Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, referred to Israel as humanity’s “common enemy” during a video address to the 17th Al Jazeera Forum (Feb. 7-9) in Qatar on Saturday.
Speaking at a session titled, “The Palestinian Cause in a World Moving Toward Multipolarity,” Albanese accused Israel of “the planning and making of a genocide, and the genocide is not over.”
Albanese also repeated the “apartheid” smear, despite Israel having integrated its minority Arab population into all walks of life, including its parliament and Supreme Court.
She descended into antisemitic tropes, suggesting that the world is under either Jewish or Israeli control. “It’s also true that never before the global community has seen the challenges that we all face, we who do not control large amounts of financial [capital], algorithms and weapons.”
Claiming that the Western media is defending Israel, “amplifying the pro-apartheid, the genocidal narrative,” she praised the conference’s sponsor, Al Jazeera, as a truth-teller, commending the Qatar-owned media network for “its ability to produce true facts and march toward justice.”
Al Jazeera has been banned by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Jordan, Israel and even the Palestinian Authority for its pro-Islamist news slant, and for promoting terrorism, instability and reporting “fake news.”
Albanese was introduced at the conference as an “Italian international lawyer,” even though she admitted to the Italian edition of Vanity Fair in an interview in May 2025 that she never passed the bar and is therefore not licensed to practice law.
The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) called for Albanese’s removal as U.N. special rapporteur following her remarks.
“To declare the world’s only Jewish state a ‘common enemy of humanity’ is not human rights advocacy,” Shannon Seban, the NGO’s director of European Affairs, wrote in a letter to the U.N. Human Rights Council.
“It is the language of collective demonization, and it echoes some of the darkest chapters in modern history,” Seban wrote. “When a special rapporteur abandons objectivity and adopts the vocabulary of ideological warfare, the damage extends far beyond diplomatic discourse. It undermines the credibility of the Human Rights Council itself and fuels hostility toward Jewish communities worldwide.”
Albanese has a long track record of antisemitic comments and denouncing Israel. Governments, including the United States, France and Germany, have condemned her Jew-hatred.
In May 2025, she accused Israel of torturing and raping Gazans using dogs, said the United States is “subjugated by the Jewish lobby,” and claimed Zionists faked antisemitic incidents in the United States.
In July, the U.S. Treasury Department named Albanese as a specially designated national, forbidding all Americans and U.S. companies from doing business with her.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on July 9, 2025, that the State Department was sanctioning Albanese.
“The United States has repeatedly condemned and objected to the biased and malicious activities of Albanese that have long made her unfit for service as a special rapporteur,” Rubio said. “Albanese has spewed unabashed antisemitism, expressed support for terrorism and open contempt for the United States, Israel and the West.”
