Zuhal Demirci and Fatma Zehra Solmaz
01 June 2025•Update: 01 June 2025
LONDON/ISTANBUL
The West has already lost its credibility by giving Israel free rein, said Francesca Albanese, a UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, in response to French President Emmanuel Macron's statement: "If we abandon Gaza ... we kill our own credibility in the rest of the world."
Albanese wrote on X on Saturday: "Tragically, it’s already done: the West has sacrificed its credibility through decades of free passes granted to Israel."
She added: "Millions in the West—for whom liberte, egalite, fraternite are universal values—are suffering. One path remains: sanction Israel and protection force in oPt."
On Friday, Macron said at the Shangri-la Dialogue, an annual high-level Asia defense summit held in Singapore, "If we abandon Gaza, if we consider Israel to have a free pass, even if we condemn the terrorist attacks, we kill our own credibility in the rest of the world."
Macron emphasized the need for a ceasefire and urgent humanitarian aid in Gaza, as well as efforts to recognize a Palestinian state.
Separately, Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard responded to the French president's statement by writing on X: "Macron warns the West could lose credibility over Ukraine and Gaza wars… Seriously? Credibility was lost 19 months ago."
"The result of the West’s complicity or inaction in Israel’s genocide in Gaza. And it will take far more than words for it to be restored," she added.
