Pat Taub
I won’t back down,” Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestine territories, after being sanctioned by Rubio’s State Department.
Albanese’s sanctions were triggered by taking positions at odds with US policy: advocating the ICC (International Criminal Court) try Israeli leaders for genocide, and lobbying to hold global companies, principally arms dealers, accountable for making a profit off the genocide. The sanctions froze her bank accounts.
On being sanctioned, Albanese told the NYTimes, “I’m tired of the Mafia techniques of the US.”
Other brave women, experiencing backlash for speaking out against Israel’s genocide: Sally Rooney, Irish novelist; Rachel Accurso, aka Ms. Rachel; Katherine Franke, former Columbia law professor; Susan Abulhawa, Palestinian author and activist; Alana Hadid and Jenan Matari, children’s authors.
It’s not too big a stretch to compare Nazi Germany’s punishment of dissidents—those who spoke out against Hitler’s genocide and suppression of personal freedoms—to the treatment of these brave women.
Francesca Albanese, describes her life as a “roller coaster,” after US sanctions froze her US-linked financial assets– credit cards and bank accounts—while denying her entry into the US and the use of her DC apartment. Her family has been repeatedly targeted: death threats to her children, and harassing her husband, forcing him to resign from his position at the World Bank. Francesca refuses to bend, stalwart in her defense of Palestine, telling an interviewer, “They picked the wrong woman.”
Sally Rooney, targeted by the Labour Government for voicing support for Palestine Action, a terrorist organization under British law, has withdrawn her books from the UK market, out of concern her continued support for Palestine makes fulfilling UK publishing contracts a potential criminal offence.
Sally Rooney announcing her books will no longer be available in the UK
Rooney commented: “I want to be clear that I intend to use the proceeds of my work, as well as my public platform generally, to go on supporting Palestine Action and direct action against genocide in whatever way I can.”
Rachel Accurso, beloved by children around the world for her TV program, “Ms Rachel,” receives ongoing threats for defending Palestine and showcasing Gazan children, like Rahaf, the adorable three-year-old, dancing with her prosthetics after losing both legs in an Israeli airstrike. The watchdog group, StopAntisemitism nominated Ms Rachel “Anti-Semite of the Year” in 2025, writing then Attorney General Pam Bondi, requesting a federal investigation into whether she was being funded by Hamas.
Ms Rachel at the 2025 Glamour Magazine awards dinner in a dress composed of drawings by children in Gaza
Katherine Franke, former law professor at Columbia, among the many professors fired, or, in Franke’s case, forced to accept early retirement for supporting Palestine and Pro-Palestine student encampments. Today, from her ‘Columbia University office’ (Franke’s Columbia storage facility where she sits on a plastic chair surrounded by towering filing containers) dispensing insightful comments on Palestine, and explanations of US constitutional infringements.
Susan Albulhawa, novelist, poet and activist, whose bestselling novel, “Mornings in Jenin” was an international best seller, filed and won a lawsuit against the Oxford Union after they censored the transcription of her July, 2025 speech. (To hear the uncensored version of her speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc3EwBh_nCM)
Oxford accused Albuhawa of “antisemitism” for chronicling Israel’s decades long horrific abuses of Gaza. Abulhawa reflects: “Palestinians are the only people in history expected to witness their own genocide and then watch their language, so they do not hurt the feelings of those responsible.”
Susan Abulhawa delivering her speech at the Oxford Union
Alana Hadid and Jenan Matari co-wrote a book for young readers describing life in Palestine, then withdrew their book from Random House after demands the book carry a disclaimer insisting October 7 was illegal, while referencing the Nakba, occupation and decades of dispossession as questionable. They found a new publisher in Interlink Publishing, a Palestine-owned publisher.
Alana Hadid and Jenan Matari
