Pat Taub
These days your favorite news sources likely feature stories about the war in Iran, desperation in oil-deprived Cuba, voter disenfranchisement, and Trump’s massive corruption schemes, relegating news of Gaza to a few paragraphs, reflecting ‘Gaza fatigue.’
After two plus years of waking to screens dominated by the genocide: bombed-out villages, traumatized children, grieving families, IDF soldiers torturing prisoners–many scroll past updated images of Gazans shivering in wind-blown tents, mothers caring for starving children. Concerned individuals find it too unsettling to absorb the ongoing genocide.
Palestinian woman clinging to the corpse of her 5 y.o. niece: typical of images creating “Gaza fatigure”
In her new book, “When the World Sleeps,” Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights on Occupied Land, chastises world leaders for sleeping through the genocide in Gaza: not calling out Israel for violating international law. She implores global citizens to fill this vacuum.
When I take up this mantra, urging friends and family to stand with Palestine, they offer excuses like, ‘It’s all over for Gaza. They are rapidly being extinguished.’ The implication: it’s too late to make a difference.
To counter this perception, Albanese shares stories of resilient Palestinians whose life force has not been extinguished: young adults pursing professional degrees; children attending classes in makeshift quarters; families continuing, however modestly, to celebrate weddings and birthdays.
Students at the Delphine School in Gaza, May, 8, 2026
Albanese fondly recalls the years she and her husband lived in Jerusalem, forging close friendships with warm, engaging intellectuals, learning about the rich history of Jerusalem, amazed at the obstacles to daily life. Children, on their way to school, crawling under sewer pipes to avoid Israeli check points. Settlers routinely taking over homes of Palestinians in the West Bank, leaving them stunned with nowhere to go.
In “When the World Sleeps,” Albanese’s mission appears twofold: to depict the humanity of life in an apartheid state, and to educate the reader about the 78-year-old genocide where international law consistently fails to be implemented to make Israel accountable for their war crimes.
Albanese speaking at one of her many public forums, Barcelona, May, 2026
Laying the case for Israel’s apartheid in Palestine, Albanese cites legal opinions from the International Court of Justice, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, documenting the racial and territorial segregation of Gaza, while denying Palestinians self-determination—practices that constitute apartheid.
Albanese distinguishes between Anti-Semitism and Anti-Zionism: Anti-Semitism is hatred of Jews while Anti-Zionism stands against Israel-imposed apartheid.
To quell dissent, Israel labels Palestinian supporters Anti-Semitic. The Pro-Palestine movement insists this is a misinterpretation: they are not attacking Jews but protesting the genocide, making them Anti-Zionists.
Protesting in Support of Palestine, Portland Maine
Albanese weighs in, asking: “How is it that truth has become a lie, and a lie the truth?”
Employing their Anti-Semitic tactics, Israel defenders have successfully shut down numerous Pro-Palestine movements, notably those on American college campuses. Professors advocating for Palestine were frequently fired. The mainstream press has fallen in line, labeling support for Palestine, Anti-Semitic.
Similar attacks on Palestine supporters have occurred in Europe; the UK has gone bananas, arresting hundreds of peaceful protesters, including the elderly, for carrying signs in support of Palestine.
Elder arrested last year at a Pro-Palestine rally in London–her shirt reads “Quaker for Peace”
In public forums, where she draws large audiences, Albanese stresses Gaza’s genocide is the greatest moral crisis of our times, warning if we don’t force Israel and the US to adhere to international law, where genocide is a clear violation, international law will lose all credibility. This disturbing possibility is reflected in Trump’s brazen illegal acts: kidnapping Maduro, assassinating Iran’s leaders, torpedoing fishing boats in the Caribbean.
A takeaway from “When the World Sleeps,” is Albanese’s heartfelt commitment to world peace and the rule of law. Stirred by her passion, I’m pledging anew to work for justice in Palestine.
Like global revolutionary, Greek’s Yanis Varoufakis , Albanese advocates massive global demonstrations where citizens storm the streets, protesting the Israeli genocide. It’s already working: street protests appear to have influenced public denunciations of Israel by the foreign ministers of Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Norway, Slovenia, Spain, snd Sweden.
Albanese signs off with the words of Thich Nhat Hanh:
“Once there is seeing there must be acting. Otherwise, what is the use of seeing?”
