The U.S. State Department announced on July 9 that it is issuing sanctions against Francesca Albanese, the U.N. Special Rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, as part of the latest effort by the United States to penalize critics of Israel’s response to Hamas’ unprovoked attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. Albanese’s ability to travel to the U.S. and utilize any segment of the American banking system have been blocked.
Albanese, an Italian human rights activist who never took the Italian bar exam after completing law school, has been vocal about what she has described as the “genocide” by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza and has led several campaigns to boost ongoing pro-Palestine efforts to boycott trade with Israel, singling out companies that do substantial trade there, which may well have helped trigger the new sanctions.
Both Israel and the United States, which provides essential military support to its ally, have strongly denied the genocide accusation — common among many activist groups — and have campaigned for her removal.
The State Department, through the New York-based U.S. Mission to the U.N., issued a punishing statement in early July, calling for Albanese’s dismissal for “a years-long pattern of virulent anti-Semitism and unrelenting anti-Israel bias.”
The U.S. had not previously addressed concerns with Albanese directly because it has not participated in either of the two Human Rights Council sessions this year, including the summer session that ended on July 8. This is because the Trump administration withdrew the U.S. earlier this year — a not infrequent occurrence during previous Republican administrations.
Rapporteurs such as Albanese do not officially represent the United Nations and in fact have no formal authority, despite the title. However, the distinction is lost on most observers and they do report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva as a means of monitoring countries’ human rights records.
In what may have been the last straw for the Trump administration, Albanese’s highly inflammatory July 1 report to the Human Rights Council entitled “From economy of occupation the economy of genocide” focused on Western defense companies that have provided weapons used by Israel’s military, as well as manufacturers of earth-moving equipment that has been used to demolish Palestinian homes and property, specifically naming U.S. companies.
In previewing the sanctions announcement, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted on social media, “We will always stand by our partners in their right to self-defense.” He also declared “Albanese’s campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated.”
Washington setting up an intense encounter with the UN in September
Readers may recall that on June 5 the United States announced sanctions against four legal experts, currently serving as International Criminal Court (ICC) judges, for what it described as “transgressions against the United States and Israel.” The June sanctions against the ICC and now the new sanctions against Albanese, both taken under the authority laid out in the same Executive Order (see below), will certainly set the stage for significant tension when U.S. President Donald Trump addresses the UN General Assembly in September and lays out his “America First” program.
Trump is expected to spend additional time in New York to meet world leaders, where he will certainly challenge the UN on multiple fronts such as the UN’s longstanding systemic inefficiency and continuing internal corruption in addition to defending U.S. aid cutbacks, various UN system defunding decisions and America’s withdrawal from key UN system organizations like the World Health Organization (WHO).
Below is Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s July 9 sanctions announcement:
Sanctioning Lawfare that Targets U.S. and Israeli Persons
Marco Rubio, Secretary of State — Press Statement
“Today (July 9), I am imposing sanctions on Francesca Paola Albanese, the United Nations Human Rights Council “Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Occupied since 1967,” pursuant to President Trump’s Executive Order 14203, “Imposing Sanctions on the International Criminal Court.” Albanese has directly engaged with the International Criminal Court (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 United States nor Israel is party to the Rome Statute, making this action a gross infringement on the sovereignty of both countries.
The United States has repeatedly condemned and objected to the biased and malicious activities of Albanese that have long made her unfit for service as a Special Rapporteur. Albanese has spewed unabashed antisemitism, expressed support for terrorism, and open contempt for the United States, Israel, and the West. That bias has been apparent across the span of her career, including recommending that the ICC, without a legitimate basis, issue arrest warrants targeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
She has recently escalated this effort by writing threatening letters to dozens of entities worldwide, including major American companies across finance, technology, defense, energy, and hospitality, making extreme and unfounded accusations and recommending the ICC pursue investigations and prosecutions of these companies and their executives. We will not tolerate these campaigns of political and economic warfare, which threaten our national interests and sovereignty.
The United States will continue to take whatever actions we deem necessary to respond to lawfare, to check and prevent illegitimate ICC overreach and abuse of power, and to protect our sovereignty and that of our allies.
Albanese is being designated pursuant to Section 1(a)(ii)(A) of Executive Order (E.O.) 14203.”
On August 4, Albanese lost her “Blue check” verified status on X (formerly known as Twitter) in wake of a legal appeal sent to X’s owner Elon Musk by the U.S. NGO UN Watch.