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UN expert Albanese rejects ‘obscene’ US sanctions for criticising Israel
UN rapporteur Francesca Albanese tells Al Jazeera Washington’s move is retaliation for ‘pursuit of justice’ in Israel’s war on Gaza.
United Nations expert Francesca Albanese has slammed the decision by the United States to sanction her as “obscene”, saying she is being targeted for calling out Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Speaking to Al Jazeera on Thursday, Albanese, who serves as the UN’s special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, said she would not be cowed into silence by the US move against her on Wednesday.
Albanese stressed that the penalties imposed by President Donald Trump’s administration would not stop her “quest for [the] respect of justice and international law”.
The special rapporteur said Washington’s tactics reminded her of “Mafia intimidation techniques” before suggesting that “sanctions will only work if people are scared and stop engaging”.
“I want to remind everyone [that] the reason why these sanctions are being imposed is the pursuit of justice,” Albanese said.
“Of course I’ve been critical of Israel. It has been committing genocide and crimes against humanity and war crimes,” she added.
While announcing the sanctions on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio charged Albanese with waging a “campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel”.
The UN rapporteur hit back on Thursday, noting that the atrocities being committed in Gaza were not just down to “the unrelinquished territorial ambitions of Israel” and the backing of its supporters but also “companies who are profiting from it”.
Last week, she released a report mapping the corporations aiding Israel in the displacement of Palestinians and its genocidal war on Gaza in breach of international law.
Albanese told Al Jazeera that she was still evaluating the effects the US sanctions would have on her.
However, she said her problems are nothing compared with what Palestinians face in Gaza during Israel’s ongoing bombardments, ground operations and blockade of the territory.
Albanese also took aim at the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), calling it a “death trap”. The Israeli- and US-backed group runs the aid distribution sites where hundreds of Palestinians have been shot and killed since late May while queueing for food.
Move against Albanese ‘a dangerous precedent’
The UN expert also defended the International Criminal Court’s (ICC’s) investigation into Israeli actions in Gaza and its decision to call for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s arrest on charges of war crimes.
Rubio has described Albanese’s push for the prosecution of Israeli officials at the ICC as the legal basis for the sanctions.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s spokesman was among those to criticise the US sanctions on Albanese.
While highlighting that Albanese reports to the UN Human Rights Council rather than the secretary-general, Stephane Dujarric called the decision “a dangerous precedent”.
“The use of unilateral sanctions against special rapporteurs or any other UN expert or official is unacceptable,” he said.
UN Human Rights Council Ambassador Jurg Lauber also lamented the move against Albanese.
“I call on all UN member states to fully cooperate with the special rapporteurs and mandate holders of the council and to refrain from any acts of intimidation or reprisal against them,” Lauber said.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza has destroyed most of the territory and killed more than 57,575 Palestinians over the past 21 months, according to local health officials.
https://aje.io/wl6n6h?update=3830656
MORE from Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur:
- “This is a moment, a defining moment in history. It’s a turning point and moment of reckoning,” she told Al Jazeera.
- Albanese compared the pressure she has faced for speaking out against Israeli crimes against Palestinians to “mafia intimidation techniques” that involve “destroying the reputation and then intimidating and then threatening anyone who dares to denounce the system – the collusion – between political and economic and financial interests”.
- “I come from a place that has been plagued by this kind of logic, a place where judges, lawyers, activists … have been killed for their stance on the side of justice. So I know what people risk when they stand against big powers,” she said.
- “But what I also know are lessons that come from my part of the world – that these techniques work only if they manage to silence the people … The sanctions will only work if people are scared and stop engaging.”
- “Together we can stop this disgrace but we need to awaken and stand united against it.”
