The House of Representatives still puts a line through a conversation with the special rapporteur from the United Nations for the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese. This Thursday, the room would talk to Albanese about the situation in Gaza, but a right -wing majority does not want this because of previous controversial statements that Albanian has made.
Francesca Albanese, an Italian lawyer, has been the special rapporteur of the UN for the occupied Palestinian territories since 2022. She reports, among other things, about the human rights situation in Gaza and on the West Bank. Albanian is known for her fierce criticism of Israel, so she is no longer welcome in that country. For example, she accused Israel of Genocide in Gaza as one of the first high UN officials. In a report from March last year, Albanese wrote that Israel “deliberately distorts the war law […] In an attempt to legitimize genocidal violence against the Palestinian people. “
Albanian acknowledges to have sharp criticism of Israel, but mentions accusations of anti -Semitism defamation
Albanese was invited by the Foreign Affairs Chamber Committee for an interview. In a meeting on January 23, the MPs present, including VVD MP Eric van der Burg, agreed to the visit of the special rapporteur. The request then received a majority because the members of, for example, the strong pro-Israeli PVV and BBB were not present and could not vote.
On Tuesday, an additional procedure meeting at the request of PVV, BBB and SGP was again voted on the conversation with Albanian. According to SGP MP Diederik van Dijk, Albanian is “a very biased UN reporter” who, according to him, “trivializes” the attacks on 7 October. Albanian himself acknowledges to have sharp criticism of Israel, but has always put accusations of anti -Semitism away as a slander campaign.
Busy
Kati Piri van GroenLinks-Pvda, who had taken the initiative to invite Albanian, said the shame of the attempt to withdraw the invitation. She called it an “ugly attempt to silence people who speak for the rights of the Palestinians.”
It was remarkably busy during the extra meeting. The right -wing groups in particular had called many MPs to reach a majority. Seats from the public gallions had to be transferred to give all members a place.
Crucial for the result was the position that the VVD would take. The party members now voted for the withdrawal of the invitation to the special rapporteur of the UN. Member of Parliament Eric van der Burg indicated this time that he had “deepened” in the statements of Albanese, after which he concluded “not to have a need to listen to her.”
When it became clear that the conversation would not take place, Piri spoke of a typical example of ‘right -wing cancel culture’. She announced that she now wants to receive Albanese on Thursday morning at the same time on the GroenLinks-Pvda fractic room. All MPs who want to ask her questions are welcome.
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