US imposes sanctions on UN human rights expert investigating Israeli abuses in Gaza
The State Department's decision to impose sanctions on Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, follows an unsuccessful US pressure campaign to force the international body to remove her from her post. It also comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is visiting Washington this week to meet with President Donald Trump and other officials about the war in Gaza and more.
It's unclear what the practical impact the sanctions will have and whether the independent investigator will be able to travel to the US with diplomatic paperwork.
Albanese, an Italian human rights lawyer, has been vocal about what she has described as the ' genocide ' by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza. Both Israel and the US, which provides military support to its close ally, have strongly denied that accusation.
The US had not previously addressed concerns with Albanese head-on because it has not participated in either of the two Human Rights Council sessions this year, including the summer session that ended Tuesday. This is because the Trump administration withdrew the US earlier this year.
In recent weeks, Albanese has issued a series of letters urging other countries to pressure Israel, including through sanctions, to end its deadly bombardment of the Gaza Strip.
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She has also been a strong supporter of the International Criminal Court's arrest warrants against Israeli officials, including Netanyahu, for allegations of war crimes. She most recently issued a report naming several large US companies as among those aiding what she described as Israel's occupation and war on Gaza.
'Albanese's campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated,' Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted on social media. 'We will always stand by our partners in their right to self-defense.'
Albanese's July 1 report focuses on Western defense companies that have provided weapons used by Israel's military as well as manufacturers of earth-moving equipment that have bulldozed Palestinian homes and property.
It cites activities by companies in the shipping, real estate, technology, banking and finance and online travel industries, as well as academia.
'While life in Gaza is being obliterated and the West Bank is under escalating assault, this report shows why Israel's genocide continues: because it is lucrative for many,' her report said.
A request for comment from the UN's top human rights body was not immediately returned.
Israel's diplomatic mission in Geneva, where the 47-member Human Rights Council is based, called Albanese's report 'legally groundless, defamatory, and a flagrant abuse of her office' and having 'whitewashed Hamas atrocities.'
Outside experts, such as Albanese, do not represent the United Nations and have no formal authority. However, they report to the council as a means of monitoring countries' human rights records.
Albanese has faced criticism from pro-Israel officials and groups in the US and in the Middle East. The US mission to the UN issued a scathing statement last week, calling for her removal for 'a years-long pattern of virulent anti-Semitism and unrelenting anti-Israel bias.'
The statement said Albanese's allegations of Israel committing genocide or apartheid are 'false and offensive.'
Israel's ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, celebrated the US action, saying in a statement Wednesday that Albanese's 'relentless and biased campaign against Israel and the United States has long crossed the line from human rights advocacy into political warfare.'
It is a culmination of a nearly six-month campaign by the Trump administration to quell criticism of Israel's handling of the war in Gaza. Earlier this year, the administration began arresting and trying to deport faculty and students of US universities who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations and other political activities.
The war between Israel and Hamas began Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel and killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 people captive. Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed over 57,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which says women and children make up most of the dead but does not specify how many were fighters or civilians.
Nearly 21 months into the conflict that displaced the vast majority of Gaza's 2.3 million people, it is nearly impossible for the critically wounded to get the care they need, doctors and aid workers say.
'We must stop this genocide, whose short-term goal is completing the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, while also profiteering from the killing machine devised to perform it,' Albanese said in a recent post on X. 'No one is safe until everyone is safe.'
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