On Sunday, United Nations special rapporteur Francesca Albanese posted on her Twitter account that according to international law, Israel and the US should pay reparations to Gaza for their “genocidal assault.”
“It is about time that Israel and the US – and those who enabled and armed the genocidal assault against the Palestinians – make plans to offer REPARATIONS to the Palestinian people to rebuild Gaza, as prescribed by international law,” Albanese tweeted. “HOW to rebuild Gaza, much of the West Bank and east Jerusalem is up to the Palestinians.”
Appointed in 2022 to a four-year term, Albanese has accused Israel of apartheid, illegal occupation, ethnic cleansing, and genocide. Albanese has been condemned by both Germany and France for antisemitism and has been condemned by the U.S. Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism Deborah Lipstadt, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield, and U.S. Ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council, Michèle Taylor. In February 2023, 18 members of the United States Congress called for Albanese to be removed from her position, saying that she has demonstrated a consistent bias against Israel. Responding to two reports presented to the United Nations in October 2024, the World Jewish Congress accused Albanese of repeatedly engaging in Holocaust inversion by drawing comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany, calling her statements “not only deeply offensive but a gross distortion of history.”
The Anti-Defamation League wrote, “From the start, Francesca Albanese’s bias and lack of impartiality towards Israel has been obvious. She has a long record of promoting antisemitic tropes and using hateful language to attack the Jewish State of Israel, which includes comparing Israel to the Nazis, conspiracies about Jewish power, denying and diminishing the Oct 7th massacre, and supporting and advocating violence against the Jewish state.”
The ADL noted that her history of antisemitism predates her tenure at the UN.
UN Watch wrote that in November 2022, Albanese participated in an official conference of Hamas, a designated terrorist group in the U.S., Canada, European Union, Australia, and other countries. Speaking by video, she told the assembled terrorists, “You have a right to resist this occupation.” She added: “Israel says ‘resistance equals terrorism,’ but an occupation requires violence and generates violence.”
NGO Monitor wrote, “Albanese has also attacked Israel’s very existence, based on false historical claims, saying that Israel is ‘in long-standing breach of the basic principles of international law, which started 70 years ago with the forced depopulation of two-thirds of the indigenous Arab population in what became the State of Israel in British Mandate Palestine.’ She further asserted that Israel was created “IN Palestine” and tweets under the hashtag “#NoMoreNakbas.”
“In November 2022, Albanese negated Israel’s right to self-defense, stating in a conference that “The occupation can’t say it is protecting itself when it is occupying a land that doesn’t belong to it.”
Albanese has condemned Israel’s elimination of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukr, as “murders” and “acts of aggression.”
A recent interview with NRK, Norway’s national public broadcasting station, opened with journalist Yama Wolasmal asking Albanese if she was an antisemite. Rather than answer directly, Albanese dissembled and redirected.
