UN rapporteur who endorsed Hamas’ ‘right to resist’ and compared Israel to Nazi Germany should be barred from entering the US, watchdog group says.
By World Israel News Staff
A United Nations official who endorsed Hamas’ “right to resist” against Israel and who compared the Jewish state to Nazi Germany is facing calls to ban her from entering the United States.
Last week, UN rapporteur Francesca Albanese was widely condemned after she posted a comment to X/Twitter, accusing Israel of genocide and comparing the country to Nazi Germany.
“Because of their history, one might have thought Germans & Italians would be at the forefront of the opposition to the Netanyahu-driven assault on Gaza, which is now metastasising across the region.”
“Our collective obliviousness to what led, 100 years ago, to the Third Reich’s expansionism and the genocide of people not in conformity with the ‘pure race’ is asinine. And it is leading to the commision of yet another genocide, yet another regional war and potentially yet another global one. Shame on all those who are making it happen.”
The comments were condemned by the United States and France, along with a number of major American Jewish organizations.
“Antisemitism has no place at the UN, especially from those tasked with promoting human rights,” tweeted Ambassador Michele Taylor, head of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations Human Rights Council.
“Francesca Albanese’s recent remarks, including evoking Nazis, show yet again that she is unfit for any role at the UN. The U.S. has never supported her mandate, and her conduct is unacceptable.”
“Francesca Albanese has a history of using antisemitic tropes. Her most recent statements justifying, dismissing, & denying the antisemitic undertones of Hamas’ October 7 attack are unacceptable & antisemitic. We expect more of independent UN experts and condemn all forms of antisemitism.”
On Wednesday, the human rights group UN Watch called on the U.S. to bar entry to Albanese.
The group justified its call with the release of a 60-page report documenting not only an anti-Israel bias and past statements suggesting support for terrorist groups including Hamas, but also antisemitic comments, including claims that the U.S. has been “subjugated by the Jewish lobby.”
In November 2022, the UN Watch report noted, Albanese told a Hamas conference, “You have a right to resist.”
On October 7th, as the invasion of Israel was underway, Albanese rushed to defend Hamas, saying, “Today’s violence must be put in context.”
“Never before in the history of the United Nations did France, Germany and the U.S. condemn a UN human rights monitor for racism or antisemitism,” said Hillel C. Neuer, executive director of UN Watch.
“Francesca Albanese is the first. She is today the most dangerous figure on the world stage inciting antisemitism and jihadi terrorism.”
Albanese is set to speak in front of the United Nations in the U.S. on October 30. A college tour will take her to multiple U.S. campuses including Georgetown University on October 26, Princeton on October 29, and Toronto on November 7.
In a statement Wednesday, UN Watch warned of “the possibility that Albanese will incite terrorism and antisemitism on campuses.”