John Fetterman slams ‘anti-Israel’ UN experts for censuring Western support of Jewish state

The most outspoken of the UN experts on Monday was Francesca Albanese, the UN’s notoriously controversial special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Palestinian territories.

By Corey Walker, The Algemeiner

US Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) lambasted “anti-Israel” UN human rights experts for censuring Western countries on Monday over their continued support for Israel despite what they described as a genocide in Gaza.

“These so-called ‘experts’ have consistently revealed their anti-Israel bias and a censure from one of them is a badge of honor,” Fetterman posted on X/Twitter. “No apologies and zero conditions for any essential support for Israel.”

Fetterman also posted a picture from a news story reporting on the warnings from the UN experts.

These so-called ‘experts’ have consistently revealed their anti-Israel bias and a censure from one of them is a badge of honor.

No apologies and zero conditions for any essential support for Israel. pic.twitter.com/YMZUOYmw1J

— Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) September 16, 2024

The most outspoken of the UN experts on Monday was Francesca Albanese, the UN’s notoriously controversial special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Palestinian territories.

“Shockingly, in the face of the abyss reached in the OPT [Occupied Palestinian Territories] … most member states remained inactive at best, or actively aiding and assisting Israel’s criminal conduct,” Albanese told a press conference in Geneva.

“I think it’s unavoidable for Israel to become a pariah in the face of its continuous, relentless, vilifying assault of the United Nations, on top of millions of Palestinians.”

Israel has denied such allegations, noting the extensive lengths to which its military has gone to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza, where Hamas often places its military targets within or underneath civilian targets such as schools and hospitals.

Though Fetterman campaigned as a progressive, he has surprisingly emerged as a staunch ally of Israel in the months following Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attacks.

Fetterman has repeatedly condemned anti-Israel voices within his own party in the US Congress, as well as elite universities for tolerating what he has characterized as antisemitic and anti-Israel hate speech on their campuses.

Fetterman’s criticism came as Brown University in Rhode Island received backlash over its decision to host Albanese for a discussion on the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

The Ivy League university hosted Albanese, an Italian lawyer, for a talk on Monday titled “Anatomy of a Genocide: A Failure of the International System?”

The roughly hour-and-a-half discussion centered on the international community’s response to Israel’s ongoing defensive military operations in Hamas-ruled Gaza.

Toward the beginning of the discussion, Albanese decried Israel’s military campaign as the “monstrosity of this century.”

“To justify the protection of their security, Israel continues to take land from the Palestinians, subjugate the Palestinians, and impose conditions of life that result in humiliation and indignities,” Albanese said during the livestream.

Though Albanese insisted that she has repeatedly condemned Hamas’s Oct. 7 slaughter of roughly 1,200 people and kidnapping of 251 others in southern Israel, she said she believes the Jewish state’s response has been disproportionate.

As Albanese has done many times before, she accused Israel of targeting schools, hospitals, designated safe zones, and using starvation as a weapon against the population.

Israel has denied such accusations, noting its efforts to evacuate areas before it targets them and to warn residents of impending military operations with leaflets, text messages, and other forms of communication.

However, Hamas has in many cases prevented people from leaving, according to the Israeli military.

Another challenge for Israel is Hamas’s widely recognized military strategy of embedding its terrorists within Gaza’s civilian population and commandeering civilian facilities like hospitals, schools, and mosques to run operations and direct attacks.

Nonetheless, Albanese condemned Israel’s allies, saying they “should have changed course of action,” citing concerns over the humanitarian conditions in Gaza.

“Instead they have continued to give Israel financial, economic, and political support and courage, and this is the failure of the system,” Albanese said.

She expressed gratitude toward students and university faculty members who have participated in anti-Israel demonstrations against Israel’s so-called “genocidal” war in Gaza.

Albanese’s participation in an official Brown University event drew widespread backlash from members of the school’s academic community. Over 2,400 members of the Brown community signed a letter urging the school to disinvite the controversial UN expert.

Albanese has been widely criticized for exhibiting an apparent bias against Israel. Albanese has an extensive history of using her role at the UN to denigrate Israel and seemingly rationalize Hamas’s attacks on the Jewish state.

In the months following Hamas’s brutal Oct. 7 assault on the Jewish state, Albanese has accused Israel of enacting a “genocide”against the Palestinian people in revenge for the Oct. 7 attacks.

The United Nations has recently launched a probe against Albanese over allegedly accepting a trip to Australia funded by pro-Hamas organizations. She has called on the UN to expel Israel, comparing the Jewish state to apartheid-era South Africa.

Francesca AlbaneseJohn FettermanUN