The Israeli government on Monday he officially denied Francesca Albanese was given the chance to enter the state of Israel, after months in which the Ministry of the Interior refused her a visa. Albanese is the United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, whose task is to assess the human rights situation of the Palestinian population and report it annually to the United Nations Human Rights Council, also making recommendations on how to improve it.
In a statement, the Israeli government he said that he made this decision following a tweet by Albanese published in response to French President Emmanuel Macron, who had said that the Hamas attacks on October 7 were motivated by anti-Semitism. Albanese had written «The “largest anti-Semitic massacre of our century”? No, Mr. @EmmanuelMacron. The victims of 7/10 were not killed because of their Judaism, but in reaction to Israel’s oppression. France and the international community did nothing to prevent it. My tributes to the victims.” The Israeli government judged that with these words Albanese was justifying the attacks of October 7, and therefore decided to ban her from entering the country.
The ‘greatest anti-Semitic massacre of our century’? No M. @EmmanuelMacron. The victims of 7/10 were not killed because of their Judaism, but in response to Israel’s oppression. France & the international community did nothing to prevent it. My respects to the victims.
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPT (@FranceskAlbs) February 10, 2024
As part of her assignment, Albanian would be required to visit Palestine often, but this ban will complicate her work: she can enter the West Bank without passing through Israel, but it may be very difficult for her to cross or enter Israeli settlements in the region, which are considered illegal by ‘UN and by most of the international community but which the Israeli government claims as part of the territory of its state and which it controls with the army.
After the tweet, the Israeli Foreign and Interior Ministers, Israel Katz and Moshe Arbel, asked the “UN leaders” to “publicly disavow the special rapporteur’s anti-Semitic words and dismiss her permanently.” Albanese’s sentence was harshly criticized by the X (Twitter) accounts of the Foreign Ministries of France and Germany.
In recent months, Albanese has often spoken publicly about the conflict between Israel and Hamas and has also become much better known than other UN special rapporteurs, who often remain unknown to people who do not deal with these issues on a daily basis. In your public appearances and in the Albanian press you have repeatedly condemned Israel’s actions on the basis of international law, with rather harsh rhetoric that has made you famous in Italy and abroad.
During this period she was often asked to publicly condemn the October 7 attacks, which she did repeatedly. She reiterated this message in a second tweet also on Sunday, in which she wrote «I am disappointed that some have read my tweet as a “justification” of the Hamas crimes of 7/10, which I have strongly condemned several times. I reject all racism, including anti-Semitism, a global threat. But explaining these crimes as anti-Semitism obscures their true cause.”
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