The Hounding of the U.N.’s Palestine Rapporteur Francesca Albanese
U.N. Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese arrives at the event. (PHOTO COURTESY MONTECRUZ FOT)
Washington Report on
Middle East Affairs, May 2025
By Ahmad Halima
“I HAVE NEVER felt this sense of lacking oxygen that I feel here,” Francesca Albanese, the U.N. Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, said of her recent speaking engagement in Germany. Junge Welt, a left-wing German newspaper, agreed to host Albanese at the last minute after local authorities pressured the original venue to cancel. The event was held with an intense police presence, both inside and outside of the building.
A pressure and intimidation campaign by pro-Israel groups, the Berlin mayor and police targeted Albanese and local civil society organizers. The U.N. Rapporteur said that her “75 hours in Germany” in February made her “pretty nervous.” Shaken yet undefeated, Albanese determinedly talked about Israel’s ongoing genocide, ethnic cleansing, occupation and apartheid in her capacity as a U.N.-mandated rapporteur, despite the clampdown on free speech.
Like anyone who dares to speak of the evidence of Israel’s genocide and overall oppression of the Palestinians, U.N. Special Rapporteur Albanese has been accused of anti-Semitism and support for terrorism. The barrage of attacks on the Italian international lawyer and her work came from many sources. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. under the Biden-Harris Administration, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, described Albanese as “unfit for her role” and accused her of anti-Semitism, and the Anti-Defamation League has accused her of anti-Semitic statements. Albanese’s reports have characterized Israel’s actions as part of a “long-term intentional, systematic, state-organized forced displacement and replacement of the Palestinians.” Her groundbreaking report “Anatomy of a Genocide,” published in March 2024, established that Israel had committed acts in Gaza that are defined in international law as genocide.
On her February tour through Germany and the Netherlands, Albanese faced pressure and intimidation in what she described as “mafia-style tactics” by pro-Israel groups, Israeli embassies, local governments and politicians. Government officials refused to meet with her, but a few leftwing politicians received her, and she met with dissident civil servants who have had weekly sit-ins in front of the Dutch Foreign Ministry in the Hague to protest the Netherlands’ pro-Israel policy positions. The U.N. Rapporteur received the Dries van Agt Award (named after the late Dutch prime minister who advocated for Palestinian rights through The Rights Forum) for her “sharp analyses and unwavering moral compass [that] make her a powerful voice for Palestinian rights.”
Albanese had meetings scheduled with Dutch government officials and members of parliament. Due to pressure from pro-Israel groups, these meetings came under scrutiny. Through a majority vote, the Dutch parliament cancelled an official invitation for the U.N. Rapporteur. Right-wing members of parliament described her as a “hater of Jews and Israel” and accused her of anti-Semitism. Much of the local media complied without question, characterizing Albanese as “controversial” and delegitimizing her work as U.N. Rapporteur. The press largely underreported the actual controversy surrounding Albanese: the Zionist-backed intimidation and repression of speech of a U.N.-mandated Rapporteur.
The Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, Caspar Veldkamp, denied the U.N. Rapporteur’s request for a meeting. This is highly unusual for the country that is host to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and that claims it has a “strong reputation and responsibility as a host country” of these institutions, according to the very same foreign minister. When he expressed regret over President Donald Trump’s sanctioning of the ICC, Minister Veldkamp claimed that the Netherlands “actively contributes to strengthening the international legal order and multilateral cooperation and will, in good faith, fulfill binding international law and treaty obligations.” He also said that the ICC’s work is “essential in the fight against impunity.” Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof, however, said that there could be options for Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to visit the Netherlands without being arrested, despite the ICC arrest warrant against him. Similarly, Germany’s likely next chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said that he would ensure that Netanyahu can visit Germany. The evasive fight against impunity is performative for the Dutch and German governments—worthy of fighting for when anyone but their political and ideological allies are under scrutiny for grave violations of international law.
Albanese’s visit to the Netherlands and Germany took place in the backdrop of this contradiction. Several German universities cancelled events where she was due to speak, caving to “threats and intimidation of the Israeli ambassador [to Germany], the mayor of Berlin and other politicians and ministers.” The Berlin police pressured venues to cancel events and forced a last-minute venue change and downscaling of an event. The German police investigated arresting the U.N. Rapporteur and showed an overwhelming presence inside and outside the venue where she was speaking.
The influence of Zionist groups is powerful, but governments have a choice. Governments succumbing to Israeli pressure clamp down on free speech, a free press, and the right to free assembly, which means they violate their own laws and civil liberties. Even though she spoke at a few select events and her talks were livestreamed, the fact that universities opted to succumb to authoritarian pressure to censor a U.N. official and police exerted pressure as they did means that Albanese’s voice—which as The Rights Forum notes, is “not an opinion but grounded in international law and carefully gathered evidence”—was dampened and obstructed. Wieland Hoban, chairman of the German organization Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East, said that “in Germany, organizing an event like this is, unfortunately, an act of resistance.”
This goes much beyond Albanese as an individual: these authoritarian measures and disregard for a top U.N. official on the diplomatic level constitute censorship, intimidation and weakening of the United Nations, international law and civil society. Democrats and progressives alike see President Trump’s policies as an attack on the multilateral system—and they are. But Trump is not alone. In the U.S., the Biden-Harris Administration laid the groundwork for Trump’s ICC sanctions and suspending funding for U.N. programs. They suspended funding to and spread disinformation about UNRWA, bolstered Israel’s international standing at the U.N. Security Council and General Assembly, and covertly and overtly pressured the ICC to halt its issuing of arrest warrants, reinforcing Israel’s impunity.
Internationally, most European countries have been undermining the multilateral system and international law in their complicity and participation in Israel's genocide. While European leaders are in panic mode over the breakdown of U.S. support for Ukraine, European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said that it is up to Europe to take up the role of “leader of the free world.” Putting aside the question as to whether it is desirable to have a leader of the free world at all, the EU lacks credibility due to its participation and complicity in Israel’s war crimes. The obstruction and delegitimization of the ICC and ICJ in their cases against Israel, as well as the intimidation campaign against Francesca Albanese, are signals of authoritarianism, fading fundamental rights, and a weakening of the United Nations, the international legal order and multilateralism.
Ahmad Halima is a Middle East and North Africa analyst and freelance reporter. He is Dutch-Palestinian, usually based in the Netherlands and holds an MA in International Affairs from the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin.