Mendacity

“First do no harm”

The Hippocratic Oath

This statement refers to any attempt to manage a crisis and not engage in communications that harm the reputation of your organization.

On June 8^th, Francesca Albanese, U.N. Special Rapporteur for Palestine, posted this statement:

“Relieved that four hostages have been released. It should not have come at the expense of at least 200 Palestinians, including children, killed and over 400 injured by Israel and allegedly foreign soldiers, while perfidiously hiding in an aid truck. This is "humanitarian camouflage" at another level. Israel has used hostages to legitimise killing, injuring, maiming, starving and traumatising Palestinians in Gaza. And while intensifying violence against Palestinians in the rest of the occupied territory and Israel. Israel could have freed all hostages, alive and intact, 8 months ago when the first ceasefire and hostage exchange was put on the table. Yet, Israel refused in order to continue to destroy Gaza and the Palestinians as a people. This is genocidal intent turned into action. Crystal clear”.

Albanese’s former tweets and statements underscore her strong support for Hamas terrorists and her antisemitism and anti-Israeli stances in dealing with the current conflict.

Her statement contains a number of lies that I will dissect one by one.

First, the hostages were not “released”. They were liberated by Israeli special forces after a gunfight with the Hamas terrorists who were holding them in a civilian house owned by an Al Jazeera ‘journalist’ Abdallah Al-Jamal and his father, medical doctor Ahmed Al-Jamal.

Ahmed Al-Jamal was also a spokesperson for the Hamas Ministry of Health that provides the vastly inaccurate body counts to journalists around the world after each attack.

Secondly, I am amazed how she could confirm 200 deaths almost immediately after the operation when neither she nor Hamas can provide an accurate report on the conditions of the hostages taken seven months ago nor where they currently are being held. As well, UN agencies have a history of providing disinformation about the numbers killed and often are forced to walk them back after further investigation.

Third, she criticises Israel of using “humanitarian camouflage” in liberating the hostages when Hamas and its allies are hiding Israeli hostages in private houses, very populated areas, or even in UNRWA sites, and deliberately using the civilian population as human shields. As well, Hamas terrorists dressed as civilians when they massacred Israelis on October 7th.

 Fourth, she says “Israel could have freed all hostages, alive and intact, 8 months ago when the first ceasefire and hostage exchange was put on the table”.

This is false.

That proposal did not include any agreement by Hamas to release all of the hostages immediately. Instead they released a few at a time and murdered a number while in captivity. That has been the sticking point all along, and much of the global community expects Israel to stop looking for the hostages while Hamas refuses to release them.

To date, Hamas continues to refuse to release all of the hostages in exchange for a ceasefire, while it continues to rape, torture, and murder hostages every day.

Albanese fails to note that, had Hamas terrorists not broken the existing ceasefire, attacked Israel, murdered hundreds, and take over three hundred hostages, there would have been no need for Israel’s actions. Again, Hamas broke the ceasefire in place up until October 7^th and began the war and the hostage ordeal that lasts up till today.

The fact that Albanese occupies such an important, sensitive position and still issues baldfaced lies in her public statements underscores the depths to which the United Nations has sunk.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres should fire her immediately if he is to maintain any credibility and not subject the U.N. to further ridicule and criticism.

Indeed, his leadership to date has been poor with respect to the current crisis and defending senior executives like Albanese leaves his judgment and credibility open to accusations of complicity. It also leaves the organisation looking useless in the eyes of many and complicit in lies and innuendos.