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Francesca Albanese: A UN Rapporteur Without Principles

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

When Holocaust denier Gilad Atzmon wrote a book about the evils of Jewishness, it was wellreceived by the white supremacist community.

For the book’s main promotional blurb, however the author turned to a more credentialed — and less expected — source.

From the front of the book’s dust jacket, the United Nations “Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967” announced that Atzmon’s antisemitic screed was a must-read.

The rapporteur, Richard Falk, also praised Atzmon’s “unflinching integrity” — just as Atzmon has lauded Holocaust denier David Irving’s integrity, or how David Irving in turn has gushed over the “great man” Adolf Hitler.

Falk’s endorsement appeared in 2011, the same year he published a cartoon of a bloodthirsty dog wearing a kippah (Jewish head covering), and the same year that he promoted 9/11 conspiracy theories. His UN mandate has since expired. But the same process that put one extremist in the role elevated another in his place — because Francesca Albanese is the new Richard Falk.

Although Special Rapporteur Albanese may not have endorsed Gilad Atzmon’s book, she certainly doesn’t find such endorsements problematic. For example, she hosted, praised, and promoted an event at which Falk was a speaker. Worse, it was an event that purported to teach what is, and what is not, antisemitic. Worse yet, Falk was there as an expert, not an exhibit.

And if one might forgive Albanese for boosting other Holocaust deniers on Twitter, her own words about Jews and their nefarious power can’t be brushed aside. Her slur that the US is “subjugated by the Jewish lobby,” for example, would fit seamlessly in Atzmon’s book.

Such a worldview is concerning on its own. But for someone whose mandate is to pass judgement on the world’s one Jewish-majority country, it should be disqualifying.

Unfortunately, Albanese will keep passing her judgements with the United Nations’ imprimatur. After all, contrary to the idyllic views of the organization that still, somehow, persist, this is the UN in which Richard Falk was able to serve out his full term.

It is the UN whose Human Rights Council — the body that appoints rapporteurs — currently includes Cuba, China, Qatar, Sudan, Eritrea, Burundi, Algeria, Somalia, Vietnam, and other such “paragons” of human rights.

So we can expect more of the same. And what is the same? Albanese often reaches for the bluntest tools in the chest — her endless charges of “apartheid” and “genocide.”

To punctuate the latter, she also dabbles in Holocaust inversion — casting Jews as the new Nazis, a slur understood to minimize the crimes of the latter while spitting in the face of the former.

In July, for example, Albanese endorsed a social media post that compared Israel’s prime minister to Adolf Hitler. Not long before that, while promoting a video by an activist who argues that Hamas’s Oct. 7 slaughter is cause to “celebrate,” she again used the Holocaust as a prop to compare analogize the Jewish State with the murderers of Jews.

But in a world where young people are increasingly clueless about what the Holocaust was, it may be more useful to look at Albanese’s more precise affronts, especially (but not limited to) her comments related to the massacre of October 7.

Equivocating About What Happened on Oct 7

Albanese fanned the flames of conspiracism during an interview in which she was asked about the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. After flatly saying Hamas targeted civilians in the attack, the UN rapporteur immediately checked herself, gesturing defensively while backtracking:

The problem is that they targeted civilians. They– uh– as n– I mean, as far as what we hear in the media is true, because this is the thing, I mean, this is– it’s very difficult to also understand, to have clarity, on what has happened. But let’s assume that what they say in the media is true.

Her flirtation with denialism wasn’t the morning of the attacks, when some uncertainty might have been forgivable. It was in December. There was no doubt at the time about “what happened.”

Unequivocal in Spreading Ahli Hospital Misinformation

By contrast, long after it was understood that a misfired Palestinian rocket likely caused the Oct. 17 blast in the parking lot of Gaza’s al-Ahli Hospital, Albanese pushed the claim that Israel was responsible.

The day after the incident, and after President Joe Biden, independent analysts, and Israeli officials had already pointed the finger at a Palestinian rocket (see, for example, early assessments herehereherehereherehere, and here), Albanese described the incident as an “atrocity crime” and retweeted the false claim that it was an “Israeli airstrike.”

She and other rapporteurs continued to misrepresent the incident on Oct. 19.

Subsequent reports by the United StatesUnited KingdomFranceItaly, the Associated PressCNN, Wall Street Journal, other news organizations, and even anti-Israel NGOs, corroborated the early reports of Palestinian responsibility.

Double Standards to Defend Hamas Rapists

Shortly after the Oct. 7 massacre, Albanese and a fellow rapporteur insisted that accounts of Palestinian rape against Israelis should not be spread, protesting that “unverified” information would only “escalate tensions.”

Apparently this criteria uniquely applies to sexual violence against Israelis, because a few months later — on the very day a Palestinian claim of rape was disproven and withdrawn — the rapporteurs did the very thing they had decried, and spread unverified claims about the rape of Palestinians. (And, as noted above, the rapporteurs felt free to escalate tensions by rushing to peddle false claims about the al-Ahli hospital.)

Misinformation to Defend Oct 7th Attackers

According to Albanese, Israel lied when charging that some UN employees participated in the Oct. 7 attack. These are “fallacious allegations,” she said.

But it was she who trafficked in misinformation. The UN Office of Internal Oversight Services eventually investigated, reviewed Israel’s evidence, and conceded that nine UNRWA employees may have indeed been involved in the attacks. The number reported by the IDF and other analysts is far higher.

Denying Hamas’s Antisemitism, Deflecting from Its Responsibility

Albanese has argued that the Oct. 7 slaughter by Hamas, a transparently antisemitic organization, wasn’t related to antisemitism, but rather was Israel’s fault.

After French president Emmanuel Macron presided over a ceremony in memory of French-Israelis murdered during the Hamas massacre, the rapporteur reacted with outrage.

“The ‘worst anti-Semitic massacre of our century’?” she asked, quoting the French president’s characterization of the Hamas attack. “No, Mr. Emmanuel Macron. The victims of 7/10 were not killed because of their Judaism, but in response to Israel’s oppression.”

This is a two-part exoneration. She first acquits Hamas of antisemitism, and then more fully unburdens them of responsibility.

It should go without saying that blame for the murder, rape, and kidnapping of civilians rests squarely with the murderers who carefully planned their attack. But what about the question of antisemitism?

The group Albanese exculpates is the same group that, in its 1988 founding covenant, declares that their “struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious.”

The document later reiterates: “Israel, Judaism and Jews challenge Islam and the Muslim people.” For the next three decades, Hamas unabashedly reemphasized this core philosophy.

And though the group has more recently gone through the motions of rebranding itself, its leaders have made clear that they remain motivated by Jew-hatred.

In 2019, for example, Hamas Parliamentarian Marwan Abu Ras, using the same logic as Albanese, insisted Hitler’s hatred of Jews should be viewed as a response to Jewish “deeds and crimes.” (Ras at least didn’t blame Hitler’s genocide on Jews, but only because in his view the Holocaust was “lie.”)

In 2018, senior Hamas official Mahmoud Zahar charged Jews with corrupting and betraying the societies in which they lived throughout history. That same year, Hamas’ Al-Aqsa TV broadcast the charge that the Jews are “human garbage” who are behind every world conspiracy. (See these and many more examples translated by MEMRI here.)

Hamas’s antisemitic worldview naturally extends to the boots on the ground on Oct. 7. Just ask the man who murdered ten Jews, then elatedly called home to brag about it: “Look how many I killed with my own hands!” he told his father. “Your son killed Jews!”

Or ask Bedouin Muslim Farhan al-Qadi, a rescued hostage who shared that his attackers demanded he “Take us in your car to wherever we can find Jews.” (He heroically refused, and was abused for it, al-Qadi explained.)

Misrepresenting Casualty Claims

Albanese claims that The Lancet counted 186,000 direct and indirect deaths in the Gaza war. It did not.

First, the figure was not peer-reviewed research. It appeared in the magazine’s correspondence section. (That this section isn’t peer reviewed is one of the kinder things that could be said about it.)

Second, the letter itself makes clear that the figure comes from a primitive and rather arbitrary formula — the writers simply multiplied Hamas’ casualty figure by four — and that it hardly represents a finding of fact. It is “not implausible” for one to “estimate” that “up to” 186,000 or more deaths “could be” attributable to the conflict, the authors say. No wonder one of the authors later reemphasized that the figure is “purely illustrative.”

We need not get into the many additional serious problems with the letter. With or without them, Albanese, who ridiculously treats the figure as fact, spreads misinformation.

Misinformation on Hostage Rescue

After Israel found and extracted four of the many hostages held by Hamas, the UN rapporteur bizarrely referred to the hostages as having been “released” rather than rescued; she relayed discredited allegations that “foreign soldiers” took part in the fighting during the hostage rescue; and she endorsed questionable claims that the soldiers were hidden in an “aid truck.”

Most absurdly, she insisted that the military operation, which had an obvious and narrow military goal — to rescue hostages –somehow proves “genocidal intent,” or in other words, was aimed at no less than destroying the Palestinian people.

Casting Murdered Israeli Civilians as Soldiers

Albanese’s disinformation extends beyond the October 7 attack. She recently erased the crimes of Nasser Abu Hamid, a senior terrorist convicted in the murder of six Israeli civilians and a police officer, by falsely describing him as having been sentenced for “alleged involvement in attacks against Israeli forces.”

Civilians, of course, are not Israeli “forces,” nor are convictions “allegations.”

Erasing and Fabricating a Ceasefire Violation 

After the terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad fired barrages of rockets on Israeli towns on May 2, 2023, and Israel a week later struck the group’s leaders, Albanese took to Twitter to defend the terrorists, bizarrely insisting it was Israel that “violated” a year-old ceasefire. (While calling Israel’s response a possible war crime, Albanese responded to the indiscriminate Islamic Jihad rockets, which are unequivocal war crimes, with social-media silence.)

Inflating Palestinian Casualties, Erasing Israeli casualties

One day after reporters uncovered Albanese’s antisemitic charge that Jews “subjugate” America, and her suggestion that Palestinian rocket attacks on civilians — again, unequivocal  war crimes — are legitimate acts of defense, the rapporteur went into deflection mode.

People should instead be appalled by the “215 Palestinians … who were killed in the occupied Palestinian territory this year,” she insisted in a Dec 15, 2022 statement, adding that “six Israeli soldiers and settlers were also killed.”

Putting aside that large numbers (according to Israel a majority) of the Palestinian casualties that year were attackers, killed during gun battles, or terror leaders, the UN rapporteur seems intent on downplaying the number of Israelis killed while inflating Palestinian casualty figures.

While Albanese referred to six “soldiers and settlers” killed, 31 people in Israel and the West Bank were killed in terror attacks that year, according to numbers from the Israeli Security Agency cited by the Times of Israel just before Albanese’s statement. (Even if the rapporteur were to plead that her mandate is the West Bank and not Israel, nineteen of those fatalities were killed by attackers from the West Bank, according to UN figures cited by The Washington Post. Nine of the dead were killed inside the West Bank. Also contrary to her claim, not all of the victims killed inside the West Bank were soldiers or from settlements.)

No Self-Defense to Hamas Massacres

Although Albanese had previously characterized indiscriminate and illegal Palestinian rocket attacks as self-defense — in her words, acts of Palestinians “who defend themselves with the only means they have” — she insists that Israel has no right to self-defense following Hamas’s Oct. 7 slaughter.

Doctoring Quotes

In June 2023, Albanese circulated a doctored quote while boosting an extremist propaganda network.

The Quds News Network misquoted a radical Israeli politician as calling for the killing of “Palestinians,” and Albanese cited the quote as an example of genocidal rhetoric. But the actual quote referred specifically to the killing of “terrorists,” not “Palestinians.”

Gilead Ini is a Senior Research Analyst at CAMERA, the foremost media watchdog organization focused on coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The post Francesca Albanese: A UN Rapporteur Without Principles first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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The BBC Documentary That Paints Every Israeli as an Extremist

The Jewish community of Beit El in Judea and Samaria. Photo: Yaakov via Wikimedia Commons.

Louis Theroux first visited the West Bank in 2011 to film a documentary titled Louis and the Ultra-Zionists, part of his long-running series for the BBC. Back then, he at least seemed to possess a trace of journalistic curiosity. Even the title signaled a degree of editorial caution — framing his subjects as a small, ideological fringe rather than representative of Israeli society as a whole.

At the time, Theroux made an effort to clarify that he was profiling a narrow segment of Israelis. He showed legally purchased Jewish homes (sold by Arab landowners, no less) and acknowledged the regular — and at times deadly — terror attacks faced by Israeli civilians living in the area, often requiring military protection. There was condescension, certainly. But there was also context.

Fast-forward to 2024, and the curiosity is gone — though the bemused, slightly smug expression remains. His new BBC documentary, Louis and the Settlers, drops even the soft qualifiers. No “ultra.” No nuance. Just “settlers.” And with that, Theroux makes it clear: half a million Israelis living in the West Bank are one and the same — extremists who, we’re told, want every last Palestinian removed from the land.

This time, the documentary doesn’t begin with questions. It begins with conclusions. And Theroux uses a brief, unrepresentative snapshot of life in the West Bank to draw sweeping indictments of the entire Israeli state.

The message is unmistakable: Israel is the problem. Settlers are the villains. And Palestinians are passive, blameless victims of a colonial project.

Within the opening minutes, Theroux plants his ideological flag. He refers to the West Bank as “Palestinian territory” and describes every Israeli community within it as illegal under international law — a sharp departure from his more qualified approach 14 years earlier.

And while his personal views seep in throughout the film, they become crystal clear during one exchange at a checkpoint, where an Israeli soldier casually refers to their location as “Israel.” Theroux shoots back: “We’re not in Israel, are we?”

And just like that, the BBC and Louis Theroux have redrawn Israel’s borders. No Knesset debate needed.

Erasing History to Blame the Massacre

The timing of this return trip is no accident. The film comes in the shadow of the October 7 Hamas massacres — the day 1,200 Israelis were slaughtered, families were burned alive in their homes, and children were dragged into Gaza. And yet, Theroux barely mentions it.

The few passing references to October 7 serve not to inform the audience — but to imply that Israel may be exploiting its own dead to justify further expansion. It’s not an investigation. It’s an accusation. And it allows him to skip over thousands of years of Jewish history in order to frame the current war in Gaza as a convenient cover story for Israeli “aggression.”

Take Hebron, for example. Theroux tells viewers that “in 1968, the year after [the West Bank] was occupied by Israel, a community of Jewish settlers moved in illegally. They now number some 700.” He fails to mention that in 1895 — decades before the modern state of Israel existed — Hebron had a Jewish population of 1,429.

Jews have lived in Hebron since antiquity — it’s where, according to Jewish tradition, Abraham purchased the Cave of the Patriarchs. Modern records date the community back centuries, despite discrimination under Ottoman rule and bans on Jewish prayer at holy sites. In 1929, Arab rioters carried out a massacre, wiping out Hebron’s Jewish population. Dozens were murdered; the rest were expelled. Under Jordanian rule from 1948 to 1967, Jews were banned from the city entirely. When they returned after the Six-Day War — not as colonists, but as a displaced community coming home — Theroux picks up the story there and calls it “illegal.”

On the Six-Day War itself, Theroux offers no context. No mention of the Arab armies preparing to destroy Israel. No mention of Israel’s preemptive strike against an existential threat.

According to The Settlers, Israel simply “occupied” — full stop.

Palestinian Terrorism? Not Even a Footnote.

Theroux visits Evyatar, a small Jewish community near the Palestinian town of Beita, and uses it as a stand-in for the entire West Bank. Beita is depicted as a symbol of peaceful resistance: a proud, ancient Palestinian village standing firm against violent settlers backed by IDF soldiers.

It’s a neat story. Too neat. Because missing from the story are years of organized, violent riots from Beita — complete with Molotov cocktails, burning Stars of David, and Nazi swastikas. All carefully omitted to preserve the narrative: Palestinians peaceful, settlers aggressive. Facts that don’t fit? Left on the cutting room floor.

Meanwhile, Israeli nationalism is treated as something sinister and unsettling — a moral aberration to be examined. The notion that Jews might want sovereignty or security is met with thinly veiled suspicion. Yet Hamas’ goal of a Jew-free Palestine, explicitly laid out in its charter, is never mentioned. Nor is the Palestinian Authority’s “pay-for-slay” policy, which literally incentivizes terrorism by rewarding those who murder Israelis — including women and children.

These aren’t fringe details. They’re central to understanding the region. And Theroux knows it. He just doesn’t care.

The BBC’s Complicity

That The Settlers aired on the BBC — a publicly funded broadcaster once seen as a gold standard of global journalism — says plenty. Not just about Louis Theroux’s agenda, but about the institutional direction of the BBC itself. This wasn’t a rogue filmmaker sneaking bias past the editors. This was bias built into the foundation — signed off, packaged, and broadcast under the banner of credibility.

There is, of course, no problem with scrutinizing Israeli policy, and no issue with questioning the settlement enterprise or highlighting the tensions in the West Bank. But journalism — real journalism — demands context. It demands precision. It demands at least a passing familiarity with the full scope of the story.

Theroux offers none of that. He arrives with a predetermined script and casts his roles accordingly: Hero. Villain. Victim. Oppressor. And when reality refuses to cooperate? It’s left out.

Louis Theroux didn’t return to Israel to understand it. He returned to flatten it. To reduce its complexity to a morality play — and to ensure everyone knows the antagonist is.

The Settlers isn’t a documentary. It’s a hit piece. And the BBC handed him the camera — then applauded the performance.

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 The BBC Documentary That Paints Every Israeli as an Extremist first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Indian Army Kills Islamist Terrorist Linked to 2002 Murder of Jewish-American Journalist Daniel Pearl

Jewish-American Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by Islamist terrorists in Pakistan in 2002. Photo: Screenshot

The Indian government announced on Thursday that its military forces had killed “Pakistan’s most wanted terrorist,” who was connected to the 2002 murder of Jewish-American Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl.

On Wednesday, India launched “Operation Sindoor,” which the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) claims is targeted at dismantling “terrorist infrastructure” in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

The operation came after Pakistani terrorists killed 26 Hindu tourists in Kashmir last month amid escalating tensions between the two countries.

In a post on X, the BJP confirmed that during this week’s operation, the Indian army killed Islamist terrorist Abdul Rauf Azhar, who was involved in numerous terrorism plots, including the 1999 hijacking of an Indian Airlines flight, the 2001 terror attack on the Indian Parliament, and the 2016 Pathankot Air Force base attack.

Azhar’s involvement in the 1999 hijacking led to the release of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a British-born al-Qaeda member with close ties to Pakistan’s intelligence services, who later was involved in the kidnapping and subsequent murder of 38-year-old Pearl, who was covering the war on terror as a journalist when he was abducted.

In a statement on X, Pearl’s father, Judea, addressed initial reports regarding Azhar’s death and his connection to his son’s murder.

“I want to clarify: Azhar was a Pakistani extremist and leader of the terrorist organization Jaish-e-Mohammed. While his group was not directly involved in the plot to abduct Danny, it was indirectly responsible. Azhar orchestrated the hijacking that led to the release of Omar Sheikh — the man who lured Danny into captivity,” he said.

In 2002, the Jewish-American journalist was abducted and killed by a group of Islamist terrorists connected to Azhar’s militant network, which had ties to al-Qaeda and Jaish-e-Mohammed, a terror group aiming to separate Kashmir from India and incorporate it into Pakistan.

On Jan. 27, 2002, an email was sent to several Pakistani and US media organizations, which included several photos, stating that Pearl was being held in “inhumane” conditions to protest the US treatment of Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners in Cuba. Photo: Screenshot

Originally stationed in New Delhi as the South Asia bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, Pearl later moved to Pakistan to investigate terrorism following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York City.

After kidnapping Pearl at a restaurant in Karachi, southern Pakistan, the Islamist terrorists, who identified themselves as the National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty, accused him of being an Israeli spy and sent the United States a list of demands for his release.

However, Washington did not meet their demands, and Pearl was ultimately executed after being held captive for five weeks.

His wife, Mariane Pearl, gave birth to a baby boy, Adam D. Pearl, in Paris later that year. On the Daniel Pearl Foundation website, she said, “Adam’s birth rekindles the joy, love, and humanity that Danny radiated wherever he went.”

The post Indian Army Kills Islamist Terrorist Linked to 2002 Murder of Jewish-American Journalist Daniel Pearl first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Jewish Jewelry Shop Owners Brutally Assaulted in Tunisia Days Before Annual Pilgrimage

A Jewish jewelry shop owner in Djerba, Tunisia, was brutally attacked by a man wielding a machete. Photo: Screenshot

A Jewish jewelry shop owner in Djerba, Tunisia, was brutally attacked by a man wielding a machete just days before the Tunisian island was set to host its annual Jewish pilgrimage, which is expected to draw thousands of visitors.

On Wednesday morning, two Jewish men — owners of a jewelry shop in the center of the island, located off Tunisia’s southeast coast — were physically assaulted by a man carrying a large knife.

Although the attack was halted when one of them screamed — alerting members of the local Jewish community who subdued the assailant — one of them was left severely injured.

According to local media reports, the attacker had surveyed the island the day before, visiting several stores to identify those owned by Jews. Local police arrested him shortly following the assault.

After the attack, one of the owners was admitted to the hospital with severe injuries. The 50-year-old Jewish man had his fingers severed during the assault and underwent surgery to reattach them.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar condemned the attack and expressed his wishes for a swift recovery to the victims.

“This attack comes two years after the previous deadly assault that claimed Jewish lives and the lives of security personnel during the Lag BaOmer celebration,” the top Israeli diplomat wrote in a post on X.

“I call on the Tunisian authorities to take all necessary measures to protect the Jewish community,” Saar continued.

Djerba is home to the majority of Tunisia’s Jewish community, numbering about 2,000 people, and is also where the renowned El Ghriba Synagogue, one of North Africa’s oldest synagogues, is located.

The attack comes just a week before Jewish pilgrims are expected to arrive on the island for the Lag B’Omer holiday, when thousands gather annually for three days of festivities. The annual pilgrimage to El Ghriba Synagogue, scheduled for May 15 and 16 this year, draws visitors from around the world.

The synagogue has been targeted in multiple terrorist attacks over the years, including in 1985, 2002, and 2023.

Two years ago, a shooting at the synagogue claimed the lives of two Jewish cousins and three police officers. Aviel Hadad, a 30-year-old Israeli goldsmith, and Ben Hadad, a 42-year-old Frenchman who had traveled to join the festivities, were among the victims.

The post Jewish Jewelry Shop Owners Brutally Assaulted in Tunisia Days Before Annual Pilgrimage first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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