Francesca Albanese, who has been accused of antisemitism, calls on PA security cooperation with Israel to cease over ‘settler-colonial apartheid’ crimes
The UN official tasked with examining Israel’s policies in the West Bank and Gaza presented in Geneva on Monday a scathing report accusing the Jewish state of collectively imprisoning the Palestinians, sexually abusing Palestinian women, and “challenging the very foundations of the international legal order.”
In her “Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967,” Francesca Albanese called on UN member states to prosecute Israeli officials under universal jurisdiction, and urged Palestinian Authority security forces to suspend cooperation with Israel “that may lead to violating fundamental rights and freedoms under international law.”
“A 10,700-word report cannot capture the scale and extent of the arbitrary deprivation of liberty in the occupied Palestinian territory,” she wrote. “Nor can it convey the suffering of millions of Palestinians who have, directly or indirectly, been affected.”
Albanese has a history of antisemitism, which she has not explicitly apologized for, instead denouncing criticism of her rhetoric as a smear campaign.
In her report, Albanese accused Israel of torture, mistreating Palestinian corpses, coercing gay Palestinians to provide information, and “invasive strip searches, sexual abuse, and threats” toward women.
“The security coordination between the Palestinian Authority and Israel has pioneered a direct connection between Palestinian and Israeli detention apparatuses,” she wrote.
“Arbitrary arrests and detention carried out by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and the de facto authorities in the Gaza Strip have contributed to stifling Palestinians’ rights and freedoms,” she continued, not naming the Hamas terror organization throughout her report.
