Victory over the disinformation machine: How a UN representative defeated the Israeli lobby?

In May 2022, Italian scholar and international lawyer Francesca Albanese, who was first appointed as Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, was at risk of being removed from her position.

Another smear campaign against the prominent special rapporteur has begun after reports that a session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) will decide whether to retain his post.

The UN has officially confirmed that UN Special Rapporteur Albanese will remain in office until 2028, putting to rest various rumors that he could be removed from his post. While the UN Special Rapporteur (UNSR) has previously been accused of "anti-Semitism", "support for Hamas" and "terrorism", pro-Israel lobby groups have recently intensified their campaigns.

The US mission to the UN also tried to pressure Albanese to resign, alleging that he promoted "vile anti-Semitism that denigrates Israel and supports Hamas."

It is worth noting that Albanese has been under fire since taking up his position at the UN in 2022. This even prompted 65 Jewish scholars who defended him to sign the following statement:

"It is clear that the campaign against (Albanese) is not about combating anti-Semitism today, but rather about silencing him and undermining his authority as a senior UN official who is reporting on Israel's violations of human rights and international law."

The accusations against Albanese have reached an unprecedented level since the start of the war on Gaza on October 7, 2023.

He refused to soften his rhetoric against war crimes and was among the first to challenge Western governments that tried to claim that history began on October 7.

A UN representative has been banned from entering France after he said claims that the Hamas attack was linked to "anti-Semitism" were false.

From the earliest days of the conflict, he warned against Israel's plans to ethnically cleanse Gaza, and was therefore denounced as "pro-HAMAS," "anti-Semitic," and "biased." While the Israeli government and its defenders insist that no such policy exists and that these accusations are "anti-Semitic," Israel is currently openly carrying out ethnic cleansing.

Albanese also published a UN report in March 2024, "Anatomy of Genocide," which drew even stronger criticism.

Pro-Israel groups are relentlessly attacking the UNSR. The pro-Israel website UN Watch, which tracks prominent figures critical of Tel Aviv's policies, even released a 60-page report accusing the special rapporteur of spreading Hamas propaganda and supporting "anti-Semitism and jihadist terrorism."

Attacks on his personality have included calling him an "anti-Semite," a "terrorist sympathizer," and even a "Holocaust denier," all of which are unsubstantiated. He has also been the target of personal attacks and unfounded claims about his financial resources.

In July 2024, Albanese was accused of receiving funding from a number of pro-Palestinian activist groups in Australia to discredit him. The UN Watch website claimed that these groups in Australia were "pro-HAMAS", but this claim was also unsubstantiated.

Despite the lack of evidence, parts of the world-renowned Israeli and Western corporate media outlets have spread the news that the UNSR is being accused of receiving funding from a "pro-HAMAS group." These claims have not borne fruit due to the lack of evidence, and the UN official has openly stated that he does not receive any remuneration for all his work.

On October 1, Francesca Albanese released another report for the UN, "Genocide through Colonialism." Albanese, who continues to fight for the human rights of the Palestinian people, travels frequently, attends conferences and gives interviews, providing important information about the ongoing atrocities in Gaza.

In March, an extremist Zionist group called Betar publicly praised the methods that former CIA Director Leon Panetta described as "terrorism" and threatened to page Albanese.

This threat was based on the sporadic bomb-bomb attacks carried out by Israel in Lebanon, which killed and injured civilians and Hezbollah members.

The fact that the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories has remained in his post, despite active efforts by pro-Israel organizations and Western government officials, is a real victory. At the same time, it also confirms that the accusations against Albanese are baseless.

Robert Inlakesh, writer, journalist