State Department Sanctions Special Rapporteur Albanese for ‘Unabashed Anti-Semitism’

July 11—Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a press statement July 9 announcing he was imposing sanctions against Francesca Albanese, the UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Occupied since 1967. Her crime? She has “directly engaged” with the International Criminal Court (ICC) “in efforts to investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute nationals of the United States or Israel without the consent of these two countries.” This, Rubio said, is a “gross infringement on the sovereignty of both countries.” The absurd title of Rubio’s statement is “Sanctioning Lawfare That Targets U.S. and Israeli Persons.”

So now the perpetrators of genocide in the Gaza Strip are victims of “lawfare”? In her position as Special Rapporteur, the outspoken Albanese has attacked the genocide which the Israeli government has carried out in the Gaza Strip. Her most recent report, “From an Economy of Occupation to an Economy of Genocide,” was published June 30 but presented to the Human Rights Council in Geneva on July 3. It is a scathing indictment of the “corporate actors” that are complicit in committing genocide of Palestinians through their collaboration and cooperation with Israel’s military industrial complex. She provides a detailed list of names of corporations and individuals involved.

This is a cause for outrage at the State Department. Rubio’s statement points to her “biased and malicious activities … that have long made her unfit for service as a Special Rapporteur. She has spewed unabashed anti-Semitism, expressed support for terrorism, and open contempt for the United States, Israel, and the West. That bias has been apparent across the span of her career, including recommending that the ICC, without a legitimate basis, issue arrest warrants targeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.” Without a legitimate basis?

The State Department is particularly incensed that Albanese had the nerve to contact individual corporate entities—energy companies, Big Tech, defense contractors, banks and universities—many of them American, revealing the evidence of her investigation which implicates them in the violation of international law and human rights law. This was crossing a line, says Rubio. These are fine upstanding companies that contribute to the world economy.