Immigration authorities have been instructed not to issue a visa to Francesca Albanese
Jerusalem:
Israel on Monday announced a visa ban on the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories over his recent comments denying that the October 7 attack by Hamas was “anti-Semitic.”
Francesca Albanese, a U.N.-appointed independent expert, said last week that she disagreed with French President Emmanuel Macron’s characterization of the attack that sparked all-out war, calling it “the greatest anti-Semitic attack of this century.” massacre”.
“No,” Albanese wrote in French on the social media platform X. “The victims of 7/10 were not killed because of their Jewish identity, but because of Israeli oppression.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz and Interior Minister Moshe Abel called her online comments “outrageous” and said in a statement that she was now “denied entry to the State of Israel.”
Immigration authorities have been instructed not to grant Albanese a visa, they added, and called for her to be fired.
Israel’s relations with several United Nations agencies and representatives have soured since the start of its war with Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.
“If the United Nations wants to restore its standing as an institution, its leaders must publicly deny the ‘envoy’s’ anti-Semitic comments and fire her immediately,” the ministers said in a statement.
Contacted by AFP, Albanese did not comment on Israel’s decision, which will effectively prevent her from entering the occupied West Bank.
But on her
Albanese has previously said she was “disappointed” that her response to Macron’s comments was interpreted as her “justification” of the Hamas attack, noting that she has repeatedly condemned it.
“Explaining these crimes as anti-Semitism obscures their true causes,” she said, calling anti-Semitism a “global threat.”
A United Nations special rapporteur is an unpaid independent expert authorized by the Human Rights Council.
They do not speak on behalf of the United Nations but report their findings to the Security Council’s fact-finding and monitoring mechanism.
Albanes and other UN-mandated human rights experts said in November that Palestinians in the war-torn Gaza Strip “face a serious risk of genocide”, following previous criticism from Israel.
She also criticized the decision by several donors to suspend funding to the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, over Israel’s accusations that 12 staff members were involved in the Oct. 7 attack.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Follow us on Google news ,Twitter , and Join Whatsapp Group of thelocalreport.in
