PARIS, France — France was calling for the resignation of the UN special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories over comments she made targeting Israel at a conference, the French foreign minister said on Wednesday.
“France unreservedly condemns the outrageous and reprehensible remarks made by Ms. 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-Noel Barrot told French lawmakers.
Speaking via videoconference at a forum Saturday in Doha, Qatar, 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 [Israel], given Israel political excuses, political sheltering, [and] economic and financial support,” she said.
“We who do not control large amounts of financial capital, algorithms, and weapons — we now see that we as a humanity have a common enemy,” she continued.
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On Wednesday, Albanese defended herself in an interview with TV channel France 24 that was recorded before Barrot’s statement, denouncing what she called “completely false accusations” and “manipulation” of her words.
“I have never, ever, ever said ‘Israel is the common enemy of humanity,’” she said.
Humanity has a “common enemy” in Israel, Francesca Albanese tells Qatar’s Al Jazeera forum pic.twitter.com/l1wXNiS7yP
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) February 8, 2026
But Barrot said Albanese’s comments joined “a long list of scandalous positions,” accusing the Italian rights expert of “justifying” the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led 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.
Yadan was among 20 other deputies who, a day earlier, warned Barrot in a letter that Albanese should be “stripped of any UN mandate with immediate effect,” following her remarks.
France is one of the UN Security Council’s five permanent members.
UN Watch Director Hillel Neuer posted the clip of Albanese making the remarks during the al-Jazeera panel, commenting Sunday that “she casts the Jewish state as an ontological force corrupting humanity itself, dehumanizing Israelis to frame all violence against them as justified.”
The Lawfare Project, a pro-Israel legal group, in a Tuesday post to X wrote of Albanese, “This shocking statement exposes her deep-seated bias and confirms why she has been widely condemned for antisemitism and sanctioned by the United States.”
UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights Situation in the Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese attends a rally to denounce Israel over the war with Hamas in Gaza in Madrid, Spain, on June 23, 2025. (Thomas Coex/AFP)
Albanese has a history of antisemitism and extremist rhetoric toward Israel, according to her critics. She says she is a champion for Palestinian rights and an opponent of discrimination, including against Jews.
The US State Department sanctioned Albanese in July, accusing her of “political and economic warfare” against the US and Israel and “unabashed antisemitism.”
Special rapporteurs are independent, unpaid experts appointed by the UN. As a special rapporteur for the Palestinians, Albanese releases periodic investigative reports and is granted a platform and authority to promulgate her views on the conflict.
Albanese has parlayed her UN position into celebrity status on the anti-Israel left and the right. She has more than one million followers on social media and often speaks at conferences and in media appearances.
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