United Nations Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese sparked outrage after a recent speech in which she defended Hamas, downplaying its terror record and calling it a legitimate “political force.” Albanese claimed in Italian that “Hamas is a political force that won the elections in 2005, whether we like it or not,” insisting those were “the most democratic elections.”
She told her audience, “It is critical that you understand that when you think of Hamas, you should not necessarily think of cut-throats, people armed to the teeth or fighters. It’s not like that.” Albanese credited Hamas with organizing schools and hospitals in Gaza, but ignored evidence that the terror group uses those same sites for military operations.
Her defense of Hamas comes less than a year after the October 7, 2023, massacre in which Hamas terrorists slaughtered over 1,200 people, including children, and kidnapped more than 250 civilians. Hostage testimonies and autopsies confirm the group used torture, rape, and murder against Israeli civilians. Despite mounting evidence of Hamas atrocities, Albanese continues to defend the internationally recognized terrorist group. Albanese told The Guardian that Palestinians had “already won the legitimacy battle,” while accusing Israel of “genocide” and calling for embargoes on trade and weapons sales.
Albanese has a long history of anti-Israel statements, once writing that “America is subjugated by the Jewish Lobby.” In response, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced sanctions, saying, “Albanese’s campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated.”
