Controversial United Nations Particular Rapporteur on Palestine Francesca Albanese has been reappointed to the place for an additional three-year time period. A number of international locations and organizations have condemned Albanese over her historical past of antisemitic remarks. Nonetheless, a committee tasked by the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) with reviewing complaints about Albanese was satisfied by her “detailed explanations” that she was not an antisemite.
“We’re speaking about one of many world’s most blatant legitimizers of Hamas terrorism, who says actually that Israel doesn’t have a proper to defend itself,” U.N. Watch Govt Director Hillel Neuer advised Fox Information Digital. “It is a horrible assertion on the state of the U.N. at this time.”
United Nations Particular Rapporteur on the Rights Scenario within the Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, appears to be like on at a press convention throughout a session of the UN Human Rights Council, in Geneva, on March 27, 2024. ( FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP by way of Getty Photos)
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U.N. Watch has lengthy opposed Albanese and has labored to show her alleged violations of the Code of Conduct. On Friday, the group submitted a listing of statements by governments throughout the globe condemning Albanese’s rhetoric. The statements got here from the U.S., France, Hungary, the Netherlands, Israel, Argentina, Germany and the U.Ok.
Moreover, previous to Albanese’s reappointment, the U.S. mission to the U.N. despatched a letter to U.N. Secretary-Common António Guterres opposing the renewal. The mission additionally posted a press release on X.
“We condemn [Albanese’s] virulent antisemitism, which demonizes Israel and helps Hamas. She has clearly violated the U.N.’s Code of Conduct and is unfit for her function. Her reappointment would present the [U.N.] tolerates antisemitic hatred and help for terrorism,” the U.S. mission to the U.N. posted.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee additionally despatched a letter to UNHRC President Jürg Lauber expressing its opposition to Albanese’s reappointment. In its letter, the committee stated that Albanese’s rhetoric tainted each the U.N. as an establishment and her personal place.
“Ms. Albanese unapologetically makes use of her place as a UN Particular Rapporteur to purvey and try and legitimize antisemitic tropes, whereas serving as a Hamas apologist,” the Home International Affairs Committee wrote.
Particular Rapporteur on the scenario of human rights within the occupied Palestinian territory, Francesca Albanese, speaks throughout a press convention on the European headquarters of the UN in Geneva, Switzerland, Dec. 11, 2024. (REUTERS/Pierre Albouy)
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In violation of his authorized duties below 8/PRST/2, Lauber didn’t relay complaints about Albanese to a committee that Neuer described as “toothless” with a membership made from “Francesca Albanese’s personal finest associates.”
In its response to complaints submitted by U.N. Watch in June and July 2024, the committee wrote that “a few of her tweets might seem as not being consistent with the Code of Conduct and will have been interpreted by some as antisemitic.” Nonetheless, the committee also said that they have been “reassured” by Albanese’s “detailed explanations” that she was not in violation of the Code of Conduct.
UN Particular Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, offers a press convention on the UN Metropolis in Copenhagen, Denmark on February 5, 2025. (Ritzau Scanpix/Ida Marie Odgaard by way of REUTERS )
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Albanese has confronted accusations of antisemitism since she took the place of particular rapporteur in Could 2022. The Anti-Defamation League has a operating checklist of Albanese’s statements which have been deemed to be antisemitic. A number of the statements date again to 2014, practically 10 years earlier than her appointment to her present place.
In February 2024, Albanese was condemned by France and Germany after saying French President Emmanuel Macron was improper to name Hamas’ Oct. 7 occasions “the most important antisemitic bloodbath of our century.” In her response, she stated “The victims of seven/10 weren’t killed due to their Judaism however in response to Israel’s oppression.”
France stated Albanese appeared to “justify” the assaults and that her remarks have been “all of the extra scandalous on condition that the struggle in opposition to anti-Semitism and all types of racism are on the coronary heart of the founding of the U.N,” in accordance with the ADL.
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