Journalists with strong connections in Lebanon are reporting that international lawyer and UN human rights expert Francesca Albanese has been banned from speaking at the American University of Beirut (AUB), because of US sanctions against her.

University management are allegedly trying to kill the story — and so far, succeeding: there has been little to no reporting of the ban.

The news leaked out on the same day that the fearless Albanese condemned Israel’s criminal destruction of the UN compound in Jerusalem belonging to the Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA as a facet of the US-Israel war on the United Nations itself and even on the concept of international law.

We note that the same university shamelessly has it on record on its website that it had denied Malcolm X entry to the university in 1964. It cited that it had done so because the American-born, American citizen and champion of the American civil rights movement was “anti-American.”

The ban on Francesca Albanese, alongside the sanctions against her, stands as a badge of honour — proof of how effectively she has rattled the empire.

While the existence of an American university like AUB in the heart of Beirut is, in itself, a clear marker of the United States’ colonial stance toward Lebanon.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

This post was originally published on Canary.