Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur for “Palestinian rights”, has confirmed that Georgetown University has cut ties with her, while denying the decision was made because of her history of antisemitic remarks.
“Georgetown’s decision to end my 10-year old affiliation is yet another fallout of the sanctions the US imposed on me last July for exposing Israel’s genocide and the complicity of US businesses. Any other explanation is the usual laughable propaganda of the pro-genocide minions,” Albanese wrote in a post on social media.
Georgetown University confirmed to JNS on Friday that it is no longer affiliated with Albanese.
“Francesca Albanese is no longer affiliated with Georgetown University,” Anna Maria Mayda, director of the Institute for the Study of International Migration, said, adding, “US institutions are prohibited by federal law from affiliating with individuals subject to US sanctions.”
UN Watch, the Geneva-based NGO that monitors the United Nations, revealed several days earlier that Georgetown University had removed Albanese from its list of affiliated scholars.
In July, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that “Albanese has spewed unabashed antisemitism, expressed support for terrorism and open contempt for the United States, Israel and the West.” That same month, the US Treasury Department listed her as a specially designated national, barring Americans and US organizations from maintaining any financial or institutional connection to her.
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.