Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that he has imposed sanctions on United Nations Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, a known critic of Israel.
Rubio declared on social media that Albanese has participated in “illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt [the International Criminal Court] action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives.”
“Albanese’s campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated. We will always stand by our partners in their right to self-defense,” Rubio said, adding that the United States “will continue to take whatever actions we deem necessary to respond to lawfare and protect our sovereignty and that of our allies.”
Albanese, appointed in 2022 as the Special Rapporteur on the “occupied Palestinian territories,” has “spewed unabashed antisemitism, expressed support for terrorism, and open contempt for the United States, Israel, and the West,” a press statement on the matter reads. The statement adds that Albanese has written “threatening letters to dozens of entities worldwide, including major American companies across finance, technology, defense, energy, and hospitality, making extreme and unfounded accusations and recommending the ICC pursue investigations and prosecutions of these companies and their executives.”
Albanese called for Israel to be removed from the U.N. in 2024 after it attacked the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) headquarters in Gaza. Israel claimed that Hamas used the headquarters as a military base.
Just last week, Albanese claimed in a report that “forever-occupation has become the ideal testing ground for arms manufacturers and Big Tech – providing boundless supply and demand, little oversight, and zero accountability – while investors and private and public institutions profit freely.” The report argued that “too many influential corporate entities remain inextricably financially bound to Israel’s apartheid and militarism.”
