Albanese and Sourani claim in Barcelona to end the “colonial mentality” towards Palestine

BarcelonaThe auditorium of the University of Barcelona was too small this Friday to host the event “Law and Genocide,” with the UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, Palestinian lawyer Raji Sourani, and jurist Elisenda Calvet. Organized by the European Office for Judicial Resistance (BERJ) and the Coalition Stop Complicity with Israel, the event was a vindication of international law at a time when it seems like a dead letter. Both have called for an end to the "colonial mentality" towards Palestine.

Sourani, founder of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza, has spent his entire life defending the rights of Palestinians in court. First in Israeli courts, then in European ones, and when Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Spain changed their laws to abandon the principle of universal jurisdiction and closed their doors, they turned to international courts. His reasoning is simple: international law cannot be applied selectively; if Europe says that Ukrainians have the right to resist the illegal Russian invasion with all means at their disposal, then Palestinians also have the right to resist the Israeli occupation.

But resorting to the International Criminal Court with evidence to prosecute Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials for war crimes is also not an easy path. The organization led by Sourani has been sanctioned by the United States precisely for taking this step, along with two other Palestinian human rights organizations. Eight judges of the Court, its prosecutor, and the UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, have also been sanctioned. This morning, she admitted that due to the sanctions, she has to depend financially on her family.

Both have called for the release of Saif Abukeshek and Thiago Ávila, activists of the Global Sumud Flotilla detained in Israel after the assault, and have defended the key role of popular mobilization in Spain in solidarity with Palestine. This was one of the many moments during the event when the audience erupted in applause. This also happened when Albanese pointed out that in the majestic 19th-century paintings decorating the hall,

The system, at its limit

it is not just resistance, it is not just resilience, it is also the ability to adapt to the reality of each moment".

The jurist Elisenda Calvet, professor of law at the UB, has advocated for the need to protect human rights defenders and has explained that the university has defended before Europe its break with Israeli universities agreed after the encampment of students and staff two years ago, and that it is working to disassociate itself from Banco Santander, for its participation in the military industry. She also spoke about the Facultat 18 initiative, which will bring together researchers from different disciplines to develop their studies on Palestine and establish support mechanisms for students and faculty.

In one of the most emotional interventions of the afternoon, Sourani listed the human consequences of the war: “23,000 Palestinian children murdered, 74,000 missing under the rubble, two million displaced, 90% of Gaza destroyed... and it's still not enough”. “We must not mobilize for the Palestinians, but to defend a world with rights,” she stated. Albanese closed the event by stating that sumud, an Arabic word that has no direct translation in Catalan, a mixture of firmness and rootedness: "sumud is not just resistance, it is not just resilience, it is also the ability to adapt to the reality of each moment”.