Bob Krist / Getty Images A United Nations official investigating alleged Israeli abuses of Palestinian human rights is currently under fire for various remarks criticized as being antisemitic, including her use of the term “Jewish lobby.”
The Simon Wiesenthal Center released a statement on December 14 saying that they had reviewed UN Human Rights Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese’s past public speeches and social media posts and found that “she has compared Israelis to Nazis, dismissed Israel’s security concerns, sympathized with Palestinian terror groups, and used the false accusation that America and Europe are subject to a ‘Jewish lobby’ – the obscene and dangerous anti-Semitic accusation designed to promote untrue conspiracy theories about greedy Jews controlling world events, which incites hatred of the Jewish people, and coming at a time of skyrocketing antisemitism around the world.” “The review also found that Albanese regularly falsely calls Israel a settler-colonial enterprise and refers to Jews in the pre-state British mandate and in Israel today as foreign interlopers subjugating an indigenous Palestinian population,” the Wiesenthal Center said.
The Times of Israel’s Luke Tress elaborated further, explaining that Albanese had written on her Facebook page during the Israel-Hamas conflict in 2014 that the United States is “subjugated by the Jewish lobby,” which she argued is why they “remain on the sidelines and continue to condemn the oppressed — the Palestinians — who defend themselves with the only means they have (deranged missiles), instead of making Israel face its international law responsibilities.” Tress also highlighted another one of Albanese’s Facebook post during the 2014 conflict accusing the BBC of being influenced by “the Israeli lobby” and “Israel’s greed” in their coverage. In 2015, Albanese shared a post equating an Israeli soldier to a Nazi, per Tress. More recently, Tress found that in 2022, Albanese has defended Palestinian terrorism as the “right to resist” and that “Israel cannot claim self-defense while illegally occupying and while directing an act of aggression against another country.” However, Albanese did denounce “indiscriminate rocket fire from Gaza” against Israeli civilians, though she equated it to “Israel’s unlawful bombing,” according to Tress.
Simon Wiesenthal Center Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action Rabbi Abraham Cooper and Director of United Nations Relations and Strategic Partnerships Rabbi Eric J. Greenberg called on the UN to fire Albanese. “It is an outrage to allow a proven anti-Zionist and anti-Semite to head the UN Human Rights Council’s already biased investigation of the Israel-Palestinian conflict,” Cooper and Greenberg said. “How Albanese was ever allowed to be appointed to this position is yet another file in the mounting evidence of the systemic prejudice against Israel, and the acceptance of maligning Jews in the United Nations today.”
Others condemned Albanese’s past remarks as well. “Such blatant antisemitic rhetoric –particularly when it’s an established pattern– is simply unacceptable,” United States Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Deborah Lipstadt tweeted. “It severely undermines the credibility of the UN Human Rights Special Rapporteur to deal with the issue of human rights in the context of Israel & the Palestinian territories.”
Such blatant antisemitic rhetoric –particularly when it’s an established pattern– is simply unacceptable. It severely undermines the credibility of the UN Human Rights Special Rapporteur to deal with the issue of human rights in the context of Israel & the Palestinian territories https://t.co/LlNkwYzPrg
— Special Envoy Deborah Lipstadt (@StateSEAS) December 14, 2022
Anti-Defamation League Vice President of International Policy Susan Heller Pinto told Tress, “When [Albanese is] saying America is subjugated by the Jewish lobby it reinforces that image of this Jewish lobby being all-powerful and America and America’s actions and policies being directed by this Jewish lobby, and that’s antisemitic. It’s making generalized statements. It’s not a political critique of an Israeli action, it is blanket characterizations that invoke age-old antisemitic tropes.”
The Mission of Israel to the UN in Geneva said in a statement that Albanese’s comments are “another stain on the credibility of this body and yet another example of the impunity that exists today regarding antisemitism and antisemitic comments made by UN officials.” “It is about time that the United Nations take concrete action in addressing systemic antisemitism within the United Nations Human Rights Council and its mechanisms,” the Israeli Mission added. “The lack of accountability and impunity for comments made by UN officials only works to legitimize antisemitism and endangers the Jewish people.”
Albanese told Tress that her past comments “were infelicitous, analytically inaccurate and unintendedly offensive.” “People make mistakes. I distance myself from these words, which I would not use today, nor have used as a UN Special Rapporteur,” she said. “Following this clarification, our attention should not be distracted from the unlawful state practices which cause suffering for millions and denial of human rights on a daily basis in the occupied Palestinian territory. This is what I am mandated to report on and which should be our focus.”
Separately, Albanese tweeted that the criticism of her past comments is “politically motivated.” “The aim is to obscure the oppressive reality I am mandated to report on,” she wrote. “I will not let anyone define who I am and what I stand for.” Albanese also retweeted and thanked those defending her on Twitter, including the State of Palestine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates. The State of Palestine said in a statement that Albanese was being subjected to “character assassination” in an attempt to obfuscate Albanese’s “sound legal assessment of the situation in Palestine.” Another organization she thanked for defending her was Al-Haq, a Palestinian NGO that Israel blacklisted in 2021. Israel accused Al-Haq of having ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror organization; Al-Haq has denied having such ties.
Thank you to those who have expressed their solidarity after yet another politically-motivated attack against my mandate. The aim is to obscure the oppressive reality I am mandated to report on. I will not let anyone define who I am and what I stand for. pic.twitter.com/8QVgiBXD46
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) December 15, 2022
Thank you. https://t.co/P5vMGwrDfi
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) December 15, 2022
Thank you. https://t.co/Rb8jEOW1i7
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) December 15, 2022
Some did not buy Albanese’s explanation of her comments. “She literally said that the United States was ‘subjugated by the Jewish lobby,’” The Atlantic’s Yair Rosenberg tweeted. “This is Kanye level stuff, not that difficult unless someone wants it to be. Personally, I think that when hiring someone to investigate the conduct of the Jewish state, one should avoid people who say that America is ‘subjugated by the Jewish lobby,’ but I’m just a simpleton who doesn’t work at the United Nations.”
She literally said that the United States was "subjugated by the Jewish lobby." This is Kanye level stuff, not that difficult unless someone wants it to be. https://t.co/EYiHbS6MCn
— Yair Rosenberg (@Yair_Rosenberg) December 15, 2022
Personally, I think that when hiring someone to investigate the conduct of the Jewish state, one should avoid people who say that America is "subjugated by the Jewish lobby," but I'm just a simpleton who doesn't work at the United Nations.
— Yair Rosenberg (@Yair_Rosenberg) December 15, 2022
Human rights lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky, who heads The International Legal Forum, tweeted in response to Albanese, “You don’t have to let anyone else ‘define’ you Francesca. You did that on your own, with YOUR words and actions, [including] obscene antisemitism (like reference to ‘Jewish lobby’), Nazi analogies and support for Hamas. If you had any decency, you would apologize and resign.”
You don’t have to let anyone else ‘define’ you Francesca. You did that on your own, with YOUR words and actions, incl. obscene antisemitism (like reference to “Jewish lobby”), Nazi analogies and support for Hamas. If you had any decency, you would apologize and resign. @UN_HRC
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) December 15, 2022
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