US sanctions UN rapporteur in ‘mafia style' - World - Al-Ahram Weekly

Al-Ahram Weekly

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US sanctions on Francesca Albanese, the UN's special rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, are unprecedented in the history of the United Nations.
The UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese has become the face of resistance to Israeli-US-led efforts to undermine global justice and international law.
On 9 July, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio imposed US sanctions on the 48-year-old Italian legal scholar and human rights expert. The move, unprecedented in the history of the UN, put Albanese under the global news spotlight, expanding her global profile to audiences who were previously unfamiliar with her work as solidarity campaigns ensued in response.
Rubio's statement in justifying the sanctions led with the accusation that Albanese 'directly engaged' with the International Criminal Court (ICC), which issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant in November 2024 for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
The sanctions include financial restrictions, travel bans, and asset freezes, targeting her ability to continue her advocacy and work. As UN special rapporteur, she will not be permitted to visit UN headquarters in New York.
In a podcast interview in July, Albanese said she had woken up to the news and 'needed some time to realise what it was.'
'But then I had my cup of tea, I had my shower, I spoke with my kids and went on with my life. While, again, dozens and dozens of Palestinians were killed yesterday alone. And this is every day in Gaza. People are being starved. I'm so exhausted to see the bodies of dying kids in the hands or arms of their moms.'
'What member states should be doing is sending their navies with doctors, nurses, and real humanitarian aid, everything that is needed to overcome the tragedy… This must stop. So, this is my priority, and this is why, no, I'm not even thinking of the sanctions and impact they will have on me,' Albanese said.
Observers say the US is reacting to a report issued by the UN special rapporteur earlier this month on the economy funding both Israel's genocide in Gaza and its occupation of the Palestinian Territories.
The document titled 'From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide,' released in a press conference on 3 July, investigates the 'corporate machinery sustaining Israel's settler-colonial project of displacement and replacement of the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.'
The situation is Gaza 'apocalyptic,' Albanese said in an address to the UN Human Rights Council on the report. She urged member states to impose an arms embargo and cut off trade and financial ties with Israel, which she said 'is waging a genocidal campaign' in Gaza.
The report named several US giants among 48 corporations aiding Israel's occupation and war on Gaza. The report named US companies Microsoft, Alphabet – Google's parent company – Amazon, IBM, Chevron, and Booking.com among an extended list that also included powerful entities owned by other countries such as the UK, China, Mexico, and South Korea.
Critics argue that the measures against Albanese and previous sanctions on the ICC are politically motivated and aimed at silencing dissenting voices against Israeli policies in the Occupied Territories. Rubio's statement accused her of 'unabashed antisemitism' and supporting terrorism, in reference to her work documenting abuses in Gaza and the West Bank.
'As a member of the UN, the US should respect my work, should engage with my work, instead of engaging in senseless, senseless attacks,' Albanese said. 'But it's clear I've touched a nerve. A nerve that resonates with Palestinians, that alerts consumers, that may ignite litigation, civil suits and other criminal proceedings against these companies.'
The report argues that decades of occupation have transitioned into a systematic 'economy of genocide,' where Israel's policies of settlement expansion, resource exploitation, and the blockade of Gaza amount to collective punishment and ethnic cleansing.
Albanese highlights how economic policies are used as tools of oppression and examines the role of international complicity in sustaining this system, calling for accountability through mechanisms like the ICC.
The report has been described as groundbreaking in its framing of Israel's occupation as a genocidal project, moving beyond the traditional discourse of occupation and human rights violations. By introducing the concept of an 'economy of genocide,' Albanese shifts the focus to structural and systemic policies that aim to erase the Palestinian presence and identity.
Its other remarkable achievement, observers say, is that it reinforces the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Movement by providing evidence, in an extensive document produced for the first time under the UN's banner and available on its websites, of how Israel's economic policies are tied to human rights abuses.
The report gives BDS advocates concrete data to argue for targeted economic measures against Israel.
Israel's economic policies in the Occupied Territories are viewed as tools of domination. They include restrictions on Palestinian industries, high tariffs on imports, and control over natural resources like water and land.
The report emphasises how these policies have impoverished Palestinians while benefitting Israeli companies and settlers. It details the destruction of Palestinian agricultural land, homes, and infrastructure as part of a broader strategy to undermine Palestinian livelihoods. By limiting economic opportunities and access to resources, Israel has created a dependency on aid and perpetuated a cycle of poverty.
Albanese said the report is the outcome of an investigation that started eight months ago. It led her to collect information from various sources, including submissions by investigative journalists, forensic experts, economists and lawyers, about 1,000 entities operating in the Occupied Territories.
They include a broad range of entities from arms manufacturers and tech companies to construction machinery manufacturers. 'By looking at this puzzle and organising the elements, Israel has maintained what scholars have already called an economy of the occupation. Each sector is advancing the displacement and replacement of the Palestinians,' Albanese said in an interview with US journalist Glenn Greenwald earlier this week.
For Israel to seize land and to empty it of Palestinians, it uses weapons, bulldozers and other machines. It uses surveillance technology to segregate the Palestinians and make sure their life will grow increasingly constrained to benefit the expansion of Israeli colonies.
This, Albanese explained, would be the realisation of the second pillar of the Israeli economy – 'the replacement of the Palestinians through the construction of colonies on their land with water, an electricity grid, rails, and roads. And then the installation of companies to produce and sell goods such as dates, wines, and beauty products from the Dead Sea. Israel's economy is inseparable from that of the occupation.'
While the Israeli economy has been nosediving over the last 21 months, the Israeli Stock Exchange has kept on rising, amassing $220 billion, Albanese said. 'An increase of 170 plus per cent. How is that possible? Because there are companies that have been profiteering from the escalation of genocidal violence in Gaza such as tech companies and arms manufacturers.'
Albanese was appointed as UN special rapporteur in April 2022, becoming the first woman to take up the prestigious role. Her appointment was supported by a coalition of states and civil society organisations that recognised her expertise in international law. She was reappointed for a second time on 4 April at the UN Human Rights Council 58th Session in Geneva, extending her mandate through April 2028.
The special rapporteur mandate was established in 1993 by the UN Commission on Human Rights, which appointed former Swiss President Rene Felber to hold the post. Special rapporteurs are independent human rights experts with mandates to report and advise on human rights from a thematic or country-specific perspective. They are unpaid and their tenure is limited to a maximum of six years.
The US has a history of targeting international legal and human rights bodies that it perceives as threatening to its allies or its sovereignty.
In February this year, US President Donald Trump issued an executive order imposing sanctions on the ICC. The move echoed decades of American hostility towards the court, which exists to prosecute individuals for war crimes such as genocide and crimes against humanity. The US considers the court to be a threat to its national sovereignty and rejects its jurisdiction over US personnel and allies.
During the 2017-2021 Trump administration, sanctions were imposed on the ICC and its officials, including then-prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, for investigating alleged war crimes committed by US forces in Afghanistan and Israeli forces in Palestine.
Similarly, the US has been critical of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and its rulings accepting South Africa's case against Israel for violating the Genocide Convention in 2024 and other decisions instructing Israel to end its illegal occupation of the Palestinian Territories, compensate the Palestinians, and allow their right of return. The ICJ is the principal judicial organ of the UN for settling disputes between states.
Last year, the ICJ found Israel guilty of apartheid against the Palestinians.
The US has also targeted former UN special rapporteurs on human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, such as Richard Falk and Michael Lynk, accusing them of anti-Israel bias.
Albanese is an international lawyer and human rights expert specialising in refugee law and the rights of Palestinians under occupation. She holds degrees in law from the University of Rome and international law from Georgetown University in the US.
Before her appointment as special rapporteur, Albanese built a distinguished career in international law and human rights. She worked as a legal officer for the UN refugee agency UNRWA, where she focused on the plight of Palestinian refugees. She also co-authored the book Palestinian Refugees in International Law, considered a seminal work on the subject.
The US sanctions on Albanese were met with broad condemnation across the UN system, human rights organisations, and international legal bodies as a direct affront to the rule of law and the independence of international justice.
UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric described the sanctions as unacceptable and 'a dangerous precedent.' Amnesty International's Secretary General Agnes Callamard slammed the US measures as 'shameless' and 'vindictive.'
Albanese said the 1946 Convention on Private Privileges and Immunities of the UN prohibits the US from imposing sanctions on her.
'It would make total sense for me to start advocating for member states [to] take the United States before the ICJ because enough with this mafia style, intimidation techniques. This is unsustainable, not just for me, but for the system. We need to protect the multilateral arena.'
* A version of this article appears in print in the 17 July, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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