Israel announced Monday that it had banned the entry into its territory of the United Nations special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese, after comments on the October 7 attack deemed
“anti-Semitic”
by the Israeli authorities.
Ms. Albanese, an independent expert appointed by the UN, criticized French President Emmanuel Macron's comments last week describing Hamas's assault on Israeli soil as
"the greatest anti-Semitic massacre of our century
. "
In a statement, Israeli Ministers of Foreign Affairs Israel Katz and Interior Minister Moshe Arbel considered these remarks
“scandalous”
, announced that she was now
“banned from entry by the State of Israel”
, and demanded her resignation.
The immigration authorities were instructed not to grant him a visa, they added.
Francesca Albanese fears diversion of “attention from Israeli atrocities in Gaza”
Francesca Albanese shortly
afterwards reacted on
“This should not distract from Israel's atrocities in Gaza, which reach a new level of horror with the bombing of people in 'safe places' in Rafah
,” she continued.
She
had
earlier indicated,
still
on
760,000 of them from their lands at the time of the creation of the State of Israel in 1948.
Ms Albanese had also previously said she was
“disappointed that some have read (her) tweet as “justifying” the Hamas crimes of October 7, (which she has) strongly condemned several times”
.
“I reject all racism, including anti-Semitism, a global threat.
But explaining these crimes as anti-Semitism obscures their true cause
,” she added.
Growing tension between UN officials and Israel
Relations between Israel and various UN officials have deteriorated since the start of the Israeli operation launched in Gaza in retaliation for the attack by the Hamas movement, in power in the Palestinian territory since 2007.
“If the UN wants to become a competent body again, its leaders must publicly disavow the anti-Semitic remarks of their “special envoy” and immediately dismiss her
,” added the two Israeli ministers.
UN Special Rapporteurs are volunteer, independent experts mandated by the UN Human Rights Council, to whom they communicate the results of their investigations.
Israel had previously criticized Ms Albanese after she and other UN-commissioned experts said in November that Palestinians in Gaza were
"gravely at risk of genocide"
.
She also criticized the suspension by several countries of their funding to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) after the Israelis accused 12 of its employees of involvement in the October 7 attacks.