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Anti-Israel UN Special Rapporteur Calls for UN to Expel Jewish State
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
The United Nations’ notoriously controversial special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Palestinian territories has called for the UN to expel Israel as a member state of the world body, once again raising questions of her impartiality.
“Time to #UNseatIsrael from the UN,” Francesca Albanese wrote on X/Twitter on Thursday.
Albanese was responding to a tweet from Balakrishnan Rajagopal, the UN special rapporteur “on the right to adequate housing,” who wrote it was “high time to take action against Israel including through unseating from the UN, as was done with apartheid South Africa.”
The outrage came after Israeli forces struck a UN facility in Gaza which, according to the military, was being used by Hamas terrorists as a command center. Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that rules Gaza, notoriously embeds its fighters within Gaza’s civilian population and commandeers civilian facilities like hospitals, schools, and mosques to run operations and direct attacks.
The UN facility hit in Gaza belonged to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the UN organization dedicated solely to Palestinian refugees and their descendants. UNRWA has been accused of aiding Hamas, and Israel has said employees of the agency participated in the terrorist group’s Oct. 7 onslaught across southern Israel. UN officials deny the allegations, arguing their mission in Gaza is critical to ensuring humanitarian aid gets to the civilian population.
“Our troops found UAVs, war rooms used for surveillance operations, and large quantities of weapons, including tactical drones, rockets, machine guns, mortars, explosives, and grenades in a compound near UNRWA’s HQ in Gaza City, following intelligence that Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists and infrastructure were embedded inside,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement regarding its operation targeting the facility. The IDF also said there were tunnel routes near the compound.
In response to Albanese’s tweet, Hillel Neuer — the executive director of UN Watch, a Geneva-based NGO that monitors the UN — lambasted the special rapporteur for what he described as an anti-Israel bias.
“You are violating your duty to act with impartiality. Under no circumstances is a UN mandate holder entitled to call for the removal of a member state,” he wrote.
Albanese’s call to expel Israel is the latest chapter of her extensive history of using her role at the UN to denigrate Israel and seemingly rationalize Hamas’ attacks on the Jewish state.
The UN recently launched a probe into Albanese’s conduct over allegedly accepting a trip to Australia funded by pro-Hamas organizations.
In April, Albanese issued public support for the pro-Hamas protests and encampments on US university campuses, saying that they gave her “hope.” Earlier that month, she accused Israel of destroying Gaza and committing genocide in the Hamas-ruled Palestinian enclave, from which the terrorist group launched the current war by invading the Jewish state on Oct. 7, massacring 1,200 people, and kidnapping 250 others as hostages. At a public hearing at the European Parliament on April 9, the UN rapporteur devoted much of her time to accusing Israel — but not Hamas — of lying about its conduct in Gaza.
That hearing came about two weeks after Albanese released a report accusing Israel of carrying out “genocide” in Gaza, continuing a pattern of the UN official singling out the Jewish state for particularly harsh condemnation. Albanese’s report did not mention any details about Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel. Israeli officials lambasted her findings, arguing they were misleading and excused terrorism.
In February, Albanese claimed Israelis were “colonialists” who had “fake identities.” Previously, she defended Palestinians’ “right to resist” Israeli “occupation” at a time when over 1,100 rockets were fired by Gaza terrorists at Israel. Last year, US lawmakers called for the firing of Albanese for what they described as her “outrageous” antisemitic statements, including a 2014 letter in which she claimed America was “subjugated by the Jewish lobby.”
Albanese’s anti-Israel comments have earned her the praise of Hamas officials in the past.
In response to French President Emmanuel Macron calling Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel the “”argest antisemitic massacre of the 21st century,” Albanese said, “No, Mr. Macron. The victims of Oct. 7 were not killed because of their Judaism, but in response to Israel’s oppression.”
Video footage of the Oct. 7 onslaught showed Palestinian terrorists led by Hamas celebrating the fact that they were murdering Jews.
Nevertheless, Albanese has argued that Israel should make peace with Hamas, saying that it “needs to make peace with Hamas in order to not be threatened by Hamas.”
When asked what people do not understand about Hamas, she added, “If someone violates your right to self-determination, you are entitled to embrace resistance.”
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French Official Tells Paper Arab Countries Will Condemn Hamas, Trying to Get Palestinian Statehood Recognized
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot speaks to the media on the day he attends the European Union Foreign Ministers council in Brussels, Belgium, July 15, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yves Herman
Arab countries will for the first time condemn Hamas and call for its disarmament early next week at a United Nations ministerial event in New York, a move meant to lure more European countries to recognize Palestinian statehood, France’s foreign minister said on Saturday.
In an exclusive interview with French weekly Le Journal du Dimanche, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot said the move was part of a long-planned initiative between France and Saudi Arabia.
“For the first time, Arab countries will condemn Hamas and call for its disarmament, which will seal its definitive isolation. European countries will in turn confirm their intention to recognize the State of Palestine. Half of European countries have done so, all others are considering it,” Barrot told the JDD.
“The British Prime Minister has stated his intention to do so. Germany is considering it at a later stage. We will launch an appeal in New York for other countries to join us in order to set in motion an even more ambitious and demanding process that will culminate on September 21,” Barrot added.
On Thursday French President Emmanuel Macron announced France would formally recognize the state of Palestine at the U.N. General Assembly on September 21, drawing condemnation from the U.S. and Israel.
Earlier on Saturday Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni called it counterproductive to recognize a Palestinian state before it is established.
On Friday a German government spokesperson said there were no plans to recognize a Palestinian state in the short term.
At the upcoming United Nations event on Monday and Tuesday, France and Saudi Arabia plan to lay out a proposed post-war roadmap leading to a two-state solution covering security, reconstruction and governance, which will be compatible with the Abraham Accords negotiated by US President Trump, Barrot said.
The French minister added that in coming weeks the European Commission would take a tougher stance on Israel and demand a stop on building of any new settlement projects in the West Bank, and also an end to militarized policing of humanitarian aid distribution.
Barrot also called on fellow European countries to demand a removal of the financial blockade on the Palestinian authority so it can receive 2 billion euros he said it is owed.
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Jordan and UAE Drop Aid Into Gaza in First Airdrop in Months, Jordanian Source Says
An airplane drops humanitarian aid over Gaza as seen from northern Gaza Strip July 27, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Jordan and the United Arab Emirates parachuted 25 tons of aid into the Gaza Strip on Sunday in their first airdrop in months, a Jordanian official source said.
The official said the air drops were not a substitute for delivery by land.
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Trump Says Israel Will Have to Decide on Next Steps in Gaza, Pledges More Aid
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 8, 2025. Photo: Kevin Lamarque via Reuters Connect.
US President Donald Trump said on Sunday Israel would have to make a decision on next steps in Gaza, adding that he did not know what would happen after the collapse of ceasefire and hostage-release negotiations with the Hamas terrorist group.
Trump underscored the importance of securing the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, saying they had suddenly “hardened” up on the issue, and said the US would provide more aid to the war-torn Palestinian enclave.
“They don’t want to give them back, and so Israel is going to have to make a decision,” Trump told reporters at the start of a meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at his golf property in Turnberry, Scotland.
“I know what I’d do, but I don’t think it’s appropriate that I say it. But Israel is going to have to make a decision,” he said, while also claiming, without evidence, that Hamas members were stealing food coming into Gaza and selling it.
Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu both appeared on Friday to abandon Gaza ceasefire negotiations with Hamas, saying it had become clear that the Palestinian group did not want a deal.
Netanyahu said Israel was now mulling “alternative” options to achieve its goals of bringing its hostages home from Gaza and ending Hamas rule in the enclave.
Trump said he believed Hamas leaders would now be “hunted down,” telling reporters: “Hamas really didn’t want to make a deal. I think they want to die. And it’s very bad. And it got to be to a point where you’re going to have to finish the job.”
US TO PROVIDE MORE AID, TRUMP SAYS
Trump on Sunday said the US would provide more humanitarian aid to Gaza, where concerns are mounting about the worsening hunger, but wanted other countries to participate as well. He said he would discuss the issue with von der Leyen.
“We’re giving a lot of money, a lot of food, a lot of everything,” he said. “If we weren’t there, I think people would have starved, frankly. They would have starved, and it’s not like they’re eating well.”
He said he had spoken with Netanyahu and discussed a number of issues, including Iran. He said and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer would also discuss Israel when they meet at Trump’s golf property in Turnberry on Monday.
Trump also noted said the United States was not acknowledged for earlier food aid for Gaza.
“No other country gave anything,” he said, calling out European countries in particular. “It makes you feel a little bad when you do that and, you know, you have other countries not giving anything… Nobody gave but us. And nobody said, Gee, thank you very much. And it would be nice to have at least a thank you.”
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