Representatives of United Nations member states gathered in Geneva on Thursday to discuss the latest report by the controversial U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese. The meeting came just two days after the U.S. Mission to the U.N. called for Albanese’s removal, citing her “years-long pattern of antisemitism and anti-Israel bias.”
In Albanese’s report, entitled “From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide,” Israel is described as “a regime of settler-colonial apartheid.” Additionally, Albanese claims that corporations have aided Israel in “its ongoing genocidal campaign in Gaza.”
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“Israel is responsible for one of the cruelest genocides in modern history,” Albanese said when opening the session in Geneva on Thursday. She further alleged that “Israel has used the genocide as an opportunity to test new weapons, customized surveillance, lethal drones, radar systems and other unmanned technology to exterminate a people without restraint.”
Palestinian envoy to the U.N. in Geneva Ibrahim Khraishi was given the first opportunity to respond to Albanese’s opening statement after Human Rights Council President Jürg Lauber acknowledged that Israeli representatives were not present. Khraishi used his response not only to praise Albanese, but also to criticize the U.S. Mission to the U.N. in New York.
Khraishi praised Albanese’s report and said it provided “a comprehensive analysis of how an economy of occupation became an economy of genocide backed by a series of transnational corporations from the industry of weapons to AI and digital surveillance.”
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The representative then defended Albanese and slammed the U.S. for accusing the special rapporteur of antisemitism, claiming that “antisemites are those who support the genocidal government,” referring to Israel.
U.N. Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer was one of the only dissenting voices against the report. In his response to Albanese, Neuer pointed out that in the report “Israel is accused of genocide 68 times.”
“Israel has been fighting a just war against a terrorist army, which cynically embeds itself among civilians. Ms. Albanese, war is not genocide, but in your report there’s no war at all, it’s only about Israel,” Neuer said. He went on to question the omission from the report of the attacks carried out by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.
While Israel’s Mission to the U.N. in Geneva was not physically present to respond, its ambassador issued a scathing condemnation of the special rapporteur in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“Francesca Albanese is willingly spearheading the global efforts to promote terrorism propaganda. This report, just like all others by this rapporteur, is riddled with inflammatory rhetoric and is legally baseless,” Ambassador of Israel to the UN in Geneva, Daniel Meron told Fox News Digital. “Her obsession with demonizing Israel is clear in the narrative she pushes.”
“Her allegations that Israel is committing ‘genocide’ and is engaged in ‘apartheid’ are erroneous and offensive. Israel is fighting a legitimate war to defend itself,” Meron added. “Yet, Albanese deliberately and systematically omits any mention of the existence of Hamas, Hezbollah, or the Houthis, or the barrages of rockets on Israel launched by Iran. She aids Iran and its terrorist proxies in promoting a narrative that distorts reality and ignores the suffering of the hostages.”
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In addition to her condemnation of corporations with ties to Israel, Albanese also took aim at the U.S.- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which she described as “nothing else than a death trap engineered to starve and force the flight of a starved, bombarded, emaciated population marked for elimination.” This sentiment was echoed by Khraishi, who also referred to the GHF as a “trap.”
The GHF, which has the backing of the Trump administration, has repeatedly pushed back against critics, including the U.N., and has encouraged them to join in its goal of delivering aid to the Palestinian people in a way that prevents Hamas from stealing it.
“We’ve delivered more than 52 million meals in just five weeks. Not talking points, not headlines, but food reaching Palestinian families every single day,” a GHF spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “Meanwhile, other organizations stand by helplessly as their aid is looted. We’ve offered to help them deliver it safely. They’ve refused.”
On Tuesday, the U.S. Mission to the U.N. once again expressed concerns about Albanese and released a statement calling for her removal and reiterating its opposition to her reappointment earlier this year.
“In recent weeks, Ms. Albanese has escalated her years-long pattern of virulent antisemitism and unrelenting anti-Israel bias by dispatching threatening correspondence to dozens of entities worldwide, including major American corporations,” the U.S. Mission’s statement read. “These letters advance deeply flawed legal arguments to support extreme and unfounded accusations that these organizations are complicit in gross human rights violations, apartheid, and genocide. These letters also constitute an unacceptable campaign of political and economic warfare against the American and worldwide economy.”
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In the past, Albanese has also been condemned by France and Germany due to her statements about Israel, some of which have been criticized as being antisemitic.
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.
