UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese of Italy Blames Israel, Not Terrorists

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                 

The female lawyer, Francesca Albanese,  heading the UN Human Rights Council’s open-ended investigation into Israel’s treatment of Palestinians,  said Saturday that Israel does not have the right to self-defense against Palestinians, after two deadly terror attacks and volleys of rocket fire against Israel.

UN Special Italian Rapporteur,  Francesca Albanese addresses the UN, October 2022. (Screenshot/YouTube, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law) She said,  “Israel has a right to defend itself, but can’t claim it when it comes to the people it oppresses/whose lands it colonizes,” Albanese said on Twitter. Albanese regularly refers to Israel as a colonial enterprise that subjugates Palestinians, and rejects the conflict paradigm, assigning Israel sole responsibility for all disputes.

She has spent most of her life studying the Palestine situation with Israel and the Palestinians have come out on top with her.  She has published widely on the legal situation in Israel/Palestine; her latest book, Palestinian Refugees in International Law (Oxford University Press, 2020), offers a  legal analysis of the situation of Palestinian refugees from its origins to modern-day reality, concluding and evidently not using the reference material that Joan Peters used in her book, From Time Immemorial.  

Efrat, a city in Judea,  Residents standing outside their homes with Israeli flags to show solidarity with the Dee family, following the death of Lucy Dee, who died of her wounds three days after the deadly terror attack that killed her two daughters Rina and Maia, in Efrat, in the West Bank, April 10, 2023. (Gershon Elinson/Flash90)

Lucy Dee, 48, died on Monday, three days after her daughters Rina, 15, and Maia, 20, were killed in a drive-by shooting in the northern Jordan Valley. The Palestinian shooters reportedly drove the car off the road with an initial round of fire, then got out of their car and fired at least another 20 bullets into the disabled vehicle.  The Palestinian shooters reportedly drove the car off the road with an initial round of fire, then got out of their car and fired at least another 20 bullets into the disabled vehicle.  The Dee family lives in Efrat, a West Bank settlement south of Jerusalem and near the Palestinian city Bethlehem. In a protest of the terrorist attack, thousands of settlers, including far-right government ministers, marched on Monday to Evyatar, a settlement outpost in the northern West Bank evacuated by the previous Israeli government because it was not authorized under Israeli law.

The attack on the second day of Passover came during a time of heightened tensions that has also seen clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces at the Al-Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Kobi Shabtai, Israel’s police commissioner, has said the police are investigating footage of officers beating Palestinians at the site.

The attack on the second day of Passover came during a time of heightened tensions that has also seen clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces at the Al-Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. 

The  British Dee family is mourning a terrorist attack which killed two of their sisters and mother.  After the attack, the incident was briefly mentioned in the newspaper, leaving out the fact that it was a terrorist attack and was brutally obvious of killing someone because they were Jewish.  Albanese has not mentioned the recent rocket barrages or a terror attack that killed these two sisters in the West Bank on Friday, but has repeatedly lashed Israel over the past week, including by calling for an International Criminal Court investigation into Israel. 

United Nations Human Rights Council is mum on rocket fire, terror attacks, after repeatedly criticizing Israel over past week.

The body of Alessandro Parini, killed in a Tel Aviv terror attack, is transferred to Italy, April 11, 2023 (Israel Airports Authority)

The body of a tourist killed in a Tel Aviv car-ramming last week was transferred back to Italy on Tuesday, 6th day of Passover.  He  was Alessandro Parini, a 35-year-old lawyer from Rome, was killed Friday, 2nd day of Passover  when, according to law enforcement officials, Yousef Abu Jaber rammed his car at high speed into a group of people on Kaufmann Street, leaving a trail of carnage along several hundred meters and into the adjacent Charles Clore Park, a popular seaside promenade.  Seven others were injured — all tourists from Italy and the United Kingdom.  

She said she was “saddened” by the death of a tourist in a suspected terror attack in Tel Aviv on Friday, without assigning any responsibility. The tourist, Alessandro Parini.  Parini and  Albanese are both Italian. All three fatalities in the recent attacks were civilians.

Other UN human rights bodies have also been mum about terrorism and rockets — also fired from Lebanon and Syria — over the past week, while criticizing Israel.

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, said “the loss of life in the [occupied Palestinian territories and] Israel is devastating, especially at a time that should be of peace for all, Christians, Jews, Muslims.”  But she has no thought of blaming the terrorists.  Albanese (born 1977) is an Italian international lawyer and academic. Since May 2022, she was elected the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories for a three-year term, renewable for a further three years.  Albanese's appointment as the UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, the second Italian (after Giorgio Giacomelli) and the first women to hold this position, generated controversy due to her past statements regarding the Holocaust and the Jewish lobby, which some have accused of being antisemitic in nature, which she of course, denies.  

She has made statements about Jews.  In a post on her Facebook page during Operation Protective Edge, Francesca Albanese wrote “America and Europe, one of them subjugated by the Jewish Lobby, and the other by the sense of guilt about the Holocaust remain on the sidelines […]”. The term “Jewish Lobby” is a well-known and millennia-old antisemitic trope. It has been used to direct hatred toward the Jewish people for hundreds of years with horrific consequences. Sadly, this is not the first time we have been made aware of the term “Jewish lobby” being used by UN officials that are charged with investigating Israel. It is a deplorable term that no one should ever use, especially those representing the UN or officials appointed by the UN Human Rights Council.

In addition to this, the Rapporteur in question has made a number of alarming statements. Previously, she dismissed Israeli security concerns as paranoia, talked of “Israel’s greed”, compared Israel’s actions of that to the Nazis and legitimized terrorist actions by Hamas and other terrorist organizations.

It is about time that the United Nations take concrete action in addressing systemic antisemitism within the United Nations Human Rights Council and its mechanisms. The lack of accountability and impunity for comments made by UN officials only works to legitimize antisemitism and endangers the Jewish people.

Past Rapporteurs have also been against Israel. Michael Lynk is one.  He said,  “There is today in the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967 a deeply discriminatory dual legal and political system, that privileges the 700,000 Israeli Jewish settlers living in the 300 illegal Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank,” said Michael Lynk, the UN Special Rapporteur for the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967."  I have explained a dozen times over and over why this is false. 

I'd love to send Gabriel Allon to visit Albanese and have a long talk with her.  He's good at convincing many people of their errant ways.  

Resource:

Update:  Richard Falk was another UN Rapporteur against Israel, even though he was Jewish.  He also wrote books on the subject.  Albanese seems to be following in his footsteps.  

TV from Israel News

https://www.jns.org/opinion/the-occupation-myth-is-the-engine-of-antisemitic-terror/?utm_source=sendinblue&utm_campaign=Daily%20Syndicate%2004-14-2023&utm_medium=email

https://www.timesofisrael.com/body-of-alessandro-parini-killed-in-tel-aviv-terror-ramming-transferred-to-italy/

https://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-palestine/francesca-albanese

https://www.timesofisrael.com/un-human-rights-official-says-israel-cant-claim-self-defense-after-deadly-terror/

https://www.jta.org/2023/04/10/israel/the-mother-of-two-sisters-killed-in-terror-attack-dies-of-her-wounds

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesca_Albanese

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYTJr0sTac8

https://embassies.gov.il/UnGeneva/NewsAndEvents/MediaStatements/Pages/20221412-Statement-Remarks-Made-By-UN-Special-Rapporteur-Francesca-Albanese.aspx

Book:  The Order by Daniel Silva

Who Will Replace Richard Falk in UN?

Nadene Goldfoot                                          

Indonesia's former UN ambassador, Dr.Makarim Wibisono,  is  likely to be picked as UN human rights monitor of the "Palestinian Territories"  after Richard Falk, 83 yr old UN rapporteur. It's a 6 year position.   Indonesia is the #1 country having the largest population among  the 48 Muslim majority countries.  Their population is 228,582,000 with 86.1% Sunni Muslims. 

  "Before becoming the special rapporteur, Falk was a member of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Inquiry Commission for the Palestinian territories."  Falk hasn't had a good thought about Israel in all the time he has served.  The rest of the world can break all sorts of laws towards their citizens but that's okay.  It's Israel he incessantly has picked on with the rest of the UN members cheering about it, so of course he's been their popular emissary.  The part that is horrid is that he's Jewish.  Oh, they love a Jew who hates Israel.  Falk stepped over the line with UN head Ban Ki-moon who had to condemn him for promoting the writings of 9/11 conspiracy theorists.  All the horrendous statements from him about Israel was okay, evidently, but a few did get criticized by Ban Ki-moon.  "He has been variously criticized by U.S. ambassador Susan Rice."

                                                                                 

"Wibisono went to Gaza in 2010 to show support for Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the Iranian-backed Hamas terrorist organization.

Wibisono has also demonstrated a disconcerting pattern and practice of one-sided and inflammatory statements targeting the Jewish state:

• He has accused Israel of “unconscionable use of force against the Palestinians,” "untenable acts of aggression," and of having a "policy of retribution against the entire Palestinian nation." 
• Wibisono has referred to the “stark and brutal nature of the policies pursued by the occupying power,” accused Israel of being "the aggressor and the perpetrator of wanton violence," and repeatedly minimized Israeli suffering, speaking of “the handful of Israelis who have died,” and of Israel's battle with rocket and other terrorist attacks as a “flimsy pretext.”
• Wibisono openly embraces what he calls the "sacred Palestinian cause."
• "Dr. Wibisono held senior level positions in various capacities such as Chairman of the 61st United Nations Commission on Human Rights (2005), "

The talk has been that Falk's wife of the past 15 years would be his replacement.  She's Dr. Hilal Elver, a Research Professor of Global Studies at the U. of California in Santa Barbara.  She's been there since 2002. She's middle aged and Turkish which might explain some of their antagonism towards Israel since Erdogen hasn't been such a good friend lately.  He's noticeably made his own personal changes by being more favorable towards Sharia law and those that back it.  Anyone connected to Richard Falk would not be objective, as he's the most narrow minded and hateful person we've had in this position.  The wife must be a mirror of her husband's views.

Christina Cerna was already vetted to be the next replacement of Richard.  She is a Georgetown law school lecturer, but lobbying from the Arab states has stopped that choice.  Her background was that she was a Principal Human Rights Specialist, and served on an Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and  an Adjunct Professor of Law with a BA from NY U, MA from Ludwig-Maximilian Universitat, JD from American U; LLM; Columbia U.  

""The core issue, to be sure, is not the nominees, but the biased position itself," said UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer."  Because it is a biased position, the UN has not had a problem finding biased people for that position.  In other words, the person is expected to be an attack dog against Israel.  That's what the UN Human Rights Council constantly harps on.  

Update: 3/28/14   The bets are now changing.  It's between Christine Chinken, co-author of the Goldstone Report and Hilal Elver, "former Turkish government adviser as well as Falk's wife" to be the special rapporteur to replace Falk.  Amazing that the Arabs are backing Christine, a woman.  "The U.S. — if it is to live up to its pledge to use its UNHRC membership to fight bias, politicization and double standards — must take the floor, call a vote, and vote No.--If the U.S. fails to call a vote and stand up for what is right, it will have forfeited its moral justification for serving on a council that just elected Putin, the Castro regime, the Chinese Communist Party, and the House of Saud."

Resource: UN Watch.  

http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/03/14/assessing-the-u-n-%E2%80%99s-candidates-to-replace-richard-falk-frequent-critic-of-israel/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_A._Falk

http://www.aseanfoundation.org/index2.php?main=news/2011/2011-01-17z.php
update 3/27/14 8:06pm: http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/un-appoints-muslim-oic-chair-to-investigate-israel/
http://www.unwatch.org/cms.asp?id=5392235&campaign_id=63111