UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese has drawn renewed condemnation from Israel and Jewish representatives in Ireland after accusing Israel of widespread abuses, including allegations involving dogs trained to sexually assault Palestinian Arabs, during testimony before an Irish parliamentary committee this week.

Addressing the Irish parliament's Committee on European Affairs this past week, Albanese made a series of accusations against Israel, alleging a longstanding pattern of violence and mistreatment.

“Israel has always killed children, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detention, the use of torture, even rape."

“It’s destroying the people, the living. You know it when you read the testimonies of people who have been tortured, have been raped, raped by dogs trained in European countries," she said.

Her remarks appeared to reference allegations published earlier this year in a New York Times column, which Israel categorically rejected as “blood libel."

“European people are profiting from selling dogs that will rape people. This is abysmal, and instead of having a system using our rule of law to prevent this, there are people who are in jail for denouncing the system," Albanese claimed, without providing proof of her accusations.

She also urged the Irish government to “show its spine" in its opposition to Israel.

Israel's Foreign Ministry sharply rejected the allegations, describing Albanese as “an unhinged conspiracy theorist consumed by her obsessive hatred of Israel."

“Her vile lies and grotesque accusations are a disgrace to the UN," the ministry stated.

The Jewish Representative Council of Ireland also criticized Albanese and the Irish parliament, known as the Oireachtas, for providing her with a platform without challenging her assertions.

“She dismissed documented antisemitism against Irish Jews on national radio, then appeared before an Oireachtas committee making a series of outrageous, unsubstantiated allegations," the council said.

“Not one demand for evidence. Not one challenge to her most shocking claims. Instead, she got praise, admiration and smiling photographs," it added.

Albanese has repeatedly faced accusations of antisemitism and hostility toward Israel. The Trump administration imposed sanctions on her last year over her criticism of Israel.

In 2022, previously published social media comments surfaced in which Albanese claimed that the “Jewish lobby" controlled the United States. She denied that the remarks were antisemitic, arguing that they had been “mischaracterized".

Following the Hamas massacre of October 7, 2023, Albanese maintained that the terrorist attack should be examined in “context" and portrayed it as a response to Israeli “aggression."

Her subsequent statements have continued to generate controversy. In late March, she accused the international community of giving Israel "a license to torture Palestinians" and claimed that "torture has effectively become state policy" in Israel.

In February, several European Union foreign ministers condemned comments Albanese delivered during an Al Jazeera conference, in which she criticized governments that continued providing Israel with military, political and economic support.

“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," she said.

Albanese later disputed claims that she had identified Israel as the common enemy.

In an interview, she insisted she "never, ever, ever said ‘Israel is the common enemy of humanity,'" describing the criticism as "completely false accusations."

The latest controversy comes amid longstanding tensions between Israel and Ireland, which has been among the most outspoken European critics of Israel's military operations in Gaza following the October 7 massacre.

In April 2024, then-Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris faced criticism from Israel's Foreign Ministry after failing to mention the hostages held by Hamas in his first speech following his election as leader. Harris subsequently accused Israel of a “pattern of flouting international law and disregard for rules of engagement" over its strikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.

Ireland later joined Spain, Norway and Slovenia in recognizing a Palestinian state. Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar subsequently ordered the closure of Israel's embassy in Dublin, citing the country's "extreme anti-Israel policies".

Tensions intensified further in July when Irish lawmakers approved legislation restricting imports of products originating from Israeli communities in eastern Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria.

The legislation had initially advanced through the Irish parliament in November 2025, prompting criticism from the US State Department, which warned that the measure could “adversely affect American businesses operating in Ireland."