Secretary of State Marco Rubio unveiled sanctions against the UN rapporteur on Palestinian rights just over a week after the US demanded she be fired for “virulent antisemitism and support for terrorism.”
Rubio excoriated Francesca Albanese, an Italian native who has served as the rapporteur for the Palestinians since 2022, and accused her of pushing the International Criminal Court (ICC) to clamp down on the US and Israel.
“Today I am imposing sanctions on UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese for her illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt [ICC] action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives,” Rubio revealed on X.
Today I am imposing sanctions on UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese for her illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt @IntlCrimCourt action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives. Albanese’s campaign of political and economic…
— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) July 9, 2025
“Albanese’s campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated,” he added. “We will always stand by our partners in their right to self-defense.”
Last month, the Trump administration implored UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to fire Albanese, bashing her for doling out missives to top American companies that were “riddled with inflammatory rhetoric and false accusations.”
“In her letters, Ms. Albanese makes extreme allegations, such as that the entities may be contributing to purported offenses including ‘gross human rights violations,’ ‘apartheid,’ and ‘genocide,’” acting US ambassador to the UN Dorothy Shea wrote, per the Washington Free Beacon.
“She wrongly asserts that recipients have violated ‘preemptory norms of international law’ and face exposure to ‘potential criminal liability,’ and demands that they cease activities relating to Israel.”
A Guterres spokesperson later insisted that he “has neither the authority to hire [rapporteurs] nor does he have the authority to fire them.”
Albanese also authored a UN Human Rights Council report alleging companies like Google and others were profiting off “the genocide carried out by Israel” in Gaza.
She has frequently accused Israel of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip and equivocated Hamas’s deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack on the Jewish state, arguing that it has to be kept in “context of decades of oppression imposed on the Palestinians.”
Last year, she reposted an incendiary remark from self-described journalist Chris Hedges claiming the “Israel lobby has bought and paid for Congress and the two ruling parties.”
She’s also made comments likening Israel’s policies to the “Nazis and the Third Reich.”
At this point, no one is surprised to see @UN Special Rapporteur Albanese expose her deep bias and blatantly use antisemitic tropes like comparing Israel to Nazi Germany. But this is why @ADL requested that @UN_HRC open proceedings to remove her from office.UN officials should… pic.twitter.com/DsU3uIkdKS
— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) October 15, 2024
Rubio stressed that “The United States will continue to take whatever actions we deem necessary to respond to lawfare and protect our sovereignty and that of our allies.”
Those sanctions against Albanese coincide with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the US, where he has received a warm reception from President Trump and GOP congressional leaders.
During Netanyahu’s US trek, Albanese took to social media and raged against countries that allowed the Israeli leader to fly through their airspace despite the ICC warrant for his arrest, issued last year.
The US and Israel have ratified the 1998 Rome Statute that created the international tribunal, which is based in The Hague, Netherlands. Earlier this year, Trump slapped sanctions on the ICC.
“Italian, French and Greek citizens deserve to know that every political action violating the int’l legal order, weakens and endangers all of them. And all of us,” Albanese fumed on X Wednesday.
The governments of Italy, France, and Greece must explain why they provided airspace and safe passage to ICC-wanted Benjamin Netanyahu, whom they are obligated to arrest. Italian, French and Greek citizens deserve to know that every political action violating the int’l legal… https://t.co/gfcAZQOOFi
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) July 9, 2025
The Post contacted Albanese for comment.
The post Rubio unveils sanctions against UN Palestinian rapporteur over anti-Israel and US campaign appeared first on New York Post.
