Italian human rights expert is an outspoken critic of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza.
The US government is imposing sanctions on Francesca Albanese, the UN Human Rights Council’s special rapporteur on human rights on the occupied Palestinian territories.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that he is imposing sanctions on the Italian human rights lawyer over her “illegitimate and shameful” efforts to have the International Criminal Court (ICC) take action against US and Israeli officials, companies, and executives.
Rubio accused Albanese of a “campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel,” citing her recent report to the UN Human Rights Council.
Report
The 1 July report identified dozens of entities worldwide, including major American companies, as being complicit in Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip and recommended ICC investigations and prosecutions against these companies and their executives.
“While life in Gaza is being obliterated and the West Bank is under escalating assault, this report shows why Israel’s genocide continues: because it is lucrative for many,” Albanese’s report says.
“We will not tolerate these campaigns of political and economic warfare, which threaten our national interests and sovereignty,” Rubio said in a statement, asserting that Albanese has “spewed unabashed antisemitism, expressed support for terrorism, and open contempt for the United States, Israel, and the West,” making her “unfit for service as a Special Rapporteur.”
Secretary Rubio stated that the sanctions are being levied under an executive order by President Trump which targets individuals who have directly engaged with the ICC “in efforts to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute nationals of the United States or Israel, without the consent of those two countries.”
Neither the US nor Israel is party to the Rome Statute, which established the ICC, “making this action a gross infringement on the sovereignty of both countries”, Rubio said.
Israel’s diplomatic mission in Geneva has strongly refuted Albanese’s allegations, the Associated Press reports, describing the report as “legally groundless, defamatory, and a flagrant abuse of her office” and having “whitewashed Hamas atrocities.”
Sanctions
The sanctions are likely to prevent Albanese from travelling to the US and would freeze any assets she has in the country, the BBC reports.
Albanese’s three-year tenure as special rapporteur has been marked by strong criticism of Israel’s policies and actions in the Palestinian territories, particularly since the 7 October 2023 attacks and the subsequent war in Gaza.
She has repeatedly referred to Israel’s actions in Gaza as amounting to “genocide”, a claim vehemently denied by both Israel and the US. Both countries repeatedly sought to have Albanese removed from her position at the UN, citing her alleged antisemitism and bias.
On Wednesday, she called out the governments of Italy, France and Greece for allowing Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu – who is wanted by the ICC for war crime charges in Gaza – to use their airspace while travelling.
Earlier this month Albanese called on dozens of multinational companies to stop doing business with Israel, warning them they risked being complicit in war crimes in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, by profiting “from the Israeli economy of illegal occupation, apartheid, and now genocide” in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Search results
Separately, the Israeli government is reportedly buying Google ads in an attempt to discredit Albanese, according to a report by Italian investigative news outlet Fanpage.
The campaign, reportedly sponsored by the Israeli Government Advertising Agency, means that a Google search for Albanese’s name no longer brings up her Wikipedia page immediately as it did until recently.
The first result on the search engine is a page sponsored by govextra.gov.il, a subdomain of the Israeli government, with a document titled “Francesca Albanese: A Comprehensive Review of Misconduct as a UN Special Rapporteur”.
“Throughout her tenure, Albanese has repeatedly violated the norms of impartiality, universality, and professional integrity that are foundational to her UN mandate” the text reads, before listing a series of alleged violations of UN ethical standards, accusing the jurist of having had repeated contacts with terrorist groups, including Hamas, as well as “distorting the Holocaust” and “denying Israel’s right to exist”.
Backlash over sanctions
Human rights organisations, including Amnesty International, have slammed the US action, calling it a “shameless and transparent attack on the fundamental principles of international justice” and urging other states to resist US pressure.
There was also harsh criticism of the sanctions from the prominent centre-left Italian politician Laura Boldrini who described the move as a “disgrace that cannot be ignored”.
“Albanese’s latest report, which lists the companies involved in the illegal annexation policies of the West Bank carried out by the Israeli government, has clearly struck a chord” – Boldrini wrote on X – “It is no longer just a matter of political interests, but also economic ones. And this, for Netanyahu and Trump, is truly too much. Nothing and no one must disturb business: not even the denunciation of a genocide and the illegal occupation of another people’s territories.”
Albanese responds
In comments quoted by Al Jazeera, Albanese appeared to dismiss the US sanctions as “mafia style intimidation techniques”.
In a post on X early on Thursday, Albanese said “[O]n this day more than ever: I stand firmly and convincingly on the side of justice, as I have always done.”
She underlined that she came from the court’s founding country – Italy – with a tradition of illustrious legal scholars, talented lawyers and courageous judges “who have defended justice at great cost and often with their own life”.
“I intend to honor that tradition,” she said, noting: “it is called the Rome Statute for a reason, and I am proud of it”.
Photo credit: lev radin / Shutterstock.com.
