UN Palestinian rights lawyer slammed for 2014 remarks on 'Jewish lobby'
UN Special Rapporteur on Palestinian rights Francesca Albanese said U.S. is 'subjugated by the Jewish lobby'
A UN lawyer on Palestinian rights is facing criticism over recently revealed antisemitic comments from 2014 in which she said that the United States was "subjugated by the Jewish lobby."
Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on Palestinian rights, made the remarks in an open letter published to Facebook during Israel's Operation "Protective Edge" in response to rocket and mortar fire from the Gaza Strip. The remarks were made before she assumed the UN position.
“America and Europe, one of them subjugated by the Jewish lobby, and the other by the sense of guilt about the Holocaust, remain on the sidelines and continue to condemn the oppressed — the Palestinians — who defend themselves with the only means they have (deranged missiles), instead of making Israel face its international law responsibilities,” the Italian attorney wrote.
Albanese told the Times of Israel — which first reported the 2014 remarks as well as other comments hostile to Jews and Israel — that she would not have used those words today before taking a shot at Israel's alleged treatment of the Palestinians.
The revelation of her antisemitic remarks drew harsh condemnation from Israeli and U.S. officials, including from Deborah Lipstadt, U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, who wrote on her Twitter account that "such blatant antisemitic rhetoric – particularly when it’s an established pattern – is simply unacceptable." Lipstadt added that the past antisemitism emanating from Albanese "severely undermines the credibility" of her position at the UN to deal with human rights in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
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The U.S. ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council called the remarks "appalling" and an "antisemitic trope."
"This is outrageous, inappropriate, corrosive, and degrades the value of the UN," Michele Taylor said on Twitter.
Israel's Foreign Ministry also weighed in on the controversary, with a statement from Israel’s Permanent Mission to the UN in Geneva saying that the comments from Albanese are part of a larger problem of antisemitism at the UN.