Beirut, Lebanon<\/strong> \u2013 Current and former United Nations staffers have spoken out in defence of Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, after she faced attacks from a pro-Israeli NGO and several European government officials.<\/p>\n Albanese \u2013 who, like all special rapporteurs, is appointed by the UN Human Rights Council but is not a UN staff member \u2013 has been subjected to repeated attacks from pro-Israeli figures and bodies, with one of the most fervent critics being UN Watch, a pro-Israel NGO.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n The UN Watch, which is not a UN body, spread an edited clip of Albanese, 48, speaking at the Doha Forum earlier this month, in which the NGO falsely said she had called Israel \u201cthe common enemy of humanity\u201d.<\/p>\n Albanese\u2019s actual words were: \u201cWe now see that we as a humanity have a common enemy and the respect of fundamental freedoms is the last peaceful avenue, the last peaceful toolbox that we have to regain our freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n The NGO\u2019s clip grabbed the attention of European officials, including those from Austria, Czechia, France, Germany and Italy.<\/p>\n French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot went as far as saying he would demand her resignation on February 23 when the next session of the UN Human Rights Council is held. On February 9, a group of French MPs sent Barrot a letter denouncing Albanese and calling her remarks \u201canti-Semitic\u201d. Two days later, Barrot called for Albanese to resign.<\/p>\n The spokesperson for the French Foreign Ministry published a thread on social media on Saturday, denying Barrot\u2019s calls for Albanese to resign were connected to the edited video.<\/p>\n \u201cMinister @jnbarrot did not, at any time, make any statements attributed to Ms Albanese that were truncated or taken out of context,\u201d Pascal Confavreux, the ministry spokesperson, posted on X.<\/p>\n He also pointed out Barrot had written to the UN\u2019s High Commissioner for Human Rights in April 2025 to oppose her automatic renewal as special rapporteur because he felt her \u201cmultiple shortcomings would weaken the credibility of UN mechanisms\u201d.<\/p>\n Hundreds of UN staffers, who are members of a group called United Staff for Gaza, hit back at the European governments targeting Albanese.<\/p>\n \u201cUnited Staff for Gaza regrets the dis-\/misinformation that has circulated in recent days concerning Special Rapporteur Albanese, which has been taken up by the French, German and other Foreign Ministers in their levelling of unwarranted, vitriolic accusations against the Special Rapporteur,\u201d the group said in a statement on Friday.<\/p>\n \u201cUnited Staff for Gaza appeals for a rectification of these errors and calls for an end to personal attacks, threats, intimidation, and disinformation targeting UN agencies, mandate-holders, and personnel.\u201d<\/p>\n United Staff for Gaza is not an official UN body, but is made up of current and former staffers, who created the group last July to defend Palestinians\u2019 rights. Today, it boasts nearly 2,500 members.<\/p>\n \u201cThe initiative serves as a channel for colleagues around the world, regardless of their areas of work, to speak out against the perpetration of mass atrocity crimes in the Gaza Strip and help defend the UN Charter,\u201d says the group\u2019s website.<\/p>\n \u201c[Our] statement is not just to support her, but to stand against all untruthful smear campaigns that target the UN and advocates for the human rights of Palestinians worldwide, including UNRWA,\u201d Dali ten Hove, a former UN staffer and member of the United Staff for Gaza, told Al Jazeera, referring to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).<\/p>\n Albanese, an Italian human rights lawyer and expert, was appointed the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories in May 2022. Today, she is one of the most prominent global figures calling out Israel for its genocidal war in Gaza, and advocating for Palestinian rights in general \u2013 a stand that has led to numerous attacks on her by pro-Israeli governments and organisations.<\/p>\n Albanese has also been backed by UNRWA, which in a statement said the latest attacks on her \u201caim at silencing her voice and undermining the few remaining independent human rights reporting mechanisms\u201d.<\/p>\n The UN body added that there had been \u201ccoordinated campaigns seek[ing] to discredit and silence those who speak out about human rights impacts and violations of international humanitarian law\u201d.<\/p>\n Chris Gunness, former UNRWA communications director, told Al Jazeera that pro-Israel politicians in the donor community are largely to blame for the attacks on Albanese.<\/p>\n \u201cThey allowed purveyors of industrial-scale fake news, doctored soundbites, anti-Palestinian hate speech and genocide denial, to blague their way into national parliaments and have a voice in the discourse around Palestine refugees,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe credibility of Israel\u2019s proxies is hanging in rags. The condemnable attack on Francesca Albanese exposes their deliberate deceit for the house of cards it always was.\u201d<\/p>\n More than 100 artists also backed Albanese after calls for her resignation grew among pro-Israeli governments and groups.<\/p>\n Amid rising support for Albanese, a comment on the controversy by Stephane Dujarric, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres\u2019s spokesperson, caused a stir among some UN staffers.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have always believed that the institution of special rapporteurs, while being completely separate from the secretary-general, is an important part of the international human rights architecture. We don\u2019t always agree with what they say, and that includes Ms Albanese,\u201d he told reporters on Thursday.<\/p>\n But ten Hove said Dujarric could have acknowledged that the quotes attributed to Albanese were fake. He also said the spokesperson could have called on the international community to respect the integrity of the UN human rights system, \u201clike the head of UNRWA and the spokesperson of the [UN] Human Rights Office did\u201d.<\/p>\n Several European government figures have also come under fire for their attacks on Albanese.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is reprehensible that ministers in Austria, Czechia, France, Germany and Italy have attacked the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Francesca Albanese, based on a deliberately truncated video to misrepresent and gravely misconstrue her messages \u2013 as is clear from watching her original address in its entirety,\u201d Amnesty International\u2019s Secretary-General Agnes Callamard said in a statement<\/a> on Friday.<\/p>\n Callamard said some ministers have \u201cspread disinformation\u201d regarding Albanese, and demanded their apology.<\/p>\n \u201cIf only these ministers had been as loud and forceful in confronting a state committing genocide, unlawful occupation and apartheid as they have in attacking a UN expert,\u201d Callamard wrote. \u201cTheir cowardice and refusal to hold Israel accountable stand in stark contrast to the Special Rapporteur\u2019s unwavering commitment to speaking truth to power.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the criticism, French Foreign Minister Barrot has not retracted his call for Albanese to resign.<\/p>\n United Staff for Gaza\u2019s ten Hove said the French position against Albanese was disappointing, as France has played a \u201cvery constructive role, shepherding through\u201d the UN General Assembly\u2019s declaration on Palestine last September.<\/p>\n Schams El Ghoneimi, former MENA adviser to French President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s party in the European Parliament, also criticised the French position.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is unimaginable to me to see France side with the Israeli authorities\u2019 propaganda against the UN special rapporteur,\u201d El Ghoneimi told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n \u201cDoes our government want to stand firm by international law, and therefore denounce the Israeli government\u2019s unprecedented and ongoing violations in Gaza and the West Bank?\u201d he asked. \u201cDoes it want to side with the grotesque propaganda of Israeli authorities? France\u2019s credibility is at stake here.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Beirut, Lebanon \u2013 Current and former United Nations staffers have spoken out in defence of Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, after she faced attacks from a pro-Israeli NGO and several European government officials. Albanese \u2013 who, like all special rapporteurs, is appointed by the UN Human Rights Council but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12405,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
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