Francesca Albanese’s appointment as Special Rapporteur on Palestine was met with controversy due to her widely criticized and biased views. We investigated further into Francesca’s social media output and discovered support for Leila Khaled, a notorious terrorist and leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, as well as antisemitism and extreme anti-Israel bias.
There is an article by the Jewish Chronicle about our findings published here.
In another post Francesca shared a story about a border official in Latin America who marked an Israeli passport with a picture of a penis and the words, “Viva Palestina.” This post is not only childish and offensive, but it could be considered antisemitic since it holds Israeli Jews collectively responsible for the actions of the government of Israel. It shows Francesca is far from impartial and it calls into question her maturity. In what context is it acceptable for someone who behaves in this manner to hold a senior position at the United Nations?
According to the widely accepted definition of Antisemitism “The IHRA”, Francesca has made clearly antisemitic remarks on social media by comparing Israelis/Jews to Nazis.
Here is another post from Francesca where she misleads her readers to think that these children were put in cages, this is not a cage and these are not stolen children, they were arrested for throwing rocks and detained at a police station until their parents came to get them.
This is in Hebron, in an area controlled by Israel as per the Oslo accords. Asserting that Jews are foreigners in the land and that the children are stolen is antisemitic, a form of modern day blood libel.
Here Francesca appears to be inciting violence from Palestinians “resist Palestine resist”. It appears that the implicit message here is that Ms Albanese means to resist with violence. Which is quite remarkable coming from a senior official of the United Nations, an organisation that is supposed to be dedicated to peace.
Another post refers to Israeli Jews as “Colonial Settlers” and blames Israel for employing tight security on Yom Kippur (the holiest day for Jews) following a week of violent clashes.
Is it not reasonable to allow Jews to protect themselves from violence, especially during Yom Kippur when many of us are fasting and in synagogues the entire day?
In yet another antisemitic post, Francesca appears to blame all Jews for the actions of a few. Again, this is highly antisemitic according to the IHRA definition of antisemitism: “Accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, or even for acts committed by non-Jews.”
Additionally, the article she shared from Electronic Intifada is fake news and designed to incite hatred against Israeli Jews. The reference was to terrorists, not Arabs.
During the closing session of the Human Rights Council, Merav Marks, Israeli mission legal advisor, said that Ms Albanese was “unfit” to serve as Special Rapporteur on Palestine. She said: “The newly appointed special rapporteur’s opinion expressed in numerous articles, events and media outlets endlessly voicing anti-Israel libel shows that she is unfit to take up this role.”
In light of our new findings, there is even more cause to question her suitability for the position.
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