United Nations Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese recently came under criticism for a Facebook post claiming that the United States was “subjugated” by the Jewish lobby that surfaced online.
In a 2014 Facebook post, Albanese, an Italian lawyer and currently the U.N.’s special rapporteur regarding Palestinian human rights, criticized America and Europe for their lack of intervention during Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE) that aimed to weaken Hamas in 2014, according to The Times of Israel. Albanese was appointed earlier this year and works with the U.N. Human Rights Council which has been investigating Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. (RELATED: UN Votes To Hold Annual Event Memorializing Israel’s Founding As A ‘Catastrophe’)
“America and Europe, one of them subjugated by the Jewish Lobby, and the other by the sense of guilt about the Holocaust remain on the sidelines,” Albanese wrote, according to the Mission of Israel to the United Nations (MIUN) in Geneva.
Israeli forces search the Palestinian village of Haris in the occupied West Bank on November 15, 2022, following an attack in which a Palestinian killed two Israelis. (Photo by JAAFAR ASHTIYEH/AFP via Getty Images)
OPE was a military operation from July 7 to Aug. 26, 2014 by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in the Gaza Strip. The MIUN released a statement on Wednesday condemning Albanese’s social media post.
MIUN’s statement also included several other comments made by Albanese, with one comparing the actions of the IDF to Nazis and another talking about “Israel’s greed” while again bringing up the “Jewish lobby,” according to The Times. Albanese reportedly “regrets” her comments from 2014.
Albanese’s comments are not the first to push antisemitic tropes from members of the U.N.’s investigation into the Israel-Palestine conflict, according to The Times. In Aug. Miloon Kothari, a member of the U.N. Commission of Inquiry (COI) for Israel and the Palestinian territories, also brought up Jewish lobbies and claimed that it was inhibiting the commission’s investigation.
“We are very disheartened by the social media that is controlled largely by, whether it is the Jewish lobby or it is specific NGOs, a lot of money is being thrown into trying to discredit us,” Kothari said in an interview with Mondoweiss, according to The Times.
Kothari later apologized after heavy criticism from Israel, the United Kingdom, and the U.S., according to The Times.
MIUN called for “concrete action” after Albanese’s comments from the U.N.
“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 MIUN wrote. “The lack of accountability and impunity for comments made by UN officials only works to legitimize antisemitism and endangers the Jewish people.”
Albanese, MIUN and the U.N. Human Rights Council did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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