Controversial United Nations Special Rapporteur on Palestine Francesca Albanese has been reappointed to the position for another three-year term. Multiple countries and organizations have condemned Albanese over her history of antisemitic remarks. However, a committee tasked by the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) with reviewing complaints about Albanese was convinced by her “detailed explanations” that she was not an antisemite.
“We’re talking about one of the world’s most blatant legitimizers of Hamas terrorism, who says literally that Israel does not have a right to defend itself,” U.N. Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer told Fox News Digital. “It’s a horrible statement on the state of the U.N. today.”
United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights Situation in the Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, looks on at a press conference during a session of the UN Human Rights Council, in Geneva, on March 27, 2024. ( FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images)
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U.N. Watch has long opposed Albanese and has worked to expose her alleged violations of the Code of Conduct. On Friday, the organization submitted a list of statements by governments across the globe condemning Albanese’s rhetoric. The statements came from the U.S., France, Hungary, the Netherlands, Israel, Argentina, Germany and the U.K.
Additionally, prior to Albanese’s reappointment, the U.S. mission to the U.N. sent a letter to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres opposing the renewal. The mission also posted a statement on X.
“We condemn [Albanese’s] virulent antisemitism, which demonizes Israel and supports Hamas. She has clearly violated the U.N.’s Code of Conduct and is unfit for her role. Her reappointment would show the [U.N.] tolerates antisemitic hatred and support for terrorism,” the U.S. mission to the U.N. posted.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee also sent a letter to UNHRC President Jürg Lauber expressing its opposition to Albanese’s reappointment. In its letter, the committee said that Albanese’s rhetoric tainted both the U.N. as an institution and her own position.
“Ms. Albanese unapologetically uses her position as a UN Special Rapporteur to purvey and attempt to legitimize antisemitic tropes, while serving as a Hamas apologist,” the House Foreign Affairs Committee wrote.
Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, Francesca Albanese, speaks during a press conference at the European headquarters of the UN in Geneva, Switzerland, Dec. 11, 2024. (REUTERS/Pierre Albouy)
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In violation of his legal duties under 8/PRST/2, Lauber did not relay complaints about Albanese to a committee that Neuer described as “toothless” with a membership made of “Francesca Albanese’s own best friends.”
In its response to complaints submitted by U.N. Watch in June and July 2024, the committee wrote that “some of her tweets may appear as not being in line with the Code of Conduct and may have been interpreted by some as antisemitic.” However, the committee also said that they were “reassured” by Albanese’s “detailed explanations” that she was not in violation of the Code of Conduct.
UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, gives a press conference at the UN City in Copenhagen, Denmark on February 5, 2025. (Ritzau Scanpix/Ida Marie Odgaard via REUTERS )
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Albanese has faced accusations of antisemitism since she took the position of special rapporteur in May 2022. The Anti-Defamation League has a running list of Albanese’s statements that have been deemed to be antisemitic. Some of the statements date back to 2014, nearly 10 years before her appointment to her current position.
In February 2024, Albanese was condemned by France and Germany after saying French President Emmanuel Macron was wrong to call Hamas’ Oct. 7 events “the largest antisemitic massacre of our century.” In her response, she said “The victims of 7/10 were not killed because of their Judaism but in response to Israel’s oppression.”
France said Albanese seemed to “justify” the attacks and that her remarks were “all the more scandalous given that the fight against anti-Semitism and all forms of racism are at the heart of the founding of the U.N,” according to the ADL.
