‘Open Contempt for the United States, Israel and the West’: U.S. Places Sanctions on UN Palestinian Rights Rapporteur Albanese

Peloni:  Now do the Muslim Brotherhood.

FDD | July 10, 2025

UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese.  (Photo by Esquerda.net – Encontro com relatora especial da ONU, Francesca Albanese – Out.24, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikipedia)

Latest Developments

• ‘Action Against U.S. and Israeli Officials, Companies and Executives’: The United States sanctioned Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur for the “Occupied Palestinian Territories,” for her efforts to “prompt the International Criminal Court (ICC) action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies and executives,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced. “Albanese has spewed unabashed antisemitism, expressed support for terrorism, and open contempt for the United States, Israel, and the West,” Rubio emphasized, adding on X that “Albanese’s campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated.”

• Sanctioned for Assisting ICC Investigations: Albanese was sanctioned under the same executive order imposed on the ICC in February in response to the court’s arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. The order authorized visa restrictions and financial sanctions on ICC officials and foreign persons determined to have assisted the ICC in investigating U.S. citizens or their allies. “Albanese has 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,” Rubio wrote. “Neither the United States nor Israel is party to the Rome Statute, making this action a gross infringement on the sovereignty of both countries.”
• Albanese Accused Companies of Aiding ‘Genocide’ in Gaza: The sanctions follow Albanese’s July 3 presentation of a report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in which she accused 60 companies and organizations, including 20 based in the United States, of assisting Israel to wage a “genocidal campaign” in Gaza. Before presenting the report, Albanese reportedly sent threatening letters to dozens of entities worldwide, including to American companies in the finance, technology, defense, energy, and hospitality sectors. Secretary Rubio said her letters included “extreme and unfounded accusations and recommend[ed] the ICC pursue investigations and prosecutions of these companies and their executives.” Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google and a former president of the search engine’s parent company Alphabet — one of the companies named in Albanese’s report — denounced the United Nations as “transparently antisemitic” and the report as “plainly biased and misleading.”

FDD Expert Response

“Albanese falsely claimed that specific American and other companies, universities, and even Christian faith-based charities are violating international law by engaging with Israel. Albanese also called on the ICC and other courts to prosecute the listed companies and their executives for the crimes of which Albanese wrongly accused them. Albanese’s blatant anti-Israel bias, both prior to her current role and in her performance of it, means that her appointment was, and her service is, contrary to UN ethics rules. Since the United Nations has refused the rightful U.S. demand to fire Albanese, who has instead escalated her lawfare against American companies and their executives, the administration took matters into its own hands by imposing these sanctions.” — Orde Kittrie, Senior Fellow

“U.S. sanctions against Francesca Albanese are not only warranted; they are long overdue. She has been a leading voice in the United Nations’ corrupt and antisemitic campaign against the State of Israel. Her recent baseless attack on American companies engaged in lawful, good-faith commerce with Israel is just the latest example of her weaponizing a UN mandate to advance political warfare. The Trump administration is sending a clear message: UN officials who abuse their platforms to target the United States or our allies will face very real consequences.” — Nick Stewart, Senior Director of Government Relations, FDD Action

“Rubio’s announcement is welcome news given Albanese’s attempt to wage economic warfare against the United States and Israel, as well as her long history of making antisemitic comments. Throughout her tenure as a UN ‘expert,’ Albanese has erased Israeli security concerns to portray Israeli reactions to Palestinian terrorism as the malicious actions of a supposedly colonial entity. But sanctioning Albanese is only the beginning. The mandate she upholds — exclusively focused on purported Israeli crimes and not Palestinian ones, and the only UN special rapporteur mandate that is open-ended — should be abolished.” — David May, Research Manager and Senior Research Analyst

FDD Background and Analysis

“‘Unfit for Office’: U.S. Calls on UN to Fire Francesca Albanese in Light of Report Accusing Companies of Contributing to ‘Genocide,’” FDD Flash Brief

 “‘UN Tolerates Antisemitic Hatred’: United States Condemns Reappointment of Francesca Albanese as Special Rapporteur for Palestinians,” FDD Flash Brief