When the World Sleeps

by Francesca Albanese

When the World Sleeps - a gallery of stories, characters, and places that allow us to understand what Palestine was like until recently, and what it has become today.

Francesca Albanese, the first woman to serve as United Nations Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, conveys the soul of a people through ten unforgettable stories of resilience and humanity.

256 pages, Paperback

Reviews

[Michael]

Right from the start of the book, we learn that Ms Albanese's world view was shaped by the injustices she observed growing up in a small Italian town, especially the fact that the mafia ran the country through intimidation and assassination of judges. Through her demonstrations and protests, she came to study the law, while sometimes working 3 jobs to pay the bills. One of those jobs was at Italy's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which took her to Pakistan, Guinea-Bisseau and ultimately to a UN internship in Morocco. Post-graduate studies were at the University of London specializing in human rights law. This led to 4 years working at the UN Office of the High Commission in Geneva. Eventually, she moved to Palestine to work at UNRWA (UN Relief and Works Agency). After a time in Palestine, she wrestled with the dissonance between international law, and power politics and stepped back, moving with her husband and soon to be born child to Washington DC. She found soon that she was being drawn back to Palestine, doing research for Georgetown University, which led to a book, which eventual led to her being selected as the position as UN Special Rapporteur on human rights for Palestine. All this is in the introduction to the book. What follows is the story of ten different people from greater Palestine, both Palestinians and Israeli's - documenting their lived experience in their own words. And as she was doing this work, she kept reflecting on George Orwell's words: "War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is force." When her first report "Anatomy of a Genocide" came out in 2024, it was the first report to the UN that laid out the case of genocide, as well as apartheid, settler-colonialism and illegal occupation. This was said as early as 2006 by Israeli historians such as Ilan Pappe and others but received scant coverage. Talks and conferences organized in Germany shortly after publication was welcomed with great interest from civil society and German think tanks. A year later, follow up meetings and conferences were scheduled, however Zionist organizations mounted a smear campaign and lobbied the German government and universities which led to cancellation of these events, as well passing draconian laws making protests of Israel's actions criminal offenses. And those laws have spread throughout western democracies. The ten stories from Palestinian and Jewish folk that follow are heart wrenching and yet each shows the extent to the damage being done by a government hell-bent on continuing to destroy Gaza and the West Bank, and to wipe the Palestinian people off the face of the map. She lays out the definition of anti-Semitism, as accepted by all nations of the UN in an agreement signed by all, is not the one being propagated by Zionist organizations. Instead the have written a different definition through the IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance), that defines criticism of the government of Israel as anti-Semitism and thus an attack on all Jews. She points out also that the fact of apartheid being practiced by the state of Israel was first laid out by former President Jimmy Carter several decades ago in his book: Palestine; Peace, Not Apartheid. Something that should resonate with Australians is the fact that Israel under Golda Meir changed the slogan of Israel from "the only democracy in the Middle East' to " A people without land for a land without people." And there are more examples of how genocide is being carried out in real terms in the Gaza strip and the West Bank. And for pointing out and reporting the truth of what is happening in Gaza, she has been sanctioned by the US government, so that not even her daughter living in the US is allowed to have contact with her.