be silenced. Moderated by Wieland Hoban from Jewish Voice for Peace in the Middle East.”
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The situation is far worse than the introduction describes. Berlin city politicians have been outdoing one another with attacks on Albanese while the Israeli ambassador, Ron Prosor, asked whether the Free University was a training-camp for Hamas-supporters. After the ‘Free’ University caved in to the demands of the Mayor and Senate (the city government of CDU and SPD), the event was moved to an arts venue in the borough of Kreuzberg. Such places are dependent on public funding and vulnerable to official pressure; apparently the ‘Kühlhaus’, a repurposed cold-storage building, was threatened with permanent closure. Its walls were sprayed with slogans in English: “Albanese you are an antisemite” and “UNRWA supports terror”. They cancelled at short notice.
Courageously, the newspaper Junge Welt (the only part of the traditional media that consistently dares speak up for Palestine) offered its editorial offices for the event, albeit on a much-reduced scale. In response, 200 riot police surrounded the building and demanded entry. The editor refused, at which point the police designated the event an ‘assembly in an enclosed space’, which gave them the right to enter even against to owner’s will.
The editor offered to let the police watch the speeches on live-stream, but the police insisted that they had to be in the room in case any member of the audience made a criminal utterance and added that the threshold for intervention was low. So the whole event took place under the watchful eyes of a squad of armed police officers and a police interpreter.
Albanese and Wieland Hoban were not the only participants that pose a danger to the German ‘Staatsräson’ and needed police supervision: others included the director of Amnesty International Germany, Julia Duchrow, Forensic Architecture’s Eyal Weizman and the Israeli (and honorary Palestinan) musician, Michael Barenboim.
Marvellous, Strong Campaigner for Justice, justice for the Palestinians and criminal charges for the Israeli Zionists behind the Genocide.
Too many people in political positions across the World are literally frightened at what may happen to them. We’ve seen some losing their careers because they have called out the crimes against the Palestinians by Israel. Palestinians need people to put justice before their own positions but for some their families need them to stay in their posts to survive economically. It must be awful to be in that position.