Matzav.com

[Video below.] Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, confronted UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese during a heated session on Monday, presenting her with a resignation letter already drafted in her name and demanding that she step down over what he described as her persistent anti-Israel bias, false accusations, and willingness to overlook the crimes of Hamas.

The extraordinary confrontation unfolded as Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, presented her latest report accusing Israel of systematically targeting journalists and media personnel during the war in Gaza. Danon rejected her findings and accused her of exploiting her international position to promote an extremist political agenda rather than conducting an impartial examination of human rights violations.

The Israeli envoy then produced a resignation letter that had been prepared for Albanese to sign. The document, written as though Albanese herself were submitting her resignation, accused her of abusing her UN mandate to advance Hamas’s ideology, excuse terrorism, and spread hostility toward Israel while claiming to act in defense of human rights.

Danon made clear that he believed Albanese had forfeited the credibility necessary to continue serving as a UN human rights investigator.

“You are undermining the credibility of the United Nations and exploiting its emblem to spread anti-Israel propaganda. The only official letter you should issue is your resignation letter. It’s time for you to go home,” he told her.

The confrontation marked another escalation in the long-running dispute between Israel and Albanese, an Italian lawyer who has served as the UN special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories since 2022. Throughout her tenure, she has repeatedly accused Israel of grave violations of international law, including genocide, while Israeli officials have denounced her reports as politically motivated and fundamentally hostile to the Jewish state.

The latest dispute centers on Albanese’s report to the UN General Assembly, identified as document A/81/249, which examines the treatment of Palestinian journalists and media organizations during the Gaza war. Albanese alleges that Israeli actions against members of the media form part of a broader pattern of violations. Israel disputes her conclusions and rejects the suggestion that its military operations constitute a deliberate campaign against journalists.

Danon’s confrontation was accompanied by a separate American demand for Albanese’s removal, adding significant diplomatic pressure to the calls for her resignation.

During a meeting of the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee on Monday, Jeff Bartos, the United States representative for UN management and reform, delivered a sharply worded condemnation of Albanese, accusing her of spreading hostility toward Israel, the United States, and Jewish people.

Bartos described Albanese as a “moral fugitive” and a “lunatic,” and accused the United Nations of allowing its human rights apparatus to be used to promote inflammatory political messages.

“[The UN] allows a charlatan to soil the UN uniform—even as she stokes the very conflicts this body was created to end—and even as her words are found in terrorists’ chants,” Bartos said.

The American representative also claimed that other diplomats privately share his concerns about Albanese but have been unwilling to express them publicly.

“Start by saying publicly what you say to me privately. That the UN should not be a nursery for evil. That its brand has been soiled long enough. That Albanese must go,” Bartos declared.

Albanese condemned the sanctions as an attack on her independence and maintained that her work was grounded in international law. Her supporters have similarly argued that efforts to punish or remove her threaten the independence of UN human rights investigators.

The controversy surrounding Albanese predates the latest confrontation. In 2022, previously published social media comments surfaced in which she had referred to the influence of the “Jewish lobby” over American policy. Critics described the language as antisemitic, while Albanese rejected that interpretation and maintained that her remarks had been “mischaracterized.”

Her statements following the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre further intensified criticism from Israeli officials. Albanese argued that the attack needed to be examined within the broader historical and political “context” of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, an approach critics said minimized the responsibility of Hamas for the atrocities committed against Israeli civilians.

In subsequent reports, Albanese accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, allegations that the Israeli government has consistently rejected. Israel maintains that its military campaign was launched in response to the October 7 massacre and was directed against Hamas and its military infrastructure.

Earlier this year, Albanese faced renewed international criticism after participating in an Al Jazeera conference in Doha. During her remarks, she criticized governments that had continued supplying Israel with military, diplomatic, and economic support.

“The fact that instead of stopping Israel, most of the world has armed, given Israel political excuses, political sheltering, economic and financial support … We who do not control large amounts of financial capitals, algorithms and weapons, we now see that we as a humanity have a common enemy,” she said.

Her remarks prompted criticism from European officials, including French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, who called for her resignation. However, the controversy also involved disagreement over an edited recording of her comments, with Albanese insisting that critics had falsely attributed to her a statement identifying Israel itself as humanity’s common enemy.

She subsequently insisted she “never, ever, ever said ‘Israel is the common enemy of humanity,'” describing the allegations as “completely false accusations.”

France nevertheless maintained its demand that she leave her position, citing what its foreign minister characterized as a broader history of unacceptable statements concerning Israel and the October 7 massacre.

The latest confrontation also follows another controversy involving Albanese earlier this month, when she called for an International Criminal Court investigation of Israeli journalists and public officials over alleged incitement to genocide. Her proposal prompted criticism from those who argued that it threatened freedom of expression and improperly targeted members of the Israeli media.

Last week, Israeli actress and model Sarai Givaty filed a defamation lawsuit seeking 500,000 shekels in damages from Albanese over an alleged comparison involving Nazi imagery. The legal action added another dimension to the disputes surrounding the rapporteur’s public statements.

Despite the mounting criticism, Albanese has continued defending her work and insisting that international scrutiny of Israel’s actions is necessary. She has argued that accusations of antisemitism are being used to discredit investigations into alleged abuses against Palestinians.

Her supporters contend that special rapporteurs must be free to investigate governments without facing political retaliation, while Israel and the United States maintain that the independence of such officials does not exempt them from standards of impartiality and professional conduct.

UN special rapporteurs are independent experts appointed by the Human Rights Council. They do not serve as diplomatic representatives of their home countries, and their findings do not constitute binding legal judgments by the United Nations. Their mandates allow them to investigate and report on human rights concerns, but their conclusions may be challenged by governments and other parties.

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