Israel is considering preventing the entry of a special delegation to Judea and Samaria by the UN Human Rights Council, which plans to arrive in the coming days. The reason for the potential rejection is due to an inherent bias within the delegation, highlighted by a pro-Palestinian activist who has called for continued terror against Israeli citizens.
According to reports an Italian lawyer who is part of the mission, Francesca Albanese, has made a series of statements against Israel, including some recent statements calling for violence. Most recently, this past Monday, Albanese addressed the Islamic JIhand and Hamas in Gaza, applauding and giving them further justification to continue their attacks against Israel.
The conference that took place in Gaza, organized by a body directly affiliated with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, was attended, among others, by Hamas spokesman Abdel-Latif al-Qanou, Hamas members Bassem Naim and Razi Hamed, and members of the Islamic Jihad Ahmad al-Mudlal and Hader Habib.
“Palestinians have no other room for dissent than violence,” Francesca Albanese said in a media interview.https://t.co/JHxDQtKIsl
— World Israel News (@worldisraelnews) November 30, 2022
Albanese’s speech was translated into Arabic during a live broadcast at the conference, and in her words, she was heard in recordings of the event saying: "You have the right to oppose this occupation." Israel does not have a presence in the Gaza Strip and similar to most countries, maintains a secure border with the enclave.
Despite allegations of Gaza being an 'open-air prison,' Israel's border crossings with Gaza are busy with workers from Gaza coming into Israel each day and goods coming in. To highlight this, a Gazan man won the Israeli lottery in 2015, an Israeli court just ruled that the man had to pay taxes on the millions, with 75% of those tax revenues being forwarded to the Palestinian Authority.
Maybe Francesca Albanese can say something with a straight face.
— GimpelTheFool (@Gimpel_theFool) November 30, 2022
Also in her speech, Albanese also hinted at her opposition to the two-state solution for two peoples, when she told the Gaza audience: "The West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza are what remains of historical Palestine. This language is not new, but it will help the international community feel uncomfortable with the two-state solution."
Albanese’s calls for armed opposition to Israel is not the first time she has endorsed Palestinian violence against Israelis. In an interview on June 9, 2022, with a local Italian magazine, she said that "Israel says that resistance equals terrorism, but occupation requires violence and creates violence."
Francesca Albanese, the @UN_HRC "Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967", has made countless anti-Israel remarks and has even expressed support for terrorists. Now Israel's considering not letting her in to the country
— Israel National News - Arutz Sheva (@ArutzSheva_En) December 1, 2022
She then added that "Palestinians have no place for resistance except violence." Last May, Albanese said in an interview with an Italian TV channel that "Palestinian violence is inevitable because the Palestinian people's right to exist has been denied for 55 years."
She has also been heard comparing the “Nakba” to the Holocaust and accused Israel of being an apartheid state. As part of her previous job at UNRWA, Albanese has published many studies on the subject of Palestinian refugees. A huge part of her role was monitoring "Israeli violations of the principles of international law, international humanitarian law, and the Geneva Convention."
When Francesca Albanese says Palestinians have the right to resist ....she means Palestinians have the right to deny Jews the right to exist https://t.co/F3nQxJBmfo
— Stone #Justice4MalkiRoth (@StoneWaimea) November 29, 2022
Earlier this week she tweeted that she intends to visit Judea and Samaria for the first time since she was appointed and even claimed that Israel "did not refuse her entry". However, Israeli reports are claiming that her entry might be denied to her violent statements.
The fact she could qualify for what should be an unbiased investigative role on the Human Rights Council is not surprising. The UN famously has had severe violators of Human Rights like Iran, Venezuela and North Korea on the council and even chairing it at times.
