Francesca Albanese:
“The narrative that has been spread including by European leaders is that 7th of October, the crimes that were committed on October 7 were because of antisemitism. This is so false. I do not exclude that there could be antisemitic sentiments among some Palestinians. Who am I to say that? But the motives were not antisemitic - because the attack was against Israel and Israelis, unfortunately Israeli civilians, unfortunately, regrettably, but because they are occupiers - I mean, 75% of the Palestinians who live in Gaza are not from Gaza, are from the lands of the kibbutzim that have been created, first and foremost as military outposts, and then they have become places of civilian places.
But you see this is why I keep on saying unhealed wounds continue to fester. And also, sorry to say but Israelis have lived with the ghetto that Gaza has become for decades. And Israel, many Israelis not those-many of those living in the kibbutzim were really peace activists and active against apartheid and the occupation, this is the tragedy within the tragedy, but average Israelis don’t even care about what the soldiers do in the occupied Palestinian territory. So there is this mental cognitive dissonance that they really believe that there is a dark area that doesn’t belong to their conscience. It does. And this is the reminder of it.”
(Interviewed on podcast of Slovenian president Nataša Pirc Musar, July 24, 2025.)
