ATHENS, (PIC)
UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, warned that Israel is exploiting Greece’s fears and sense of insecurity to advance its own interests.
Speaking Sunday evening at an event in Athens promoting her book When the World Sleeps – Stories, Words, and Wounds of Palestine, Albanese said Greece believes it has chosen to align itself with Israel in pursuit of peace and protection against external threats.
“But Israel is the one that chose you,” she said. “And it will use your fears and insecurity to serve its own interests.” She added that Israel uses the Palestinian territories as a “laboratory” to test weapons and surveillance technologies before marketing them to other countries.
Albanese called for accountability for entities involved in arms and trade deals between Israel and Greece, suggesting parliamentary investigations and investigative journalism as tools for scrutiny.
Her remarks came amid growing political and media controversy in Greece over the authorities’ silence regarding the Israeli attack on the “Global Sumoud Flotilla” in international waters near Greek shores.
Greek civil society and human rights organizations, including “March to Gaza–Greece,” alleged that the attack took place with direct cooperation from the Greek side.
The “Spring Mission 2026” of the Global Sumoud Flotilla had departed from the Italian island of Sicily on April 26 to break the Israeli blockade on Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid.
On Wednesday evening, boats carrying activists were subjected to what was described as an unlawful Israeli attack in international waters off the coast of Crete.
The initiative was the second mission organized by the Global Sumoud Flotilla, following a previous effort in September 2025 that ended with an Israeli attack in October of the same year and the arrest and deportation of hundreds of international activists.
Israel has imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip since 2007. Current figures indicate that around 1.5 million Palestinians out of Gaza’s population of 2.4 million have been left homeless after their homes were destroyed during the war.
A ceasefire agreement was eventually reached following a two-year war that began on October 8, 2023, and resulted in more than 72,000 Palestinians killed and over 172,000 wounded.
