A UN human rights spokesperson on Friday said she was “very worried” about personal attacks on independent UN experts, after a growing number of European governments called for the resignation of Palestinian territories rapporteur Francesca Albanese over recent anti-Israel comments.
“We are very worried. We are concerned that UN officials, independent experts and judicial officials are increasingly subjected to personal attacks, threats and misinformation that distracts from the serious human rights issues,” UN human rights office spokesperson Marta Hurtado said at a Geneva press briefing.
UN rapporteurs are commissioned by the Geneva-based Human Rights Council to monitor and document specific human rights crises but are independent of the organization itself.
There is no precedent for removing a special rapporteur during their term, although diplomats said that states on the 47-member council could, in theory, propose a motion to do so. However, they said strong support for Palestinian rights within the body means that such a motion was unlikely to pass against Albanese, who was appointed in 2022 and is set to complete her term in 2028.
Speaking via videoconference at a forum Saturday in Doha organized by the Al Jazeera network, Albanese, who has been repeatedly accused of antisemitism and extremist rhetoric toward Israel, cited a “common enemy” that enabled Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza — a charge Israel has strongly rejected.
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Pro-Israel activists accused Albanese of referring to Israel as the “common enemy,” which she denied.
My full AJ Forum speech last week: the common enemy of humanity is THE SYSTEM that has enabled the genocide in Palestine, including the financial capital that funds it, the algorithms that obscure it and the weapons that enable it. pic.twitter.com/PzTQFFybsG
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) February 9, 2026
Albanese herself posted an unedited clip of her comments on social media, with the caption: “The common enemy of humanity is THE SYSTEM that has enabled the genocide in Palestine, including the financial capital that funds it, the algorithms that obscure it and the weapons that enable it.”
Nonetheless, the Czech Republic’s Foreign Minister Petr Macinka, whose country is one of Israel’s strongest supporters in the European Union, on Friday quoted Albanese on X as having called Israel a “common enemy of humanity,” and called for her resignation.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said on Thursday that Albanese’s position was “untenable,” while French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot accused her of making “outrageous and reprehensible remarks” against Israel. Austria and Italy, Albanese’s home country, also said her comments showed she was unsuitable for her post.
“Patience has its limits. UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese should resign from her position.
Her latest statements, in which she described Israel as a ‘common enemy of humanity,’ are unacceptable and indefensible. pic.twitter.com/gKguvqq9xC
— Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs (@CzechMFA) February 13, 2026
Albanese has a long history of making statements accused of being antisemitic, anti-Israel and pro-Hamas.
On October 11, 2023, four days after the attack, Albanese said she doubted reports of rape and sexual violence. Instead, she said the US and Israel were spreading these claims to escalate tensions. She said Israel had no right to self-defense immediately after the Hamas invasion of Israel; said Israelis should be “considered suspect” and investigated when they are abroad; said other countries should halt pharmaceutical exports to Israel; characterized Israel as a “genocidal society”; and positioned the Jewish state as an impediment to global justice.
She told a Harvard University gathering that when Hamas refers to killing Jews (Yahudi), they do not actually mean Jews.
She has called accusations that UNRWA employees participated in the October 7 massacre “fallacious allegations,” though there has been clear evidence supporting it.
Last November, she posted a cartoon denouncing Israel, depicting what appeared to be a global spiderweb, its strands draped with cash and weapons, in an image that experts said echoed age-old antisemitic tropes.
She was sanctioned by the US government last year for her “unabashed antisemitism” along with other anti-Israel international legal figures.
The European calls for Albanese’s resignation came after US President Donald Trump’s administration in June penned a letter to UN chief Antonio Guterres demanding Albanese be removed and alleging she engaged in “virulent antisemitism and support for terrorism.”
Responding overnight to the new calls for her resignation, Albanese said on X that European governments “accuse me — based on statements I never made — with a virulence and conviction that they have NEVER used against those who have slaughtered 20,000+ children in 858 days” since the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza.
Albanese was citing figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, which puts the death toll in Gaza at more than 72,000 people, including over 500 since the October 2025 ceasefire. The toll does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese (2ndL), Swedish activist of Global Sumud Flotilla, Greta Thunberg (C) and Brazilian activist Thiago Avila (R) march during an anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian demonstration as part of the nationwide general strike, in Genoa on November 28, 2025 (Piero CRUCIATTI / AFP)
The Israeli military believes Hamas’s overall toll is largely accurate, with IDF officials estimating that two to three civilians were killed for every combatant.
The IDF says it has killed over 23,000 combatants in Gaza and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas, including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
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