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Israeli envoy calls UN adviser a ‘witch’

“You have tried to curse Israel with lies and hatred, but your poison has failed,” Danny Danon told Francesca Albanese.

Francesca Albanese
Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur for Palestinian rights, briefs reporters at the U.N. Headquarters, in New York City. Credit: Loey Felipe/U.N. Photo.

Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, directed some of the harshest language he has used to date against Francesca Albanese, a United Nations special rapporteur, or independent adviser, with a long history of anti-Israel remarks.

“You have tried to curse Israel with lies and hatred, but your poison has failed,” he told Albanese, as a U.N. committee discussed a report she penned that Danon said “vilified Israel and blamed countries that support it.”

“You are a witch, and this report is another page in your spell book,” he said. “You wrap your bias in the language of law, hoping it will hide what it really is: Hamas propaganda.”

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