Her name is Francesca Paola Albanese. She is the walking symbol of the most repugnant and rejected fusion of racism and human rights. Since May 2022, Albanese has served as the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories. How is it possible that someone holding a senior human rights position is also an outspoken racist?
The answer is simple. There is one strain of racism that receives international legitimacy from many—perhaps most—human rights activists and organizations. That strain is called antisemitism.
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United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese
(Photo: Fabrice Coffrini / AFP)
Last week, a conference sponsored by Al Jazeera was held in Doha, Qatar. The keynote guests were Hamas leader Khaled Maashal and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who only recently smuggled a suitcase containing millions of dollars to Hezbollah.
Albanese, the princess of the “human rights organizations,” also presented her doctrine there. She did not utter a single word condemning Hamas, whose leaders have repeatedly called for the destruction of Jews and for world domination. Nor did she say a word about Iran, which only weeks ago massacred tens of thousands of civilians seeking to free themselves from the shackles of repression.
Albanese opened her remarks with praise and commendation for Al Jazeera. There is no doubt that the media mouthpiece of murderous Islamism—whose operatives, described as journalists, have been exposed as members of terrorist organizations—is a channel after her own heart.
“The fact that instead of stopping Israel,” Albanese said, “most of the world has armed, given Israel political excuses, political sheltering, economic and financial support… We who do not control large amounts of financial capitals, algorithms and weapons, we now see that we as a humanity have a common enemy.”
Who exactly is 'we'?
It is curious to speak at an Al Jazeera conference—the flagship channel of Qatar—about “we, who do not control large amounts of financial capital.” Who exactly is “we”? According to one investigation after another, most recently by the Free Press, Qatar has invested “nearly $100 billion to buy influence in Congress, colleges, research institutes and corporations.” The channel itself is funded almost entirely by Qatar, with an annual budget of about $1 billion. But in Albanese’s formulation, this becomes “we, who do not control large amounts of financial capital.” And no, this is not satire.
Last Thursday, Caroline Yadan, a member of France’s right-wing National Assembly party, submitted a parliamentary question to Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot regarding the continuation of Albanese’s tenure in her senior UN post. Barrot responded immediately, announcing that, at the opening of the next session of the Human Rights Council on February 23, France intends to present a demand for the dismissal of the racist who rose to that senior position. Additional European countries have announced they are joining the request.
Yadan was met with a wave of responses, including from the French newspaper Le Monde, with the peculiar claim that this is not what Albanese said and that it was not a racist statement. Amnesty International issued a statement asserting that “European states must retract their outrageous attacks against Albanese.”
One does not need a comprehension test to understand what Albanese said. She published the full text herself. She did not speak about any other country. Only about Israel. Moreover, the phrase “a common enemy of humanity” is well known from the antisemitic lexicon. Once it was said about Jews. Now it is said about the Jewish state.
Ben-Dror YeminiPhoto: Avigail UziYadan responded with a long list of Albanese’s racist statements, before and after October 7. She previously published an anti-Israel cartoon depicting spider webs spread across the world with banknotes and gold coins, spoke about the “Jewish lobby,” justified the October 7 massacre, cast doubt on allegations of rape by Hamas terrorists and much, much more. UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer has published extensive investigations into Albanese’s conduct, including activities funded by Hamas supporters.
There have already been attempts to remove Albanese. Nevertheless, in April 2025, her mandate was extended by three years. The New York Times printed a sympathetic profile of her. And the world’s largest human rights organization, Human Rights Watch, condemned the United States for imposing sanctions on her.
The tragedy is that racism reigns not only in the automatic majority of dark regimes within UN bodies. It is a cancer spreading through a camp that imagines itself enlightened. And the gap between human rights and human rights organizations and activists has never been greater.