The Special Rapporteur for the Palestinians previously made comments about a ‘Jewish lobby’ controlling America
April 6, 2025 10:51
ByLorin Bell-Cross, Additional reporting by Jewish News Syndicate
An outspoken critic of Israel who has said that the US is “subjugated by the Jewish lobby” was reappointed as the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Francesca Albanese will continue until 2028 after she was confirmed during a United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) session in Geneva on Friday.
The decision was met with fury in Israel and the US.
“The renewal of Francesca Albanese’s mandate is a disgrace and a moral stain on the United Nations,” said Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations.
Anne Bayefsky, the director of New York’s Touro Institute on Human Rights and the president of the Human Rights Voices advocacy group, called on the US to cease funding to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Campaign group UN Watch and parliamentarians from a number of countries – including the influential chair of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, Brian Mast – had raised objections about her suitability to the post but the UNHRC dismissed the complaints.
Albanese has repeatedly made inflammatory statements about Israel and the Jewish people, drawing widespread condemnation. She has repeatedly referred to Israel’s actions in Gaza as “genocide” and has called for Israel’s suspension from the United Nations.
She made comments in 2014 about a “Jewish lobby” controlling America, has drawn comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany, and said the violence of the October 7 needs to be “put in context”.
Labour MP David Taylor previously told the JC that: “Making statements of this nature in a UN capacity is abhorrent and does so much damage to communities already torn apart by horrific violence, going against everything the United Nations stands for.”
Governments – including those of the United States, Canada, France, Germany and Israel – have expressed serious concerns over her rhetoric and conduct.
In a letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, the US Mission to the United Nations stated that Albanese “demonises Israel and supports Hamas,” concluding that she was “unfit for her role.” Nevertheless, the UNHRC declined to take up the complaints, allowing her to remain in office.
Albanese appeared to dismiss the criticism of her. On Saturday she retweeted a post on X that congratulated her on her reappointment, adding: “Despite disingenuous efforts to have her fired”.
Albanese has called the criticism a smear campaign, and her supporters view her as an outspoken champion for the Palestinians.
BREAKING!
— Trita Parsi (@tparsi) April 5, 2025
Congratulations to the amazing@FranceskAlbs who has done a remarkable job.
Despite disingenuous efforts to have her fired, the UN human rights council voted to keep hey in the position as UN rapporteur for the Palestinian territories till 2028! pic.twitter.com/rX9efUpsUQ
Earlier this year, the Board of Deputies called on the UN to dismiss Albanese after she expressed support for disgraced academic David Miller in a now-deleted post on X.
“The UN’s ‘Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories’, Francesca Albanese has a history of highly inflammatory statements about Israel and Jews”, they said in a statement.
“Now, she has publicly supported notorious conspiracy theorist and employee of the Iranian regime’s Press TV, David Miller.”