U.N. Expert Francesca Albanese Slams U.S. “Complicity” as Trump Meets Netanyahu Despite ICC Warrant

We speak to Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, about Israel’s continued impunity from international law. Despite an International Criminal Court warrant out for his arrest, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently visited the White House to meet with President Donald Trump. While the United States is not a member state to the ICC, “It doesn’t mean that they have to extend protection to a fugitive from international law,” says Albanese, who joins widespread international calls for Netanyahu’s arrest. “The United States is actively contributing to make the international criminal law architecture that it has been building, from the Nuremberg trials up until now, crumble on our head.”

Albanese also comments on settler- and soldier-led “pogroms” in the occupied West Bank and calls out the complicity of the governments of Greece, Italy and France, which, despite being party to the ICC, authorized Netanyahu’s travel through their airspaces. “It looks small in the context of a genocide, but every action matters, as every crime matters and will be accounted for,” she says.