More than 150 former European diplomats and lawmakers on Wednesday urged the French Foreign Minister to retract what they described as “inaccurate" comments regarding United Nations rapporteur on “Palestinian" rights, Francesca Albanese, AFP reported.
The move comes as several European nations have called for her immediate resignation following controversial remarks against Israel.
France and Germany are among the countries that have demanded that Albanese step down. The calls for her ouster were triggered by comments she made at the Al Jazeera conference, in which Albanese had said: “The fact that instead of stopping Israel, most of the world has armed, given Israel political excuses, political sheltering, economic and financial support ... We who do not control large amounts of financial capitals, algorithms and weapons, we now see that we as a humanity have a common enemy."
Albanese later claimed in an interview with France24 that she "never, ever, ever said ‘Israel is the common enemy of humanity,'" calling the accusations "completely false accusations."
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told parliament on February 11 that Albanese should step down in light of the comments. In response, a group of former diplomats sent an open letter to AFP, criticizing the use of what they termed “inaccurate and manipulated elements to discredit a holder of an independent UN mandate."
The signatories called on Barrot to “retract his inaccurate statements about Ms Albanese and correct them." They further argued that the controversy “must not divert attention from the massacres of civilians, nor from the humanitarian crisis and the massive human rights violations taking place in Gaza."
The letter was signed primarily by former foreign ministers and diplomats from the Netherlands, along with more than a dozen current members of parliament and senators from across Europe. A former foreign minister of South Africa also joined the signatories.
Albanese’s history of anti-Israel statements and actions is well-documented and dates back to social media posts uncovered in 2022, 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.
Albanese was recently sanctioned by the administration of US President Donald Trump after she wrote letters to American companies accusing them of contributing to gross human rights violations in Gaza and Judea and Samaria.
UN experts are commissioned by the Geneva-based Human Rights Council to monitor specific crises but remain independent of the organization itself. While there is no precedent for removing a special rapporteur during their term, diplomats noted that states on the 47-member council could theoretically propose a motion to do so.
However, observers say that such a motion is unlikely to pass due to the strong support for Palestinian Arab rights within the body.