UN rapporteur Francesca Albanese (shown here during a UN meeting) gave a speech at the alternative opening of the academic year, as did Lama A. Samad (Oxfam International) — both online. Photo Shutterstock One day after the official opening of the 2024-25 academic year, the spotlight was once again on water and food security. But this time it was not about WUR scientists’ contributions in this domain; rather, the event in Impulse focused on how Israel deliberately turned the taps off in the war on Gaza. On how water has been weaponized to subdue an entire population.
Lama Abdul Samad (Oxfam International) gave a detailed description (online) of how Israel has systematically deprived Gaza of water in the war in Gaza. Before 7 October, Gazans were getting an average of 82 litres of water a day, but that has now dropped to a mere 5 litres. What is more, that water is highly polluted. A quarter of the population have diseases as a result.
UN rapporteur
Samad cautiously concluded that depriving Gaza of water violates international law. Francesca Albanese was much more outspoken in her online presentation (which was not always easy to understand due to technical problems). She is the UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories. Albanese said it is quite clear Israel is committing numerous war crimes against the Palestinians.
Hitler
Incidentally, Albanese’s invitation is interesting as questions have been raised about her neutrality as a rapporteur. In July, she compared the Israeli leader Netanyahu with Hitler on X. In answer to parliamentary questions about this, Foreign Affairs minister Veldkamp called the comparison ‘inappropriate and unacceptable’. It should be noted Albanese made no such comparison in her speech in Impulse.
I really appreciated the Alternative opening of the academic year, as it had all the things I value about the university: eloquent speakers, attentive audience, learning and respectful dialogue, and human solidarity. We heard Wageningen scholars, engaged students and locals. We were reminded that issues around access to water, land and food are not just an academic exercise, nor a matter of technical fixes – they are pressing political questions.
It is a shame that Resource’s coverage does not convey the atmosphere and relevance of the event. Instead, it chooses to attack one of the experts by randomly and without any context choosing ‘Hitler’ as a subheading. I am not sure if this is just lazy journalism looking for sensation, or a deliberate attempt to delegitimize the speaker, but neither of these are acceptable in my view. One does not even have to look further than Wikipedia for the context the author avoids. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesca_Albanese#2023%E2%80%9324_Israel%E2%80%93Hamas_war
What I find more “interesting” is that Wageningen University, despite its commitment to a “future where water and food are secure not only for ourselves, but for all people”, maintains collaborations with institutions implicated in a conflict which has systematically and deliberately deprived people of access to water and food. The WUR does so despite the calls by its own staff and students, ignoring clear evidence as well as its own Principles of Collaboration.
Absolutely agree with Lucie. This is woeful reporting from Resource, far below any journalistic standard. Articles like this should be clearly labelled as an opinion piece, as that is all this is – the (in my opinion reactionary and misinformed) opinion of this particular writer, who parrots the political point scoring narrative of an SGP politician in attacking an appointed (and widely supported outside of conservative right wing European/US political circles) UN Special Rapporteur.
A couple of other points the writer would have known if they bothered to do even some cursory research while writing this article:
1) The sentence regarding the SR’s ‘neutrality’ is irrelevant. The UN mandate for this position literally states the role of the SR is “to investigate violations by Israel of the principles and foundations of international law, international humanitarian law and the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, in the Palestinian territories it has occupied since 1967”. Albanese has executed this mandate with dedication and thoroughness, leading to inevitable smears and vitriol from the supporters of the Israeli regime that this writer parrots.
2) It is not Albanese’s personal opinion, as the writer implies, that Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank. This is established beyond doubt by the ICJ and ICC and other institutions of international law.
It shouldn’t be beyond this journalist or Resource to engage in some basic fact checking before going to print.