France urges removal of UN rapporteur over remarks on Israel
France is calling for the resignation of the UN special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories over comments she made allegedly targeting Israel at a conference, the foreign minister said on Wednesday, February 11.
"France unreservedly condemns the outrageous and reprehensible remarks made by Francesca Albanese, which are directed not at the Israeli government, whose policies may be criticized, but at Israel as a people and as a nation, which is absolutely unacceptable," Jean-Noël Barrot told French lawmakers.
Speaking at a forum Saturday in Doha organized by the Al Jazeera network, Albanese referred to a "common enemy" that enabled the "genocide" in Gaza. "The fact that instead of stopping Israel, most of the world has armed, given Israel political excuses, political sheltering, economic and financial support," she said. "We who do not control large amounts of financial capitals, algorithms and weapons, we now see that we as a humanity have a common enemy," she continued.
On Monday, Albanese defended herself in a post on X, stating that "the common enemy of humanity is THE SYSTEM that has enabled the genocide in Palestine." But Barrot said Albanese's comments added "to a long list of scandalous positions," accusing the Italian rights expert of "justifying" the October 7, 2023 attacks against Israel and "comparing Israel to the Third Reich."
"She is a political activist who stirs up hate speech that does a disservice to the cause of the Palestinian people," he said, responding to a question from Carole Yadan, a lawmaker from the presidential camp. The day before, Yadan and 20 other deputies warned Barrot in a letter that Albanese should be "stripped of any UN mandate with immediate effect" due to her remarks.
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