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Albanese has spoken truth with unflinching clarity in a world largely silent in the face of a holocaust, carrying out her mandate with integrity and defiance that honours both the law and the human conscience. This book is a formidable indictment of injustice and demonstrates what it means to stand alone against power' -- Susan Abulhawa, author of
Against the Loveless World 'Albanese is perhaps the one figure of our times that future historians will recall as the one who did the most to redeem our generation from its guilt over the genocide of the Palestinian people. Her reflections in this book are not just timely - they are for the ages' -- Yanis Varoufakis
Foreword by Richard Falk, John Dugard, and Michael Lynk
Israel's genocide in Palestine and the complicity of powerful Western states are undermining international human rights and the UN system. The United States has imposed sanctions on lawyers, UN experts, and Palestinian officials in an attempt to bully and intimidate them into silence. One prominent example is UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese, who has played an essential role in documenting Israel's atrocities and those who profit from its oppression of Palestinians.
A Moon Will Rise from the Darkness compiles Albanese's indispensable and damning reports on Israel's conduct in Palestine since October 2023. First outlining the case that this period should be understood as a genocide, Albanese goes on to explain how the ongoing violence fits into a more extended history of settler colonialism, and finally presents a devastating indictment against the international corporations that treat mass killing and destruction as a business opportunity.
The volume also features a reflection by Albanese on the current state of affairs, revelations by her predecessors -- Richard Falk, John Dugard, and Michael Lynk -- of their experiences as UN special rapporteurs, and a preface by Lex Takkenberg, a 30-year veteran of UNRWA, co-authored with scholar Mandy Turner.
All royalties from the book's sales will be donated to UNRWA, the UN agency that supports Palestinian refugees.
About the author
Francesca Albanese is an international lawyer specialising in human rights and the Middle East. Since 2022, she has served as the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Palestinian territories occupied since 1967. An affiliate scholar at the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University, Albanese is the author of
J'Accuse and co-author (with Lex Takkenberg) of
Palestinian Refugees in International Law. Mandy Turner is a researcher based in London. She has held positions as professor of conflict, peace, and humanitarian affairs at the University of Manchester, UK; director of the Kenyon Institute in East Jerusalem; and senior lecturer in conflict resolution at University of Bradford. Her last book was an edited collection
From the River to the Sea: Palestine and Israel in the Shadow of 'Peace' published in Arabic in 2024 by ACRPS (Doha). She currently writes for
Security in Context. Lex Takkenberg is Senior Advisor on the Question of Palestine at ARDD (Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development) and freelance lecturer at the University of Vienna. From 1989-2019, he worked with UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. He is co-author (with Francesca Albanese) of
The Status of Palestinian Refugees in International Law.
Richard Falk is Emeritus Professor of International Law at Princeton University in the United States. He served as UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 from 2008-2012, and is currently Chair of the Gaza Tribunal. He is a prolific writer on international law and global politics; his most recent publication is
Genocide in Gaza: Global Voices of Conscience (co-editor with Ahmet Davutoğlu).
John Dugard SC is Emeritus Professor of Law at the Universities of the Witwatersrand and Leiden and a Member of Institut de Droit International. He served as UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 from 2001-2008; and currently serves as Legal Counsel, South Africa
v Israel (Genocide Convention).
Michael Lynk is Professor Emeritus of Law at Western University in Canada, where he taught from 1999 until his retirement in 2022. He has published widely in the areas of Canadian labour law, human rights law, and international law. He served as UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 from 2016-2022.
