Photograph Source: Fotografía oficial de la Presidencia de Colombia – Public Domain
Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, represents a systemic, existential threat to the narrative of “Western Civilization” and the myth of supremacy peddled daily by the establishment. Within the Italian media landscape, Maurizio Molinari (former director of La Repubblica and La Stampa) and TV pundit Davide Parenzo serve as prime illustrations of this systemic rot, representing two of the worst examples of the Zionist-dominated media in Italy. As Chris Hedges pointed out last weekend at a forum in Rome, these people – like their American counterparts at the New York Times or the Washington Post – cannot be considered journalists but as servants to power and in this case to Israeli hasbara (zionist propaganda system).
The ferocity of the witch hunt against Albanese is not accidental; it is a panic response. She is dangerous to the establishment not because she is a politician using slogans, but because she wields the unassailable, technical weapon of International Law against a propaganda machine built on lies. This fear has manifested in attacks that have descended into medieval hysteria, leveled not just by Israel, but by a Western alliance—including the United States and most EU member states—that is deeply complicit in the ongoing genocide.
The Witch Hunt: From “Witchcraft” to Campo de’ Fiori
In a shocking display of diplomatic lunacy that occurred—with twisted irony—just days before Halloween, Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the UN, abandoned all pretense of legal argument to engage in literal name-calling. The context of this attack reveals the extent of the conspiracy against her: barred from entering the United States due to punitive sanctions, Albanese was forced to present her latest report, titled Gaza Genocide: A Collective Crime remotely from South Africa, where she had just delivered the prestigious annual Nelson Mandela address to a rousing, minutes long standing ovation.
It was against this backdrop—facing a screen because he could not face her in person—that Danon infamously pointed at her image and shrieked, repeatedly, “You are a witch… your reports are pure witchcraft.”
This was not a metaphor; it was a deliberate attempt to cast a woman of law as a monster. As the renowned historian Silvia Federici has tirelessly documented in her work Caliban and the Witch, the label of “witch” is never accidental. It is a political tool used by dying power structures to discipline women who challenge the capitalist and patriarchal order. As Federici notes, the witch hunt was historically a “war against women” launched to destroy those who resisted the enclosure of common lands and the imposition of tyranny. Albanese is the modern target of this war because she resists the enclosure of Palestine and the tyranny of impunity.
The Italian public understood this connection immediately. In response to Danon’s slander, solidarity demonstrations erupted across Italy. Most poignantly, crowds gathered in Rome’s Campo de’ Fiori at the foot of the statue of Giordano Bruno. Bruno, the philosopher burned alive at the stake by the Inquisition in 1600 for refusing to recant his truths, stands as the eternal symbol of free thought against dogma. Today, Albanese is the heretic standing against the Inquisition of the Zionist power structure, and the people gathered there to declare that they would not let her burn.
A traditional Italian chant has now become a ralying cry: “Tremate Tremate, le streghe son tornate” (Tremble, tremble, the witches have returned”.
Economic Strangulation and the Strategy of the Bully
Simultaneously, the heavy artillery of the United States government has been deployed to silence her. Leading this assault is secretary of state Marco Rubio, who has ceaselessly demanded her removal. Rubio has openly attacked her integrity, stating in a letter to the UN Secretary-General that “Albanese’s antisemitic remarks and evident bias make her unfit” to serve, and demanding that the UN “fire her immediately.”
These political attacks have morphed into a campaign of personal destruction and economic strangulation. The absurd sanctions wielded against Albanese have resulted in a Kafkaesque nightmare: she has been denied coverage by her private insurance company and is unable to access bank accounts in the United States or Europe. Beyond the financial warfare, the threats to her physical safety are severe; she has received numerous death threats against herself and her family. Furthermore, she is physically barred from entering the very territory she is mandated to monitor—the Occupied Palestinian Territories—and remains banned from entering the United States. Yet, in the face of this unprecedented persecution of a high-ranking UN official, the Italian government and the European Union have not raised a finger to support her or demand these sanctions be lifted.
Photograph by Michael Leonardi
State Repression and the Media Monolith
To understand why Albanese is vilified in Italy, one must look at the suffocating atmosphere created by the Meloni-led neofascist Italian government. This administration is becoming increasingly repressive, spearheading a general push to equate Zionism with Judaism and effectively criminalize any criticism of Israel. This is exemplified by the state’s current attempt to extradite an Imam who has lived in Torino for over 20 years, targeting him simply for comments he made characterizing October 7th as an act of resistance.
The media narrative is controlled by the GEDI Group, owned by John Elkann of the Agnelli family. Elkann, a Zionist and a business partner deeply tied to Israeli interests, utilizes his media empire to shield the occupation from scrutiny. It is no coincidence that Maurizio Molinari, during his tenure as director of both La Repubblica and La Stampa, enforced a rigid editorial line that demonized Palestinian resistance and whitewashed Israeli crimes.
The Raid on La Stampa in Torino
The tension between these establishment falsehoods and the reality on the ground reached a breaking point last week in Torino during Friday’s General Strike. A group of students participating in the strike entered the headquarters of La Stampa, spray-painting slogans against the genocide and media complicity on the walls, scattering papers across the floor, and creating a chaotic scene of protest.
The reaction was swift and monolithic. These students have been labeled as “violent criminals” with unanimity by the Italian government, the media, and even the figurehead President Sergio Mattarella. Francesca Albanese’s response to this incident, however, was characteristic of her integrity. While she repeatedly denounced the violent tactics used by the students, she refused to join the chorus of condemnation without context. She framed the event as a desperate warning to the media: a signal that the press must stop acting as a “media escort” for Israel, covering up its crimes. She urged the establishment to finally begin covering the truth of the International Law—the reality of a genocide in action for over three years and beyond, the suffocating illegal occupation, and the brutal apartheid system.
Italy as the Epicenter of Global Resistance
This diplomatic and media war is raging against the backdrop of a massive, insurgent movement in Italy that has inspired civil society around the world. While the Meloni government remains 100 percent complicit in the US-Israeli-led genocide—continuing to provide diplomatic cover and arms via the defense giant Leonardo—the people have risen in defiance.
This resistance reached a fever pitch last weekend. Leaders of the Global Sumud Flotilla descended upon Italy, including Greta Thunberg, Brazilian activist Thiago Ávila, and Palestinian journalist and activist Ahmed Shihab-Elden. They joined forces with a powerful coalition of intellectual heavyweights, including Francesca Albanese, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges, Italian human rights crusader Luisa Morgantini and former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis.
The mobilization was immense. Last Friday saw another general strike led by the courageous Genovese port workers—who continue to block weapons shipments—accompanied by national walkouts in cities across the peninsula. This culminated on Saturday with massive national marches flooding the streets of Milan and Rome, demanding an end to the continuing genocide in Palestine, as the spearhead of movements for oppressed people aroud the world, and an end to the ever expanding war economy.
Chris Hedges, witnessing the sheer scale and moral clarity of the Italian movement, issued a moving tribute to the protesters:
“To Italy, What a privilege and an honor, and frankly the best form of therapy, it was to be with all of you. You have shown the world how to resist and why resistance is a moral imperative. I brought a film crew to document your courage and your understanding of what we face and how little time we have left to save our civil society, protect the rule of law and end the genocide. May Italy be the epicenter of a global resistance. Thank you for inspiring all of us!”
Why She Terrifies Them
Here is why Albanese remains the ultimate target:
The Mirror of Western Hypocrisy: She demonstrates with cold data that the EU and US are not “civilized democracies” but active sponsors of apartheid and genocide.
Deconstructing the Language: She rejects the media’s deceitful vocabulary. By using terms like settler-colonialism, apartheid and forced removal, she renders the propaganda of the Molinaris and Elkanns ineffective.
Breaking the Consensus: Albanese disrupts the establishment by validating the general strikes, the port blockades, and the global solidarity demonstrated by Thunberg, Hedges, and the Global Sumud Flotilla within a framework of international law that demonstrate that these movements are on the side of justice.
Francesca Albanese is the “witch” being hunted by the Western powers because she represents the truth of international law against the brute force of the geopolitical narrative. She dismantles the fiction that Israel is “the only democracy in the Middle East,” revealing instead that the actions of the Israeli genocide and occupation—and the complicity of many of the world’s most powerful countries — including the neofascist Italian government and the Agnelli-owned media — are the ultimate negation of civilization itself.
The post Witch Hunt: The Heretic and the Inquisition: Why the West Fears Francesca Albanese appeared first on CounterPunch.org.
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