Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon delivered a scathing rebuke on Tuesday against Francesca Albanese, a UN special rapporteur with a long record of anti-Israel rhetoric.
Speaking during a UN committee session discussing Albanese’s latest report, Danon accused her of spreading hatred and falsehoods.
“You have tried to curse Israel with lies and hatred, but your poison has failed,” Danon said, as quoted by JNS.
The report, authored by Albanese, was described by Danon as one that “vilified Israel and blamed countries that support it.”
Danon did not mince words in his condemnation. “You are a witch, and this report is another page in your spell book,” he said. “You wrap your bias in the language of law, hoping it will hide what it really is: Hamas propaganda.”
Albanese’s anti-Israel bias was first exposed in 2022, in the form of antisemitic posts she made on social media, in which she claimed that the “Jewish lobby” controls the US.
At the time, Albanese rejected arguments that the comments about the “Jewish lobby” were antisemitic and claimed they were “mischaracterized”, but her anti-Israel bias has continued to be exposed since.
Her criticism of Israel has grown since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack in Israel. The attack, in which Hamas terrorists killed over 1,200 people and took 250 hostages, was described by Albanese as an act that must be viewed in “context” and as a response to Israeli “aggression.”
She has also in recent months accused Israel of genocide, likened the Government of Israel to the “Third Reich,” and compared Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced sanctions against Albanese in July, calling her remarks “biased and malicious.” Albanese responded that the measures were “an affront, not just against me, against the United Nations.”
Last week, Albanese accused the US of employing “mafia-style techniques” to smear her reputation and silence her advocacy.