Albanese has advocated for the rights of the Palestinian people and condemned Israel’s war and occupation of the territories [Getty/file photo]
A prominent pro-Israel lobbying group has publicly admitted to pressuring the US government to sanction leading UN human rights expert, Francesca Albanese, who has repeatedly warned that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza and called for accountability over its actions in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Speaking at the Jewish News Syndicate International Policy Summit in Jerusalem on Monday, UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer boasted of “a successful campaign” by his organisation to pressure Washington into taking action against Albanese.
The Italian human rights expert has become one of the most prominent international voices documenting Israel’s actions in Gaza.
Her reports have warned that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians, detailed systematic violations of international law, and called for governments and corporations to be held accountable for their links to Israel’s occupation and military campaign.
Neuer told the audience that UN Watch had “led a campaign” against Albanese, gathering 120,000 signatures on a petition urging US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to take action after the United Nations refused to.
His remarks amounted to a rare public admission by a pro-Israel pressure group that it had actively lobbied Washington to punish a UN official whose investigations and reports have placed unprecedented scrutiny on Israel’s conduct in Gaza.
According to Neuer, Albanese’s comments about the influence of the Israel lobby on US policy, as well as remarks she made following the 7 October 2023 attacks, prompted the smear campaign against her.
Following the attacks, Albanese argued that the violence should be understood within the context of decades of Israeli occupation, dispossession and oppression of Palestinians, rejecting attempts to portray the events solely through a religious or ethnic lens.
The lobbying effort culminated in July last year when the United States imposed sanctions on Albanese, marking the first known case of Washington sanctioning a sitting UN special rapporteur.
Rubio accused Albanese of conducting “political and economic warfare” against the United States and Israel and alleged she had engaged in antisemitism. Albanese and her supporters strongly rejected the accusations, describing the sanctions as retaliation for her work documenting Israeli actions in Gaza.
The sanctions effectively barred her from entering the United States, prevented transactions involving US financial institutions and led to Georgetown University dropping her as a visiting scholar.
The measures were temporarily blocked in May by US District Judge Richard J. Leon, who ruled that they violated Albanese’s constitutional rights. The legal challenge was brought by members of her family, including her US citizen daughter.
Weeks later, however, the sanctions were reinstated after Albanese’s name reappeared on the US Treasury Department’s sanctions list.
Albanese has described the campaign against her as harmful and dangerous, arguing that it was intended to silence criticism of Israel and intimidate those documenting alleged Israeli violations against Palestinians.
Neuer also boasted that his organisation had successfully targeted Albanese’s husband, Massimiliano Cali, a World Bank official. He claimed Cali was demoted following pressure generated by the campaign, accusing him of “incitement to hate”.
UN Watch has repeatedly targeted Albanese throughout her tenure as special rapporteur, campaigning for her removal and seeking to discredit her findings on Israel’s actions in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories.
One of the most controversial episodes came earlier this year when the organisation circulated a video clip purporting to show Albanese describing Israel as “the common enemy of all humanity”.
The clip was misleadingly edited and in her full remarks at an Al Jazeera forum, Albanese referred to “the system that has enabled the genocide in Palestine” as the common enemy rather than Israel itself.
Despite the dispute over the remarks, the clip fuelled a wave of criticism and renewed calls for Albanese to resign or be stripped of her UN role.
The Geneva-based organisation has long campaigned against UN bodies, officials and investigations that have highlighted Israeli violations of international law, arguing that the United Nations displays institutional bias against Israel.
UN Watch has also claimed success in campaigns targeting other UN figures who have documented Israeli violations.
In April, the organisation said it had helped block the reappointment of Indian activist and former UN rapporteur Miloon Kothari to the UN-affiliated Pillay Commission, which investigates violations in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.
Kothari has previously condemned Israel’s conduct in Gaza, denounced its occupation of Palestinian land and questioned why Israel continues to enjoy the privileges of UN membership while repeatedly violating international law.
