MAHAD HUSSEIN SALLAMThe great psychic numbness

Mahad Hussein Sallam (bio), Mediapart, 30/7/2025
Translated by Tlaxcala

In a world saturated with alerts, emergencies, and tragedies broadcast continuously, another form of crisis is taking hold, one that is more insidious: numbness. Are we losing the very ability to feel as a result of being exposed to so much? When feeling becomes an act of resistance.

From Gaza to Sudan, from climate disasters to algorithmic exhaustion, emotional collapse is no longer an individual evil: it is a symptom of a civilization in psychological decline.

Gaza on my screen. Silence in my chest.

Every evening, I scroll through the images. Gaza is bleeding. The Amazon is burning. I scroll.

A Palestinian child lies under the rubble, others fall from hunger. Sudan disappears from the headlines, while atrocious crimes are being committed far from the cameras, behind closed doors. A little girl drowns in the Aegean Sea while another dances live on TV. One after another, European democracies are falling into the hands of radical right-wing parties who, incapable of governing in any way other than through chaos, are creating an atmosphere of permanent fear. Their recipe is well known: xenophobic and identity-based propaganda that stirs up fantasies of national decline to better conceal their political vacuity. And I scroll through the images.

I scroll, not out of desire, but because I am incapable of doing otherwise. Sometimes I stop, not because I feel something, but because I don't feel anything, I no longer feel anything, and that is what terrifies me more than anything else.

We are living in a time when the world is collapsing in high definition. Violence is no longer hidden: it is on display, scripted, multiplied, projected in a loop on all our screens. And yet it is not revolt that dominates our reactions, but a deep numbness. It is neither apathy nor indifference, but something more pernicious: a gradual extinction of our ability to feel. A mental anaesthesia on a civilizational scale. What I call: the Great Psychic Numbness.

This text is not a plea. It is not a cry for help.

It is a lucid confrontation with a drift that we have insidiously come to consider inevitable.

When everything hurts, we no longer feel anything.

Shocking images, calls for solidarity, waves of hashtags—it all floods our screens at the speed of an algorithm. And yet, we have never been so untouched by what we see.

Conflicts pile up like forgotten notifications: Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Congo, the Sahel countries, New Caledonia, Martinique, and so on.

The waters are rising, glaciers are collapsing, nameless bodies are floating in the Mediterranean, which is becoming the largest cemetery on the planet.

But already, a new keyword is replacing the previous one. Memory is being overtaken by speed.

A study published in 2024 by Utrecht University reveals a chilling finding: 64% of Dutch students say they feel emotionally detached from global crises, even though they follow developments every day.

This is not ignorance. It is saturation. An emotional overload that leaves no room for shock, indignation, or grief.

The body goes into standby mode. The mind switches off. It is not that we no longer feel: it is that we are overwhelmed, dissociated, exhausted by compassion.

And this nuance is anything but trivial: it is political. It is moral. It is existential. It draws the line between democratic vigilance and authoritarian drift, between responsibility and renunciation. For while emotional numbness is spreading at the grassroots level, something more sinister is brewing at the top.

The rise of emotional authoritarianism

What we are witnessing is not a simple drift. It is a profound political shift: a radicalization of power that no longer seeks to alleviate collective suffering, but to exploit it.

They no longer govern, they polarize. They do not repair, they fracture.

They do not console, they accuse. This is the new order.

Malaise becomes a resource, fear becomes a lever. In the absence of solutions, culprits are designated. Social pain is recycled into political energy that is brutal, directed, and profitable. This is no longer governance: it is emotional engineering designed to divide.

The result is before our eyes: unrestrained anti-Semitism. Rampant Islamophobia. Systemic racism. Vocal misogyny. Unapologetic transphobia. Legitimized xenophobia.

Hate is no longer hidden. It is on display.

It circulates in slogans, laws, and likes. It has become a language of power, raw, unapologetic, normalized.

This is not a political vacuum. It is politics stripped of all empathy.

Politics without a face, without tremor, without shame. Politics that no longer seeks to convince, but to subjugate.

In such a climate, feeling becomes an act of resistance. Because everything pushes us toward anaesthesia.

 Everything pushes us to retreat. Everything pushes us to close ourselves off.

And that is precisely why feeling has become subversive. Perhaps even vital.

Anaesthesia by design

Numbness is not an anomaly. It is not an accident of the system.

It is a perfectly integrated logic: thought out, optimized, monetized, and, more often than not, graciously distributed under the guise of entertainment.

Social media platforms monetize our nervous systems. Anger keeps us hooked. Tragedy fuels engagement. Every death becomes a data point. Every trauma, a clickbait.

Instagram sublimates war into an aesthetic filter.

TikTok turns trauma into a trend.

X reduces genocide to a 280-character duel.

We are no longer witnesses. We are consumers of suffering.

And in doing so, we lose what made us human: the ability to feel fully, to cry deeply, to respond ethically.

The language of cowardice

When it comes to Gaza, words falter. We avoid those that disturb: “genocide,” “apartheid,” “ethnic cleansing.” Not because they are unfounded, but because they shake diplomatic salons and disturb comfortable narratives.

So we cover the horror with a veneer of language. We invoke “complexity” where oppression should be named. We preach ‘balance’ where justice is a strangled cry.

A child killed becomes an “innocent civilian.”. A targeted bombing becomes a “retaliatory strike,” or even a preventive war. Ethnic cleansing becomes a “security measure.” Apartheid becomes a “protracted territorial conflict,” and the massacre of peoples becomes a right of response.

This is not neutrality. It is lexical cowardice.

A deliberate strategy of linguistic anaesthesia. A semantic fog designed to neutralize indignation before it turns into action.

Citizens are taught to doubt their own moral impulses. To no longer believe their eyes. To relativize their anger.  To look away. To no longer feel.

This is how a war of words becomes a war against memory. And silence becomes complicity.

Gaza: a mirror of our collapse

Gaza is not just a geopolitical disaster.

It is an ethical shipwreck. A collective moral collapse. Not only for those who drop the bombs, but for those who watch, silently, with their arms crossed and their hearts closed.

Every missile that falls tests us. Not only as citizens, but as human beings.

How long do we stare at a pulverized school or hospitals razed to the ground before scrolling down the screen? Three seconds? Four? Five?

And what becomes of our soul when it screams the answer inside us: “No more than that”?

Gaza acts as a brutal mirror.

It reveals what we have become: saturated witnesses. Disconnected observers. Fleeing consciences.

To bear witness to Gaza today is to face an almost unbearable dissonance: between visibility and inaction. Between horror and everyday life. Between lucidity and resignation.

We are not numb because we don't know. We are numb because knowing has become an unbearable pain.

So, in order to survive, we disconnect. We cut the cord. We escape reality.

We become emotionally dead. Present without presence. Informed without memory. Touched without response.

The post-empathetic self

A new figure of our time is emerging, discreet but omnipresent: the “post-empathetic self.”

He or she knows. He knows the facts. She sees the images. He understands the power relations, the issues, the responsibilities.

But he or she no longer feels. Or if they feel, they do not act.

Or if they act, it is only out of reflex, a signature, a share, a form of indignant outrage. A gesture without weight. An act without consequence.

It's not cruelty. It's wear and tear. Moral fatigue. A slow, silent inner collapse. A fatalism that is manufactured and then imposed as an obvious truth that must not be thought about.

But this exhaustion, however human it may be, opens the door to an even greater danger: indifference.

And indifference is never neutral. It is the breeding ground where democracies rot. It is the breach through which genocide infiltrates without resistance.

It is the emotional void into which cold, cynical, methodical authoritarian regimes rush.

The “post-empathetic self” does not kill. But it allows things to happen. And sometimes that is all it takes for the worst to happen.

Where are the sanctuaries of feeling?

And yet, despite the noise, despite the widespread anaesthesia, resistance is organizing. In some places, it is emerging quietly, almost fragile, but deeply tenacious. In Utrecht, London, Paris, Washington, Beirut, Sanaa, Ramallah, Oakland, Amsterdam, pockets of emotional life are resisting the suffocating atmosphere.

Cafés of vulnerability where people talk about grief, without filters or detours. Interfaith vigils where tears flow freely, without belonging to a single faith. Artistic performances that refuse neutrality, that hurt in order to awaken. Circles of young people, sometimes lost, who are relearning to name what they feel—anger, sadness, tenderness, fear—as if relearning a forgotten language.

These are not mere emotional gestures. They are political gestures. Because in an age that rewards coldness, opening up becomes an act of defiance. In a culture where numbness is the norm, feeling is a declaration of war.

These places, these gestures, these voices are not spectacular. But they stand up to cynicism. And that, today, is already an act of dissent.

Towards a radically political emotional ecology

The Great Numbness is not an accident. It is a strategy. We are taught to keep quiet. To repress anger. To stifle empathy.

This is how technocratic systems hold sway: not through brute force, but by anesthetizing the soul, the souls. By paralyzing our ability to feel, they neutralize any desire for change. Any moral insurrection. Any meaningful disobedience.

So what can we do?

Bring emotion back into public life. Rebuild spaces where vulnerability is not ridiculed but shared. Where legitimate outrage is not stifled but honoured. This is where democratic repair begins: not with abstract reforms, but with a collective emotional truth.

We need civic assemblies of feeling. Places where we talk about what hurts, what scares us, what gives us hope. Without this, democracy is nothing but a hollow shell.

We must make schools emotionally literate. Every student should learn to name what they feel. Emotional awareness is not a luxury. It is a civic infrastructure. Understanding your emotions means understanding power, injustice, and the human condition.

We must hold algorithms accountable. Social media platforms should not be held responsible only for fake news, but also for the emotional violence they make commonplace, viral, and inevitable. Regulation can no longer be purely technical:  it must become affective.

We must strengthen those who care for our society.

Attention workers, caregivers, educators, social workers, and psychologists are not secondary actors.

They are the first responders in our wounded society. They must be protected, funded, valued, and above all encouraged to remain vigilant, to watch over, with clarity, a society that is faltering, which some already prefer to believe is dead.

We must fund collective artistic repair. Art must not only be beautiful:  it must be useful.

 It must heal. It must awaken. It must reclaim its true role. Culture is not a supplement to the soul. It is an emotional infrastructure.

Feeling is not a weakness. It is a political power. If our hearts can still break, then they can also rebuild. Another world.

Not later. Not tomorrow. Now. Before it's too late.

Because if we lose the ability to feel, we don't just lose compassion. We lose what remains of our humanity.

And what will remain then... will be silence.

LYNA AL TABAL A hundred years of hell in Palestine

Dr Lyna Al Tabal, Rai Al Youm, 1/8/2025

Translated by Tlaxcala

France has finally decided to recognise the State of Palestine.

In the month when the leaves fall and lies blossom on the banks of the Seine, France has finally granted recognition — timid, belated, seven decades behind...

And UK, the very country that sold off land that did not belong to it, has decided in turn to make a gesture... But Resolution 67/19, adopted by 138 countries at the United Nations General Assembly in 2012, had already granted Palestine the status of ‘non-member observer state’, on the same footing as the Vatican. It was on this basis that Palestine was able to join international organisations and treaties, such as the International Criminal Court and UNESCO.

Okay, you Europeans number 450 million. Your economy is worth $20 trillion. You shine on the stock markets and dominate the markets... But tell me: can your governments weigh even a kilogram of justice? A handful of dignity? Recognition seventy years late – is that your offer? You call that a gesture? You are giving Palestine nothing. Nothing. Is that all you have to offer? Really?

Will this recognition stop a tank? Will it warm the cold bed of a murdered mother? Bring a child back to life? No.

Yes, Europe loves Palestine... but from afar. Like one loves a lost cause, an oriental myth, a poem by Mahmoud Darwish framed on the wall of a Parisian living room. And you know it: Israel will swallow this recognition like it swallows the West Bank — whole.

Enough talk.

The world doesn't need another declaration. It just needs you to stop arming the killer.

This recognition is a caricature. What Palestine needs is for this complicity to end. The UN condemns Israel every day. What has that changed? Gaza is dying of hunger, suffering genocide, crimes, misery...

Three colours dominate: the grey of the ruins, the red of the blood, and the bright gold of disaster – that of the markets thriving on the rubble. There is no need for further statements. Keep your ‘courageous’ gestures. Jeffrey Sachs is not a revolutionary. He is an expert, a man who simply tells the truth: ‘Stop supplying arms to Israel, and the war will end.’

The solution begins with one word: responsibility. The responsibility of Israel, but also of all those who support it. Imposing sanctions is the minimum. Their Prime Minister is accused? Then let him be taken to The Hague in handcuffs and let the trials begin – if you still believe in that word: peace.

The only measure that makes sense in this region is the disarmament of Israel.

But what can Europe do in the face of the great powers that dictate their laws and impose their will? The Trump administration has not even bothered to hide its imperialism: ‘We will do what we want, you are worthless,’ it has proclaimed.

All this is merely the logical consequence of a choice: that of the Western world, which has preferred unipolarity to justice.

Let's not waste our time today by condemning Abu Mazen (President of the Palestinian [In]Authority)... There's no point in shooting at a hearse: history will judge him in the end.

And for goodness' sake, stop shouting ‘Where are the Arabs?’ — that question no longer makes sense. It's a stupid question.

The Arabs, my friend, have disappeared...

All that's left is you, me, and a handful of believers, dreamers, who can be counted on the fingers of one hand.

They have disappeared, like ancient species. So don't ask where they are.

All this has happened because the Western world has decided to move towards a single empire that does not resemble it and does not respect it. Europe could have prevented this war or mitigated its violence... but it chose to fall in love!

Europe is like an old lady wearing a hat made of colourful peacock feathers, who believes that America loves her... She is blinded by her love for America. Since the late 1990s, Europe has not adopted an independent foreign policy, except for a policy of hostility towards Russia... Russia is a Soviet nightmare for her, when it should have been a trading partner, but she has decided to be Washington's unhappy mistress.

Ursula von der Leyen, the official spokesperson for the American empire within the European Commission, is a ridiculous woman! You know, of course, that it is American officials who run Europe, but you continue to pretend that Brussels is the capital of Europe.

You know very well that it is Washington that calls the shots...

And yet, despite everything, you smile and wave the European flag proudly.

There is no security for Ukraine, nor for Europe, nor even for your children's dreams, in this insane American adventure that you have joined and become the leaders of.

You are complicit in a million deaths. Yes, you knowingly participated in this massacre in Ukraine.

You have sown only death. And what has changed? Nothing.

Let's return to the American position. Trump, true to form, threatens: ‘America will enter Ukraine to finish the job.’

And Putin, also true to form, bursts out laughing: “Let him talk... He always does the opposite of what he says”.

In Palestine, the situation is very clear, Mike Huckabee says there is no possible solution in Palestine!

The US has abandoned its policy in the Mashreq and handed it over to Benjamin Netanyahu... It is the Israeli lobby that dominates US policy. It's a joke!

In 1996, at the height of the peace talks, while Israelis and Palestinians were sitting in the negotiating rooms, shaking hands in Madrid, negotiating in Oslo and placing Palestinian flags alongside United Nations flags, and while Yasser Arafat was modifying the pact in the hope of a state, Netanyahu and his USAmerican Zionist advisers were preparing a plan to replace the two-state solution with a ‘solution by force’: encircle Syria, strike Iraq and suffocate the Palestinians. And strike any alliance that formed to support Palestine, including Hezbollah and Hamas. They called this solution "A Clean Break " because they had decided to break away permanently and impose their reality.

Based on this document, the US waged seven wars in five years. General Wesley Clark carried out the instructions of the Israeli political bureau. You can listen to General Wesley Clark on the Internet, he talks about this subject. He was NATO's commander-in-chief in 1999... These are Netanyahu's wars, by the way: to eliminate the remnants of the Soviet allies, dismantle the system of every state, every alliance and organisation hostile to Israel, and sow chaos in the region.

And every time a war broke out, Netanyahu would flash that same smile — the smile of a man lighting a cigarette at the first sign of depression. For thirty years, he has tirelessly repeated his vision: there will be only one state, Israel.

‘And any dissenting voice will be crushed — not by us directly, but by our American friends,’ he said. That, in general, is the policy of the United States in the Mashreq, even today.

This policy did not begin with Trump, nor with Biden, and it was not invented by Clinton, Bush or Obama. It is the tedious game of U.S.  politics: if you are not with us, you are against us, and if you are against us, wait for your regime to collapse from within. Is this not the daily reality of U.S. politics? Since World War II, the US has constantly intervened directly in the affairs of other countries, under the guise of a fallacious discourse on democracy. Between 1945 and 1989, it brought about seventy regime changes. It accused the Soviets of wanting to conquer the world, then used this pretext to conquer the world itself...

Our destiny is already mapped out, set in stone for the next hundred years... But we have this habit of surprising them, of sabotaging their most sinister plans. They thought Gaza would collapse in a month. They dug our graves, pitched their tents in the Sinai and redrew the maps of the region.

What a grotesque illusion! They believed that Gaza was just an inconvenient detail to be swept away in a few weeks. But every massacre gave birth to a new missile: from the Qassam to the Yassin, then the Badr-3; from the Ayyash 250 to the R160, to the Al-Quds and the Asif al-Ghadab.

What impotence! Have you forgotten that Gaza defies even the laws of physics? Everything that is thrown at it... ends up bouncing back.

They gambled on the colonisation of the West Bank — and they won that gamble.

They believed that a military victory would signify the end of the conflict. But Gaza reminds them every moment: this is not a battle, it is an existence.

What victory can be claimed when the stability of an army depends on a box of Prozac? A state that can only stand with antidepressants is not a state: it is a patient.

This is not advice, but a warning — cold, clear — from an enemy who does not like you... but does not even wish you dead.

It is simply telling you: go home.

The further you extend the borders of Greater Israel, the closer you run to the wall of nothingness.

For the closer you get to this imperial dream, the more it loses its meaning.

You may have won a few battles, but you are wasting what matters most: time.

And history never forgets arrogance.

The more you expand, the more vulnerable you become. The further you go, the more you exhaust yourselves. Look at Ben Gvir: a sham minister, ranting like a simpleton — ‘Send bombs, not aid to Gaza!’ "

He believes that history is written by shouting. He thinks that missiles can replace memory.

But war is not won only on the battlefield. It is won — or lost — in books, in people's minds, in the mark you leave behind.

And history, my enemies, is not dictated by megaphones. It remembers. And it will consign you — you, your bombs, your buffoons — to the red margin of eternal shame.

Tell me how? Tell me, for God's sake, how can a state claim victory when it has already lost the story?

Because one day — soon — everyone will read that Israel was a fascist state, an apartheid regime that razed cities, annihilated peoples, brought down governments to survive... and then collapsed, suffocated by its own hatred.

And that history is not being written by Tel Aviv. It is being written by Gaza.

Gaza is writing it with its rockets, with its blood, with a will that neither bombs nor tanks can break.

You will read it in a few years. And your children will read it in their school textbooks.

And on that day, they will look at you... and they will feel ashamed.

 

 

B'TSELEMOur GenocideReport

B'Tselem, July 2025

النسخة العربية  גרסה עברית

Since October 2023, Israel has shifted its policy toward the Palestinians. Its military onslaught on Gaza, underway for more than 21 months, has included mass killing, both directly and through creating unlivable conditions, serious bodily or mental harm to an entire population, decimation of basic infrastructure throughout the Strip, and forcible displacement on a huge scale, with ethnic cleansing added to the list of official war objectives. 

This is compounded by mass arrests and abuse of Palestinians in Israeli prisons, which have effectively become torture camps, and tearing apart the social fabric of Gaza, including the destruction of Palestinian educational and cultural institutions. The campaign is also an assault on Palestinian identity itself, through the deliberate destruction of refugee camps and attempts to undermine the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

An examination of Israel’s policy in the Gaza Strip and its horrific outcomes, together with statements by senior Israeli politicians and military commanders about the goals of the attack, leads to the unequivocal conclusion that Israel is taking coordinated, deliberate action to destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip. In other words: Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. 

The term genocide refers to a socio-historical and political phenomenon involving acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. Both morally and legally, genocide cannot be justified under any circumstance, including as an act of self-defense. 

Genocide always occurs within a context: there are conditions that enable it, triggering events, and a guiding ideology. The current onslaught on the Palestinian people, including in the Gaza Strip, must be understood in the context of more than seventy years in which Israel has imposed a violent and discriminatory regime on the Palestinians, taking its most extreme form against those living in the Gaza Strip. Since the State of Israel was established, the apartheid and occupation regime has institutionalized and systematically employed mechanisms of violent control, demographic engineering, discrimination, and fragmentation of the Palestinian collective. These foundations laid by the regime are what made it possible to launch a genocidal attack on the Palestinians immediately after the Hamas-led attack on 7 October 2023.

The assault on Palestinians in Gaza cannot be separated from the escalating violence being inflicted, at varying levels and in different forms, on Palestinians living under Israeli rule in the West Bank and within Israel. The violence and destruction in these areas is intensifying over time, with no effective domestic or international mechanism acting to halt them. We warn of the clear and present danger that the genocide will not remain confined to the Gaza Strip, and that the actions and underlying mindset driving it may be extended to other areas as well. 

The recognition that the Israeli regime is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip, and the deep concern that it may expand to other areas where Palestinians live under Israeli rule, demand urgent and unequivocal action from both Israeli society and the international community, and use of every means available under international law to stop Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people. 

 

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LYNA AL TABALI stand with Francesca Albanese

Dr. Lyna Al-Tabal, Rai Al Youm, 11/7/2025

Arabic original

Translated by  Ayman El Hakim

Lyna Al Tabal  is Lebanese, holds a PhD in political science, is a lawyer by training, and a professor of international relations and human rights.

Yes, I chose to title this article in English. Not because I like to show off, nor because I believe more in the globalization of language than in its fairness. But because this phrase has become, without anyone’s permission, a declaration of global solidarity.

I stand with Francesca Albanese

A short sentence but loaded with meaning... only five words. Spoken calmly, but classified as dangerous to national security... How?

There is an Italian woman who is currently being prosecuted because of Gaza. She does not have the genes of resistance, she has no family ties to Gaza, no past marked by the Nakba, not even a photo. She is not an Arab, she was not born in a camp, she was not raised on the rhetoric of liberation. She is not a left-wing dreamer, she may not have read Marx in cafés. She has never thrown a single stone at an Israeli soldier... All she did was fulfil her professional duty.

“Crazy,” Trump said. He who monopolizes this label and dishes it out like narcissists do when they crumble in front of a woman who has not remained silent in the face of injustice.

Her name is Francesca Albanese. An Italian lawyer and academic, she has served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967. As an international civil servant, sitting behind a white desk, she writes reports in precise language and impartial legal terms. She is not a gifted orator, but she has made her position clear and unambiguous: what is happening in Gaza is genocide.

She wrote it in black and white in an official report published as part of her duties, in a language that is understandable under international law: what Israel is doing in Gaza is genocide.

Overnight, her name became dangerous and had to be destroyed, just as the Israeli army destroys houses in Rafah. Her name was destroyed by a single political missile, and she was placed on the sanctions list alongside traffickers and financiers of terrorism.

Now I know: in this world, all you have to do is not lie to be banned from traveling, have your accounts frozen, and be excluded from the international system.

Francesca did not break the law, she enforced it. And that is her real crime.

She did not make any errors in her definition, she did not exaggerate in her language, she did not overstep her authority. All she did was call the crime by its name.

No, this report does not deal with the genocide of Native Americans. Nor does it deal with Vietnam, white phosphorus, Baghdad, or Tripoli... This report does not stir up America’s past; it deals with an unabashed present. And with the right that is lost when we claim it... This report deals with international justice, which is being stifled before our very eyes, and with the charter of human rights, which is also evaporating before our eyes. While the guilty party sits on the Security Council.

This report talks about a world that does not punish liars. A world that kills you when you love sincerely, when you give without counting the cost, when you speak with courage, when you try to repair the damage.

This report simply talks about the dark world.

This world that strangles all those who don’t want to be like it.

Francesca wasn’t the first.

When the Rome Statute came into being, the US treated the International Criminal Court as a “legal virus” because they couldn’t control it... Bill Clinton signed it (without ratifying it). Then George W. Bush came along, withdrew his signature and passed what was called the “Hague Invasion Act,” which authorizes the military invasion of the Netherlands if the Criminal Court dares to try even one American soldier... Barack Obama, the wise man, did not repeal the law... Then came Trump, the blond cowboy with two guns in his belt, who delivered the coup de grace to justice... He punished Fatou Bensouda, the former chief prosecutor of the Court, for opening the Afghanistan and Palestine cases. He revoked her visa, froze her assets, and hung her on the noose of his sarcastic tweets.

Then came Karim Khan, the current attorney general, tasked with the heavy Gaza case and a list of equally heavy names: Netanyahu, Galant... Once again, the cutlass of political vengeance returned and threatened the sword of justice.

Karim Khan has been inundated with threats from Congress, the White House, and Tel Aviv.

 On his first day in the White House, Donald Trump signed the law imposing sanctions on the International Criminal Court. A man of Pakistani origin who dares to touch untouchable names? The game is over.

This is how an international institution, with all its staff and equipment, was placed under US sanctions, as if it were an armed militia... Its employees were banned from traveling, working, and even breathing freely... Who said America prevents justice? As long as it doesn’t come near Tel Aviv or the Pentagon.

And in a moment of sincerity, Joe Biden said it in his convoluted way: these laws were not written to apply to “white men,” but to Africans... and to Putin, when necessary.

And so the paradox is complete: 85% of prosecutions and trials before the International Criminal Court involve Africans.

 And when cases are opened on Westerners, justice becomes a threat... and the Court a target.

And now you know too: if you cross the line,

it is the Court that is being judged,
the judge who is judged,
and the witness who is being judged.

All that remains is the murderer... sitting in the front row, smiling at the cameras, receiving invitations to attend a conference on human rights. Why not?

Trump dealt a fatal blow to international law, a stab in the heart of the International Criminal Court, then buried what remained of the human rights system and threw us the corpse: “There, bury it,” he said in the same tone used to give orders during the massacres on the Syrian coast, when Alawites were buried under the rubble, without witnesses, without investigation, sometimes without names, with only a number... A hole, and it’s all over.

Trump acted like a cowboy: he fired first, then declared that the target was a threat to security. All this in full view of the world. And in full view of us too... In full view of Europe, to be precise.

Europe drafted these laws from the ashes of its wars, its unresolved psychological complexes, and its fear of itself.

And today, it watches, silent... With all its psychological complexes, Europe remains silent today. It buries its legal child in cold blood, just as the mothers of Gaza bury their children...

With a single tear, because time does not allow for long crying.

Do you understand now? All human rights laws, from the Rome Statute to the International Charter, are good for academic seminars and training courses that end with the awarding of diplomas and photos of happy experts.

And everything is decided in Washington.

This is how international justice is administered in the age of hegemony: a list of sanctions... and a red carpet rolled out for the executioner.

Did you follow the story correctly?

An Italian woman on the US list of political terrorists... Her name is Francesca Albanese. She is not from Gaza, she has not been through a war, she was not born under a blockade. She does not hide weapons or bombs in her bag, she does not belong to a secret organization... She comes from the world of law, from United Nations institutions, from a neutral bureaucracy... All she did was write an official report on what happened in Gaza...

She wrote what she saw: blood, rubble, a crime in its own right... She wrote that what happened there was not a security operation, nor self-defence, but genocide... She did her job in the language of reports, without slogans, without rallying cries, without even putting a red half-watermelon in the margin... Francesca Albanese shook up the world order because she didn’t lie...

She did not violate diplomatic rules... She simply applied the law...

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Nobel Peace Prize for Francesca Albanese and the doctors of Gaza

Marco Rubio sanctions/sanctionne/sanciona a Francesca Albanese

Sanctioning Lawfare that Targets U.S. and Israeli Persons Press Statement Marco Rubio, Secretary of State July 9, 2025 Today, I am imposing sanctions on Francesca Paola Albanese, the United Nations Human Rights Council “Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Occupied since 1967,” pursuant to President Trump’s Executive Order 14203, “Imposing Sanctions on the International Criminal Court.” Albanese has directly engaged with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in efforts to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute nationals of the United States or Israel, without the consent of those two countries. Neither the United States nor Israel is party to the Rome Statute, making this action a gross infringement on the sovereignty of both countries. The United States has repeatedly condemned and objected to the biased and malicious activities of Albanese that have long made her unfit for service as a Special Rapporteur. Albanese has spewed unabashed antisemitism, expressed support for terrorism, and open contempt for the United States, Israel, and the West. That bias has been apparent across the span of her career, including recommending that the ICC, without a legitimate basis, issue arrest warrants targeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. She has recently escalated this effort by writing threatening letters to dozens of entities worldwide, including major American companies across finance, technology, defense, energy, and hospitality, making extreme and unfounded accusations and recommending the ICC pursue investigations and prosecutions of these companies and their executives. We will not tolerate these campaigns of political and economic warfare, which threaten our national interests and sovereignty. The United States will continue to take whatever actions we deem necessary to respond to lawfare, to check and prevent illegitimate ICC overreach and abuse of power, and to protect our sovereignty and that of our allies. Albanese is being designated pursuant to Section 1(a)(ii)(A) of Executive Order (E.O.) 14203.

Sanctionner les poursuites judiciaires visant des ressortissants américains et israéliens Communiqué de presse Marco Rubio, secrétaire d'État 9 juillet 2025 Aujourd'hui, j'impose des sanctions à Francesca Paola Albanese, « Rapporteure spéciale sur la situation des droits de l'homme dans les territoires palestiniens occupés depuis 1967 » du Conseil des droits de l'homme des Nations unies, conformément au décret présidentiel 14203 de Donald Trump, « Imposition de sanctions à la Cour pénale internationale ». Mme Albanese a collaboré directement avec la Cour pénale internationale (CPI) dans le cadre d'efforts visant à enquêter, arrêter, détenir ou poursuivre des ressortissants des États-Unis ou d'Israël, sans le consentement de ces deux pays. Ni les États-Unis ni Israël ne sont parties au Statut de Rome, ce qui fait de cette action une violation flagrante de la souveraineté des deux pays. Les États-Unis ont condamné et contesté à plusieurs reprises les activités partiales et malveillantes d'Albanese, qui la rendent depuis longtemps inapte à exercer les fonctions de rapporteure spéciale. Albanese a proféré des propos antisémites sans vergogne, exprimé son soutien au terrorisme et manifesté ouvertement son mépris pour les États-Unis, Israël et l'Occident. Ce parti pris a été manifeste tout au long de sa carrière, notamment lorsqu'elle a recommandé à la CPI, sans fondement légitime, de délivrer des mandats d'arrêt à l'encontre du Premier ministre israélien Benjamin Netanyahou et de l'ancien ministre de la Défense Yoav Gallant. Elle a récemment intensifié ses efforts en écrivant des lettres de menace à des dizaines d'entités à travers le monde, notamment à de grandes entreprises américaines dans les domaines de la finance, de la technologie, de la défense, de l'énergie et de l'hôtellerie, en portant des accusations extrêmes et infondées et en recommandant à la CPI de mener des enquêtes et des poursuites contre ces entreprises et leurs dirigeants. Nous ne tolérerons pas ces campagnes de guerre politique et économique, qui menacent nos intérêts nationaux et notre souveraineté. Les États-Unis continueront à prendre toutes les mesures qu'ils jugent nécessaires pour répondre à ces manœuvres juridiques, pour contrôler et empêcher les abus de pouvoir et les dépassements illégitimes de la CPI, et pour protéger notre souveraineté et celle de nos alliés. Albanese est désignée conformément à la section 1(a)(ii)(A) du décret présidentiel (E.O.) 14203.

Sanciones contra la guerra jurídica dirigida contra ciudadanos usamericanos e israelíes Comunicado de prensa Marco Rubio, secretario de Estado 9 de julio de 2025 Hoy impongo sanciones a Francesca Paola Albanese, «Relatora Especial sobre la situación de los derechos humanos en los territorios palestinos ocupados desde 1967» del Consejo de Derechos Humanos de las Naciones Unidas, de conformidad con la Orden Ejecutiva 14203 del presidente Trump, «Imposición de sanciones a la Corte Penal Internacional». Albanese ha colaborado directamente con la Corte Penal Internacional (CPI) en los esfuerzos por investigar, arrestar, detener o enjuiciar a ciudadanos de Estados Unidos o Israel, sin el consentimiento de esos dos países. Ni Estados Unidos ni Israel hacen parte del Estatuto de Roma, lo que convierte esta acción en una grave violación de la soberanía de ambos países. Estados Unidos ha condenado y objetado repetidamente las actividades sesgadas y maliciosas de Albanese, que desde hace tiempo la hacen inapta  para el cargo de relatora especial. Albanese ha vertido un antisemitismo descarado, ha expresado su apoyo al terrorismo y ha mostrado un desprecio abierto hacia Estados Unidos, Israel y Occidente. Ese sesgo ha sido evidente a lo largo de toda su carrera, incluyendo la recomendación de que la CPI, sin base legítima, emitiera órdenes de arresto contra el primer ministro israelí, Benjyamin Netanyahu, y el exministro de Defensa, Yoav Gallant. Recientemente ha intensificado esta campaña enviando cartas amenazadoras a decenas de entidades de todo el mundo, incluidas importantes empresas usamericanas de los sectores financiero, tecnológico, de defensa, energético y hotelero, en las que formula acusaciones extremas e infundadas y recomienda a la CPI que investigue y procese a estas empresas y a sus ejecutivos. No toleraremos estas campañas de guerra política y económica, que amenazan nuestros intereses nacionales y nuestra soberanía. Estados Unidos seguirá tomando todas las medidas que considere necesarias para responder a la guerra jurídica, controlar y prevenir la extralimitación ilegítima y el abuso de poder de la CPI, y proteger nuestra soberanía y la de nuestros aliados. Albanese ha sido designada de conformidad con la sección 1(a)(ii)(A) de la Orden Ejecutiva (E.O.) 14203.