Pro-Israel groups are calling for the non-renewal of Francesca Albanese’s mandate as the UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories [Getty]
Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, has recently faced an incitement campaign from various political entities demanding her removal from her position, as her three-year term concludes this week.
The UN Human Rights Council is scheduled to hold a session on renewing her mandate for another three years on April 4th.
However, several countries have expressed their unwillingness to renew Albanese’s mandate, including the Netherlands, due to her positions on the Palestinian issue. Albanese has repeatedly warned of ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Palestinian people in her UN reports and press interviews.
British Labour MP David Taylor said in an interview today with the Jewish Chronicle, a pro-Israel newspaper, “Albanese’s response to the largest anti-Semitic massacre of the 21st century was to describe it as a reaction to Israel’s actions. She described Israel as a settler-colonial invasion and described America as subservient to the Jewish lobby.”
According to the newspaper, the British Foreign Office declined to comment on whether the government supported the reappointment of Albanese, as the UK is not currently a member of the UN Human Rights Council.
Among the most prominent groups inciting against Albanese is “UN Watch” – an organisation known for its pro-Israel stance and targeting of international figures and politicians who show sympathy and support for Palestinians.
The organisation has launched a petition on its website urging the Human Rights Council not to renew her mandate.
UN Watch also asserts that Albanese has used her UN mandate to disseminate anti-Semitism and Hamas propaganda, based on a 60-page report titled “A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing,” which charges her with advancing “anti-Semitism and Jihadi terrorism,” according to the organisation.
UN Watch spokesman Hillel Neuer called for the non-renewal of Albanese’s mandate during a Human Rights Council session to discuss the situation in Palestine last Friday in Geneva, which included several international human rights organisations.
Another Zionist organisation, “Betar”, threatened in mid-March to target Albanese with a pager attack – a reference to Israel’s deadly and indiscriminate attacks in Lebanon last September – during a recent visit to London.
In addition to these actions, last Friday, 42 French MPs publicly urged the French government to reject Albanese’s reappointment, stating that it “would send a regrettable signal to victims, human rights defenders, and states committed to credible multilateralism”.
The World Jewish Congress, known for its pro-Israel stance, also recently sent a letter to the President of the Human Rights Council, Ambassador Jürg Lauber, urging that Francesca Albanese’s mandate should not be renewed.
The letter alleged that Albanese made statements claiming the US is “subservient to the Jewish lobby” and others in which she compared Israeli policies to Nazism.
In the US, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee in Congress, Brian Mast, led demands by several committee members that the President of the UN Human Rights Council, Jürg Lauber, reject Francesca Albanese’s reappointment.
The congressmen wrote a letter to Jürg Lauber, stating that Albanese “sided with Hamas terrorists and accused Israel of genocide.”
In addition to Mast, the letter was signed by Congressmen Young Kim (Republican from California), Michael Lawler (Republican from New York), Keith Self (Republican from Texas), Maria Elvira Salazar (Republican from Florida), Cory Mills (Republican from Florida), and Ryan Zinke (Republican from Montana).
The congressmen justified former US President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Human Rights Council by stating that it had become a platform for anti-Semitism, according to their statement.
In the Netherlands, Dutch Foreign Minister Kajsa Ollongren, in response to questions from the fundamentalist Protestant party SGP, stated that the country did not support a second mandate for Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Representative in Gaza.
Ollongren added that “some comments made by the Special Rapporteur on social media conflict with the Code of Conduct.” He further stated, “The Cabinet rejects these comments.”
Feldkamp, the Minister from the Christian Democratic Union on the National Security Council, declined to meet with Albanese during her visit to the Netherlands earlier this year.
Albanese was also prevented from delivering two lectures in Germany, one at the Free University of Berlin and the other at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich last February, after the university administrations capitulated under pressure from pro-Israel groups, as declared by pro-Palestinian activists in Germany.
In her latest report two weeks ago, Albanese warned that Palestinians face a real danger of mass ethnic cleansing as Israel implements its long-term plan to seize Palestinian land and displace Palestinians under the guise of war.
She also said that Israel will use the “war against Hamas” to seize Palestinian land and continue the displacement of Palestinians, adding that what Israel is doing in the occupied Palestinian territories today is strongly reminiscent of the Nakba of 1947-1949 and the Naksa of 1967.
“Meanwhile, the world pretends not to see history repeating itself,” she stated, calling on the international community to fulfil its obligations to protect Palestinians from annihilation.
“The only way is to enforce the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice, which ruled that the continued Israeli presence in the occupied Palestinian territories is illegal and ordered its unconditional termination, and to impose binding temporary measures on Israel to prevent the commission of genocide in Gaza,” she said.
In an interview with Britain’s Channel 4 during her visit to London two weeks ago, she stated that some Western leaders refuse to meet with her, while other officials have.
During the interview, she inquired, “How do leaders, including those in this country, look at their children these days, eat their meals, and buy things from Amazon or anywhere else? How can you continue with your life believing you have the power to stop that genocide in Gaza when you don’t?”