Comment by hkt

17 hours ago

An Italian citizen who was debanked essentially because Trump didn't like her:

https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-12-28/the-comp...

When it comes to this kind of thing, an injury to one is an injury to all and we need to not tolerate it. At minimum, we need regulations guaranteeing that Visa and MasterCard, as well as participating banks, aren't allowed to debank anyone without judicial oversight. Make the same true of apps: call it a Banking Access Tribunal.

> because Trump didn't like her

Such dishonest mis-characterization.

She's a UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine talking and writing about Israel-Palestine war in such a biased way that many, including me and US State Department led by Rubio, consider her a mouthpiece of Hamas. The system is what system does and person is what a person does.

You might agree or disagree about her de-facto supporting Hamas, or if US State Department (i.e. Marc Rubio) should sanction her for what she does but it's so dishonest to claim that it has anything to do with Trump.

  • It's fair to assign the blame for actions of the executive branch of the US government to Trump while he holds the office of president. The policy of sanctioning people for being too critical of Israel required his assent whether or not he made the call to apply it in this case or delegated that to a subordinate.

    Especially problematic is that her actions would be unambiguously protected speech under US law if she did them in the USA.

  • So Trump can support war criminals like Netanyahu, but when someone says Israel shouldn't colonize Palestine and practice appartheid, she becomes a mouthpiece of Hamas? Get your facts together.

  • > that it has anything to do with Trump

    That's an irrelevant detail right? The point is, she was debanked because someone in the US didn't like her, regardless of whom this person is.

  • Condemning the 7/Oct attacks as an unacceptable act of terrorism is "being a mouthpiece of Hamas"!!! Fucking _disgusting_, and many stronger words I'm trying my best to contain.

    We're reaching levels of wretchedness that I've never thought possible. Truly no shame anymore.

    • https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/10/gaza-un-expe...

      This is her statement essentially saying Israel bombed a hospital that we now know as close to a fact as we can, that they did not and that in fact it was a palestinian rocket that fell on the hospital.

      But lets say we can't know that for a fact.

      She was still parroting Hamas's line without any ability to validate the statement.

      This statement amongst many demonstrates that UN "Experts" have zero credibility in the statements they make.

      3 replies →

    • There wasn't shame before. Just a sense that they couldn't push the envelope too much without losing US support. Now that has been shattered.

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  • It doesn't. I don't know if she's an antisemite, but unless the bank dumps her for being one and an Italian judge agrees that they're allowed to for that reason, this is a clear result of foreign political influence.

    Calling the UN special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories a "vile antisemite" sounds a lot like trolling, though.

  • First of all you need to provide some proof because being against a genocide is not antisemitic. Hating Israel is not antisemitic even if Bibi wants you to believe that.

    Second of all, what happened to free speech? In fact I can list several actual antisemites currently operating freely in the US political discourse who are gathering larger and larger audiences. Why aren't they being sanctioned?