U.N. Report Blames Israel and Capitalism for the Conflict in Gaza
The report includes no mentions of Hamas’ attacks or hostages.
We can rest easily, folks: The inaptly named United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has closely examined the aftermath of Hamas' attack on Israel and found the culprit: It was settler colonialism and capitalism what done it! In a masterful mishmash of leftist gibberish, the report assumes Israel's culpability and combines antisemitism with hostility to free markets. The report should make Americans happy that the U.S. has disengaged from the UNHRC and bears no responsibility for its actions.
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Forget Hamas, It's All About Settler-Colonialism and Racial Capitalism
"The role of corporate entities in sustaining the illegal Israeli occupation and its ongoing genocidal campaign in Gaza is the subject of the present investigative report, which is focused on how corporate interests underpin the Israeli settler-colonial twofold logic of displacement and replacement aimed at dispossessing and erasing Palestinians from their lands," asserts Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, in the introduction to the July 3 report. The document concludes, in part: "The enduring ideological, political and economic engine of racial capitalism has transformed the Israeli displacement-replacement economy of occupation into an economy of genocide."
The report comes over a year and a half after the brutal October 7 invasion of Israel by Hamas terrorists during which, as the Congressional Research Service summarizes, "more than 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals (including 46 U.S. citizens in Israel) were killed…and Hamas and other groups also seized some 251 hostages." The report references "October 2023" 30 times, but in a bizarre way. That date somehow becomes a mysterious turning point during which Israel and its corporate capitalist accessories became pointlessly meaner than ever towards the seemingly peaceful people of Gaza.
"Had proper human rights due diligence been undertaken, corporate entities would have long ago disengaged from Israeli occupation," the report asserts. "Instead, post-October 2023, corporate actors have contributed to the acceleration of the displacement-replacement process throughout the military campaign that has pulverized Gaza and displaced the largest number of Palestinians in the West Bank since 1967."
"Hamas" is mentioned only as part of the URL in a link to a Washington Post story in a footnote. There is no mention of "hostages." The word "antisemitism" is used exactly one time, in a dismissive manner when Albanese "acknowledges the vital work of students and staff in holding universities to account. It casts a new light on global crackdowns on campus protesters: shielding Israel and protecting institutional financial interests appears a more probable motivation than fighting alleged antisemitism."
A U.N. Official's History of Antisemitism and Support for Terrorism
Albanese and her staff elide any events during October 2023 that might have precipitated a change in policy by Israel towards Gaza, and they wave away any possible hostility towards Jews. Of course, Albanese herself was the subject of a 2024 report from Geneva-based watchdog group UN Watch that found she is ill-disposed towards Israel and most of its inhabitants. Titled Wolf In Sheep's Clothing: Why Democracies Should Sanction UN Rapporteur Francesca Albanese For Propagating Antisemitism and Supporting Terrorism, that report documented a series of concerning facts about Albanese. These include her accusation that the United States has been "subjugated by the Jewish lobby"; that her husband, who compares Palestinians to Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto, formerly worked for the Palestinian Authority; that in her role as a U.N. official, she told attendees at a Hamas-organized conference "you have a right to resist this occupation"; and that she responded to Hamas's October 7 atrocities by insisting "today's violence must be put in context."
Based on her conduct, statements, and connections, the UN Watch report found that "Francesca Albanese knowingly supports Hamas and other terrorist groups."
Accordingly, Albanese's reappointment to her position in April was opposed by the United States, Argentina, Hungary, Israel, the Netherlands, and members of the European Parliament from Bulgaria, Czechia, Denmark, France, Germany, Slovakia, and Sweden, among other interested parties. Nevertheless, she was granted another three-year term in her position.
Sanctions Beget More Sanctions
That vote of confidence may have encouraged Albanese to let her freak flag fly—more than in the past, that is. The July 3 report insists "colonial endeavours and associated genocides have historically been driven and enabled by the corporate sector, Commercial interests have contributed to the dispossession of Indigenous people of their lands – a mode of domination known as 'colonial racial capitalism.'" The report calls out companies by name, including some top tech firms, for offering their services to Israelis and allegedly enabling "Israeli apartheid" and "military and population-control systems." It hisses that "while it is impossible to fully capture the scale and extent of decades of corporate connivance in the exploitation of the occupied Palestinian territory, the present report exposes the integration of the economies of settler-colonial occupation and genocide." It adds that "corporate entities must refuse to be complicit in human rights violations and international crimes or be held to account" and calls for sanctions not just on Israel but also on individuals and businesses that engage with the country.
That's some Ivy League grad student-level idiocy. But it's voiced by a quasi-governmental official who is likely to justify and inspire compliance among many U.N. member states that are already hostile to Israel, Jews, and free enterprise.
After Albanese's latest mischief, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio responded, "Albanese has spewed unabashed antisemitism, expressed support for terrorism, and open contempt for the United States, Israel, and the West." He noted that "she has recently escalated this effort by writing threatening letters to dozens of entities worldwide, including major American companies across finance, technology, defense, energy, and hospitality, making extreme and unfounded accusations and recommending the [International Criminal Court] pursue investigations and prosecutions of these companies and their executives."
Rubio's statement imposed sanctions on Albanese of the sort detailed in an earlier executive order. They include "blocking of property and assets, as well as the suspension of entry into the United States." Were Albanese a garden-variety bigot and hater of free markets, sanctions would be an excessive reaction to hateful speech. But she's a U.N. official: Her pronouncements help shape government policy. The sanctions, then, are a matter of conflict between the U.S. government and a hostile state actor.
The U.N. has long been an exercise in waste, failure, and doubletalk where terms like "human rights" are used to negate their plain meaning. Worse, though, the organization encourages government-level enforcement of lies and hate.
