Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Palestine, demanded that Israel be removed from the U.N. after it attacked the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) headquarters in Gaza City.
Israel has claimed that Hamas used the headquarters as a military base.
After UNRWA said that its headquarters in Gaza were destroyed, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing wrote on X, “Israel’s criminal attack on the UN continues without any consequences. High time to take action against Israel including through unseating from the UN, as was done with apartheid South Africa.”
Albanese then said, “Time to #UNseatIsrael from the UN.”
Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of U.N. Watch, said Albanese’s comment violated her “duty to act with impartiality.” He added, “We also note that you are selective—you have never called for the removal from the UN of the Islamic Regime in Iran, which is the one fueling Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis in their war against Israel. On the contrary, you are part of their axis, acting as their surrogate within the UN human rights system.”
An estimated 49% of UNRWA employees are believed to have “close relatives” connected to “militant groups, especially Hamas,” according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.
Due to UNRWA’s links to Hamas, twenty-four U.S. states sent a letter to congressional leaders, demanding that the agency be defunded.
Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird said in a statement, “UNRWA has become a taxpayer-funded welfare program for terrorists.”
“There is no excuse to pay a single cent more in taxpayer dollars to an organization that employs terrorists and fuels antisemitic hate,” she emphasized. “President Trump had it right when he cut funding to UNRWA in 2018. We are calling on Congress to immediately and permanently defund UNRWA.”
