To Palestine, she’s a hero.
To Israel, she’s a villain.
To America, she’s a sanctioned woman—persona sgradita.
Francesca Albanese.
With a name to mean her family once came from Albania, Francesca Albanese is an Italian woman on a mission.
Since May, 2022, she has served as the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council’s Special Rapporteur. Her focus: the status of human rights in the Palestinian territory, occupied since 1967. She is given complete independence to issue reports to the Human Rights Council of the UN General Assembly.
Originally from Ariano, Irpino, a town in Italy’s Campania region, Albanese became an international attorney after graduating from the University of Pisa and the University of London. Her career has centered on the rights of refugees and displaced persons.
It was in February 2024 when Israel barred Albanese from entering the occupied territory. The reason for the restriction was a comment Albanese made on social media. She responded to what French president, Emanuel Macron, said about the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas as, “the largest anti-semitic massacre of our century.” Albanese replied, “The victims of October 7 massacre were killed not because of their Judaism, but in response to Israeli oppression.”
Since Albanese is unable to set foot in Gaza, she must rely on remote fact-finding. She stands in judgment from afar. Her mandate was renewed by the United Nations for another three years in April 2025.
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Albanese on Gaza—A Genocide
Albanese has argued that Israel’s conduct in Gaza meets the legal thresholds for genocide, under the 1948 Convention. She has framed Israel’s broader rule over Palestinians as settler-colonial and apartheid. In March 2024, her report to the UN Human Rights Commission titled, “Anatomy of a Genocide,” set out patterns of conduct to satisfy the Convention’s prohibited acts and genocidal intent.
Albanese then switched her focus to alleged profiteering from the war. In mid-2025, she presented “From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide,” arguing that a network of global companies and financial flows sustains the conflict and facilitates serious violations. She urged states to curtail trade and impose targeted measures against Israel.
Albanese continues to issue situational assessments. In September 2025 she said Israel was seeking to make Gaza City “unliveable.” She described a campaign of ethnic cleansing by Israel in the occupied territories of Palestine.
Because access is restricted, Albanese must rely on written submissions, interviews (often remote) with witnesses, UN agency data, satellite imagery, open-source investigations, and correspondence with states—standard methods for UN special procedures when field access is denied.
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What her supporters say
Human-rights groups and academics have defended Albanese as a rigorous legal expert whose mandate requires independence from governments. Amnesty International called the July 2025 U.S. sanctions against her “a disgraceful affront to international justice,” arguing that special rapporteurs must be free to scrutinize powerful actors. Networks of NGOs and over 100 civil-society organizations have similarly decried “smear campaigns,” saying attempts to discredit her are meant to chill accountability efforts.
A group of 65 scholars of antisemitism, the Holocaust, and Jewish studies publicly rejected accusations that her work is antisemitic, characterizing attacks on her as efforts to silence scrutiny of Israel’s human-rights record.
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What her critics say
Israel’s government leads the charge against Albanese. They allege bias. They argue she minimizes crimes by Hamas and uses inflammatory rhetoric. UN Watch and others have issued legal critiques of her methodology. Hillel Neuer, of UN Watch, went so far as to claim Albanese a subordinate of the Palestinian cause. In a blistering post on Twitter, Neuer vowed to get her husband, Massimiliano Cali, fired from his job at the World Bank. He accused Calì of once working as an economic advisor for the Palestinian Ministry of National Economy.
Albanese rejects charges of antisemitism, saying her criticism targets state policy and occupation, not a people or religion.
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The U.S. view
On July 9, 2025, the United States announced sanctions on Albanese. The State Department characterized her campaign as “lawfare” targeting U.S. and Israeli persons. Albanese advocated restriction of trade with Israel. She asked for an investigation of corporate complicity in what she claims is genocide in Gaza. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced, on his Twitter page, official exclusion of Albanese. She is not allowed to come to the United States and American companies are forbidden to do business with her.
What she is advocating
Albanese calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. She demands unimpeded humanitarian access to the current war zone. She wants to form an international war crimes tribunal to investigate and prosecute possible crimes committed by Israeli soldiers and government officials against the Palestinians.
Albanese has become the voice and face of a broad effort by the UN to oppose Israel and condemn the war in Gaza.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas attacked concertgoers inside Israel. Some 378 Israelis were killed and 44 were taken hostage. In response, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered Israel’s military to attack Gaza. Since 2023, constant Israeli bombing raids have all but obliterated this area of occupied Palestine. The Palestinians claim 65,000 casualties due to the Israeli counterattack. The UN says the number is higher, at or near 90,000 while Israel’s estimates are much lower—20,000.
Israel’s response to the murder raid by Hamas in October 2023 is seen as disproportionate by Albanese and others. Israel compares their response to what the United States did after 9/11. Afghanistan and Iraq were invaded by U.S. forces after 2,976 Americans were killed in the terrorist attacks that day. Israel sees what they suffered on October 2023 even more horrific. They compare the countries’ populations for a scale of attack at 120 killed per 1 million Israelis to 10 killed per 1 million Americans on 9/11. If the United States was justified for a full scale invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, then Israel is justified to do the same in Gaza.
Albanese continues her work for the UN. She is a new lightning rod of controversy in the always volatile politics of the Middle East. Whatever one’s view of her conclusions, she has become a focal point for larger arguments about how international law should apply in the seemingly unceasing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Editor’s Note: Photographs of Francesca Albanese show her in a solitary pose to beging and end the article. She often speaks at conferences, as underscored by the second photograph. Two graphs provide information on the causalties suffered by Israelis and Palestinians. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced sanctions against Albanese on his Twitter page. As the last photograph highlights—many people want Albanese to win a Nobel peace prize for her efforts.
To read the report Francesca Albanese made to the UN, please log on to:
https://www.un.org/unispal/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/A.77.356_210922.pdf
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