2024-10-30 “Gaza In Focus” with Francesca Albanese


Metadata

  • When: 2024-10-30

  • Where: Columbia University

  • Who: Homa Zarghamee, Nadia Abu El-Haj

  • Organizations: FSJP-CBT

  • Tags: tagFaculty

Description

Additional evidence: folder

On Wednesday, October 30th, the Barnard Economics and Anthropology Departments and Human Rights Program co-hosted an event entitled “Gaza in Focus: An event with United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese” (See email sent to Human Rights, Economics, and Anthropology faculty and majors here. See flier here).

In addition to the departments that co-hosted the event, it was also publicized on bulletin boards throughout campus (photo) and in department-wide emails (screenshot1, screenshot2, screenshot3) by the Barnard Urban Studies and Psychology Departments.

Two days before the event, UN watch sent a letter to President Armstrong and President Rosenbury to express “serious concern” about the event, noting that Francesca Albanese has been “internationally condemned for Holocaust inversion, antisemitism, and supporting Hamas terrorism”. The letter ends by stating that by inviting Francesca Albanese, “Columbia will be subjecting itself to additional claims for violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, New York Human Rights Law and New York City Human Rights Law, and the Ku Klux Klan Acts.” See letter here. 

The event took place in the Diana Center Event Oval at Barnard. It consisted of an introduction by Homa Zarghamee, the department chair of the Barnard Economics Department, followed by Albanese’s keynote address and a Q&A session moderated by Nadia Abu El-Haj, the Ann Whitney Olin Professor in the Departments of Anthropology at Barnard and Columbia and the Co-Director of the Center for Palestine Studies. 

In the same week that Albanese spoke at this event, she also spoke at institutions including Princeton University, The New School, John Jay College, and Georgetown University. She also appeared before the United Nations General Assembly to present a recent report she had written entitled “Genocide as Colonial Erasure.”

The full audio recording of the event can be found here. A complete written transcript of the event can be found here. Video footage of the Q&A session can be found here.

During her address, Albanese denied speaking at a Hamas conference, and subsequently justified such action by comparing it to eating ice cream. (00:39:15) Evidence of her speaking at said conference in November, 2022, alongside Hamas's former Deputy Foreign Minister, Ghazi Hamad, Hamas spokesman Abd al-Latif al-Qanu, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) leaders Ahmad al-Mudallal and Khadr Habib, and Hamas Politburo members Basem Naim and Isam al-Da’alis, is readily available on Youtube (link).

Albanese also said, “It was, I mean, the decolonization wars were violent, extremely violent, because resistance is violent. As long, I mean, there is also peaceful resistance. And Palestinians have been champions of it. But I also embrace violent resist– sorry, armed resistance.” (00:46:22) This statement could be construed as support for violent resistance. 

Additional quotes Albanese said as part of her address include (approximate time stamps from audio recording):

  • “And indeed, the students of this campus, I want to acknowledge them, have themselves most embodied this in a period of despair and darkness, it has been the young people who have spoken truth to power, with a student led encampment that sprung from this very place and seeded a movement that germinated in campuses across the globe.” (00:09:21)

  • “Israel has attempted to displace the Palestinians, expropriate their land and other resources and ultimately replace them.” This quote could be construed as referring to the great replacement theory, an antisemetic and white-nationalist conspiracy theory echoed by white supremacists and terrorists. (00:21:20)

  • “Because no regime can brutalize or can induce its people to brutalize other people as the Israeli regime does, without letting the very enforcers of death brutalization be dehumanized in return.” (00:28:38)

  • “I even went to the Chief Rabbi, Elio Toaff back then in Italy, who didn't sign the petition because they said, ‘this is past for me.’ That was not past.” Context: Rabbi Elio Toaff was himself a Holocaust survivor who was captured by the SS, was nearly executed while being forced to dig his own grave, and was a part of the Italian resistance (00:40:49)

  • “And so you cannot target civilians, you cannot take civilian hostages. But if it happens, it doesn't legitimize a war.” (00:42:32)

  • “But I cannot, I cannot forget that the root cause of what has happened on October 7 is to be searched, is to be found in the oppressive regime that Israel has established over, even what remained of Palestine, which was home in Gaza to 75% of refugees.” This rhetoric blames Hamas’ attack on October 7th on Israelis, which is victim blaming. (00:43:32)

  • “These 12 months have been intoxicating for the Israeli society.” This is an accusation that could be construed as invoking blood libel. (00:51:38)

  • “I mean, there were 1,500 Palestinians who were killed, combatants or terrorists, put them the way you want. There were Palestinians who were killed in Israel on October 7th.” This is an important distinction that we should not ‘put the way we want.’ (01:10:51)

  • “Um, we have to break their backbone. Why? Because they were celebrating. First time they break the fence in 13 years and you get shocked because they celebrate. Excuse me, have you seen the Israelis celebrating the bombing of Gaza for decades?” This is a shocking justification. (01:12:30)

During the Q&A session (video recording included here), someone asked, “How do you plan on using UN resources to de-radicalize Gaza?” A person in the audience shouted, “Shame!” and it looked like Albanese agreed with that person’s sentiment. A question regarding if Albanese condemns the use of rape and against Jews because she told Palestinians they have the right to resist “by any means necessary” was met with laughter. 

Following her address, Albanese received a standing ovation. 

The day after the event, fsjp-cbt (Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine - Columbia, Barnard, Teachers College) posted about the event on x (link). #FSJP

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