In her new book, Francesca Albanese challenges the dominant perception of the Israel-Palestine conflict
Francesca Albanese, an Italian lawyer and scholar, is the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, comprising the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. Her job is to report to the UN on the human rights situation in these territories.
Since its inception in 1993, the role of rapporteur has been controversial and at times adversarial. Previous appointees were regularly castigated by Israeli governments and pro-Israel lobby groups for their perceived biases against Israel.
The same is true for Albanese. Since she assumed her position in May 2022, she has been an outspoken and persistent critic of Israel’s occupation and especially its war on Gaza. She has argued that Israel’s actions amount to genocide.
As punishment for her efforts to expose persistent Israeli breaches of international humanitarian law, the US Department of Treasury has classified Albanese as a “specially designated national”. This prevents any US citizen and corporation from engaging with her. All of her US assets have been frozen.
Albanese is the first UN official to be sanctioned by the US Treasury – a fate she shares with Vladimir Putin, Bashar al-Assad, the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the recently deposed president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro.
