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Francesca Albanese Was Sanctioned Because She Supports Terror — Not Because She Criticizes Israel
Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, attends a side event during the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, March 26, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
Francecsa Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the “Occupied Palestinian Territories,” is not an international lawyer. She is, however, a biased terror justifier and supporter who denies Israel’s right to self defense. She continuously insists that the West hasn’t done enough to withdraw any kind of support or dealings with Israel, and spouts antisemitic rhetoric, while denying she is antisemitic.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced last Wednesday that the United States would finally sanction Albanese for her threat to US interests.
The Western media, however, took that to mean she was sanctioned for her criticism of Israel’s war on Hamas — claiming it was a continuation of the “war” on pro-Palestinian advocates, and an attempt to silence those who “looking into alleged crimes committed by Israel as the war in Gaza continues,” as stated by CNN.
Headlines from the likes of the BBC, CNN, Associated Press (AP), Bloomberg, and beyond downplay who she really is and the real threat she poses.
Except she isn’t just a “critic of Israel’s Gaza offensive,” is she, @BBCNews?
Francesca Albanese is one of the most vehement Israel haters operating within the international system & has been criticized for antisemitism by multiple countries.
But BBC prefers to downplay that. pic.twitter.com/QolwYqrwqM
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) July 10, 2025
The source? A wire article from the AP by Farnoush Amiri titled “US issues sanctions against UN investigator probing abuses in Gaza.”
Amiri editorializes, claiming that the US aims to “punish critics” of Israel’s war in Gaza.
For over a year, the media have ignored the violent and antisemitic nature of pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses in the US, and instead, painted these activists as peaceful demonstrators who advocate for equal rights for all people.
From Mahmoud Khalil to Mohsen Mahdawi, these are not just peaceful demonstrators exercising their right to freedom of speech and protest.
The @nytimes gave op-ed space to Columbia student Mohsen Mahdawi so he could pose as a peace-seeking “human rights activist.”
Left out? Court docs say he boasted about his “love” of “killing Jews.”
Apparently, some human rights don’t count. pic.twitter.com/cx3HytriCu
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) May 4, 2025
In Albanese’s case, she has said numerous times that resistance is acceptable “by any means, including armed struggle,” including at a Hamas conference in Gaza to a room filled with Hamas senior officials.
That time she spoke at a Hamas conference and told the crowd they have the “right to resist” Israelhttps://t.co/1nGILmzU7Q
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) April 4, 2025
So no, AP, this is not a campaign to silence criticism of Israel. It is a campaign to combat terror supporters, antisemites and threats to US interests, including Israel. This isn’t a statement on politics, it’s a statement on media transparency.
The Times took things a step further, using Albanese’s past comments to make their point. Reporter George Grylls describes a 2024 interview in which Albanese was asked whether she believed Israel has the right to exist. Her answer? Avoidant.
As for the Telegraph’s take? Well, apparently the evidence she has presented herself over the years isn’t enough. She is merely “accused” of “bias,” and again, sanctioned “over Israel criticism.”
As the media continue to reel from this exceptional move, it’s important to remind the world who Francesca Albanese is and what the US sanction actually stands for, because the media certainly won’t. UN Watch’s Executive Director Hillel Neuer said it best:
You justified the October 7 massacre as it was happening. Now the United States has made you the first purported UN official in history to be sanctioned. You will never again spread your poison on American campuses or enter the country. Justice is served. Good triumphs over evil. https://t.co/gNVIPaizRh
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) July 9, 2025
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
The post Francesca Albanese Was Sanctioned Because She Supports Terror — Not Because She Criticizes Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Says Eight Arrested for Suspected Links to Israel’s Mossad Spy Agency
The Mossad recruitment ad. Photo: Screenshot.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Saturday they had arrested eight people suspected of trying to transmit the coordinates of sensitive sites and details about senior military figures to Israel’s Mossad, Iranian state media reported.
They are accused of having provided the information to the Mossad spy agency during Israel’s air war on Iran in June, when it attacked Iranian nuclear facilities and killed top military commanders as well as civilians in the worst blow to the Islamic Republic since the 1980s war with Iraq.
Iran retaliated with barrages of missiles on Israeli military sites, infrastructure and cities. The United States entered the war on June 22 with strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
A Guards statement alleged that the suspects had received specialized training from Mossad via online platforms. It said they were apprehended in northeastern Iran before carrying out their plans, and that materials for making launchers, bombs, explosives and booby traps had been seized.
State media reported earlier this month that Iranian police had arrested as many as 21,000 “suspects” during the 12-day war with Israel, though they did not say what these people had been suspected of doing.
Security forces conducted a campaign of widespread arrests and also stepped up their street presence during the brief war that ended in a US-brokered ceasefire.
Iran has executed at least eight people in recent months, including nuclear scientist Rouzbeh Vadi, hanged on August 9 for passing information to Israel about another scientist killed in Israeli airstrikes.
Human rights groups say Iran uses espionage charges and fast-tracked executions as tools for broader political repression.
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Body of Idan Shtivi, Murdered on Oct. 7, Retrieved from Gaza in Special IDF Operation
Idan Shtivi. Photo: Courtesy of the family
i24 News – The body of Idan Shtivi, a 28-year-old murdered by Palestinian jihadists at the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, was recovered in a joint operation by the IDF and Shin Bet in central Gaza, it was cleared for publication on Saturday.
Shtivi’s remains were returned to Israel alongside the body of Ilan Weiss, another hostage killed during the October 7 massacre.
“Idan Shtivi was abducted from the Tel Gama area and brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists after acting to rescue and evacuate others from the Nova music festival on October 7th, 2023. He was 28 years old at the time of his death,” read an IDF press release.
“Following an identification process conducted at the National Center for Forensic Medicine, along with the Israel Police and the Military Rabbinate, the Hostages and Missing Persons Headquarters notified his family.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Shviti “was a gifted student of sustainability and governance, and a courageous individual” who acted heroically on October 7, helping others flee.
“He was killed in the process and his body was abducted to Gaza by Hamas. My wife and I send our heartfelt condolences to the Shtivi family. So far, 207 hostages have been returned, 148 of them alive. We will continue to act tirelessly and decisively to bring back all our hostages—living and deceased.”
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Woman Stabbed at Ottawa Grocery Store in Latest Antisemitic Attack
A social media post by the alleged attacker, Joseph Rooke of Cornwall, Ontario. Photo: Screenshot via i24
i24 News – The stabbing of a Jewish woman at an Ottawa grocery by a man with a long history of antisemitic posts on social media, the latest antisemitic hate crime in Canada, sparked outrage and prompted condemnation from officials including the prime minister.
Both the victim and the attacker are in their 70s. The woman is reportedly in serious condition.
The suspect was identified as Joseph Rooke, who has authored a series of lengthy rambling screeds on social media, ranting against Israel and Jews.
“Judaism is the world’s oldest cult,” he writes in one post, going on to say “over time jews have become insidious in governments, businesses, media conglomerates, and educational institutions in order to do what they do better than anyone else. Jews are the world’s masters of propaganda, gaslighting, demonization, demagoguery, and outright lying. Using their collective wealth they have become masters of reprisal.”
“I am under no obligation whatsoever, legal, moral, or otherwise, to like jews and I do not. If that means I meet the jewish definition of an anti-semite, so be it.”
Canada has seen a steep spike in antisemitic attacks over the past two years, including a recent incident in Montreal where a Hasidic Jew was beaten in front on his children.
After Prime Minister Mark Carney condemned the incident, many, including former Israel’s ambassador the US Michael Oren, pointed out that Carney’s rhetoric and policies contribute to the increasing insecurity of Canada’s Jewish community through uncritical embrace of outrageous and easily disprovable allegations that Israel and its supporters were guilty of the worst crimes against humanity.