Abstract: This article provides a critical reading of Francesca Albanese’s “Quando il mondo dorme” (When the World Sleeps), situating it within the broader context of the events that transpired in Palestine in 2025. The article utilizes an analytical approach to examine the narrative structure and legal framework of the text. Through this analysis, the article demonstrates how the book functions as an interpretative instrument that facilitates the examination of colonial violence and international inaction. The year 2025 is a critical juncture where the nexus of crime, impunity, and global indifference intersect. Albanese’s narrative extends beyond mere documentation of Palestine, delving into the complexities of its political and media suppression.

Introduction

In recent years, the Palestinian question has undergone a progressive shift from the realm of legal discourse to that of emergency, security, and exception. “Quando il mondo dorme” (When the World Sleeps), by Francesca Albanese, fits into this category as a profoundly political yet not ideological work. It is a book that restores centrality to the victims through the medium of individual stories that shed light on systemic structures of domination.

The year 2025 represents a pivotal juncture in this trajectory. This is not solely due to the escalation of violence in the Gaza Strip and the recurrent failure of ceasefires, but also due to the normalization of international silence that has accompanied these events. In this context, Albanese’s book assumes a value that transcends mere testimony, metamorphosing into an interpretative framework capable of interconnecting biographies, international law, and political responsibilities.

The objective of this review is to interpret “Quando il mondo dorme” not merely as a narrative about Palestine, but rather as a critical instrument that facilitates comprehension of the reasons why, in 2025, the global community opted for a state of slumber.

Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), is interviewed after speaking at Queen Mary University of London on 12th November 2024 in London, United Kingdom. [Photo by Mark Kerrison/In Pictures via Getty Images]

Francesca Albanese

The author, Francesca Albanese, was already a well-known name in academic circles in Palestine. Unfortunately, even those who peruse a daily newspaper have recently become aware of her. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in Law from the University of Pisa in 2001, subsequently pursued a master’s degree in International Development from the Institute for Advanced International Studies, and specialized in International Human Rights Law at the School of Oriental and African Studies in the United Kingdom. She earned a PhD in Refugee Studies from the University of Amsterdam. She has worked closely with undocumented migrants from Morocco, both for CGIL and UNDP, and has been an international observer since 2002, initially in Pakistan, then Guinea Bissau and Haiti. Since 2010, she has been involved with Palestine, working as a legal officer for UNRWA’s International Legal Division in Jerusalem, where she conducted analysis and research on humanitarian law. She has spearheaded regional research projects on forced displacement in the Arab world, with a particular focus on the political and identity aspirations of Palestinian refugees in Jordan.

In 2022, she was appointed by the Human Rights Council to serve as UN Special Rapporteur, tasked with investigating violations of international law in the Occupied Territories. Since 2020, she has provided extensive body of literature on the subject¹.

Nevertheless, while the academic community has lauded her efforts “to protect human rights in the OPT [Occupied Palestinian Territories] and her awareness of the alarming violations of Palestinian rights,”² since February 2023, politicians from the US and Italy have been advocating for her removal and replacement. On July 5, 2025, the US government imposed sanctions on Albanese, citing her support for the International Criminal Court’s investigation into Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu³, with Albanese accused of anti-Semitic sentiments. Subsequent media coverage has drawn attention to her struggles as an undesirable person in the US, where her assets have been seized⁴. In December 2025, she engaged in a meeting with several Italian institutions of higher education, which were subsequently inspected for alleged crimes related to her statements⁵, and she was removed from the list of scholars at Georgetown University for “spreading hatred.⁶”

The book

The historical juncture

The year 2025 was marked by three primary phases that shaped the Palestinian pathway: the humanitarian crisis, the truce, and the silence.At the start of the year, Qatar, Egypt, and the United States mediated a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. The initial phase of the agreement stipulated a 42-day cessation of hostilities, Israel’s withdrawal from a 700-meter buffer zone, the repatriation of displaced persons, and the exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners⁹.

However, in March, the Israeli government breached the agreement and imposed a total three-month blockade on the Gaza Strip, preventing food, water, medicine, fuel, and electricity from reaching the civilian population¹⁰. In order to break the naval blockade, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, a network of non-violent activists¹¹, organized a series of maritime missions between May and July. In the first month, the ship Conscience was struck by drones in international waters¹², a distance of 14 miles from the border with Malta; the ships Madleen – which was transporting high-profile activists, including Greta Thunberg and MEP Rima Hassan – and Handala were intercepted and their crews arrested and deported by the Israeli Defense Forces¹³. Consequently, on August 31, 52 ships from 44 different countries embarked on their journey: it was the largest civilian aid mission to date for Gaza. Their journey was disrupted by drones and other such means, thus prompting Spain and Italy to deploy military escorts¹⁴. However, the ships did not reach Gaza; 42 of them were intercepted in international watersand 450 activists were detained and deported¹⁵. The 11 ships that departed on October 3 proved also unsuccessful.

Meanwhile, President Trump facilitated a ceasefire agreement, which stipulated, in subsequent phases, a truce, the withdrawal of Israeli troops, the release of hostages and prisoners, and later the reconstruction of the Strip under the administration of Palestinian and international authorities¹⁶. However, just nine days after the truce was signed, Israel launched a bombing raid on Rafah and impeded the entry of aid again, accusing Hamas of violating the agreement¹⁷; on October 27, Gaza City, Khan Younis, and Nuseirat were hit. The second peak was documented two days later¹⁸. Between November and December, Israeli violations intensified, with direct targeting of civilians and military vehicles¹⁹. Despite the IDF announcing its intention to attack “Hezbollah targets” in Lebanon and Defence Minister Israel Katz declaring that Israel would never completely withdraw from Gaza, the White House welcomed Benjamin Netanyahu at the end of the year to discuss “phase 2” of the ceasefire agreement²⁰.

All this amid international silence.

While the United States has adopted a paternalistic stance, actively engaged in the peace process and having endorsed the president’s signature on the peace agreement, the European Union has emphasized Hamas’s refusal to demilitarize as an obstacle to peace²¹, and the United Nations is gagged by the US’ veto power. Turkey remains the sole voice that has not aligned with the prevailing consensus²².

A thorough media analysis has revealed a systematic distortion of the public narrative. Israeli perspectives are given three times more space than Palestinian ones. The expression “right to exist” for Israel appears “overwhelmingly” compared to its use for Palestine. The context of occupation is systematically omitted, and military terms such as “precision strikes” and “human shields” recur dozens of times, normalizing state violence as “rational self-defense²³.” Furthermore, the UK Media Monitoring Center documented that the language describes Israelis as victims 11 times more frequently than Palestinians. This numerical disparity mirrors the disparity in physical impact (for every Israeli child killed on October 7, Israel killed at least 360), yet media coverage reverses this proportion²⁴.

Conclusions

In 2025, Palestine emerged as a prime example of the crisis of the international order based on law. The events in Gaza not only marked yet another military escalation, but also highlighted the inability, or unwillingness, of international institutions to selectively apply the rules that they themselves claim to be universal.In this scenario, “Quando il mondo dorme” emerges as a pivotal interpretative instrument. Francesca Albanese’s book does not merely document violence; rather, it meticulously reconstructs its political and legal grammar, thereby demonstrating how silence, narrative distortion, and impunity constitute forms of active complicity. When evaluated in the context of the year 2025, the text facilitates comprehension of the evolution of the Palestinian exception into a tolerated norm.

The work does not proffer conciliatory resolutions or generic moral pleas. Instead, it advocates for a reversion to political responsibility and the law as a concrete praxis. In a context in which the world continues to “sleep,” the book’s value lies precisely in its ability to disrupt this quietude, rendering ignorance impossible and neutrality increasingly fragile.

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