Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that the United States would impose sanctions on Francesca Albanese, a United Nations expert on the occupied Palestinian territories, for “efforts to prompt” the International Criminal Court to investigate U.S. companies and Israeli officials.
The decision to impose sanctions on a U.N.-affiliated lawyer was highly unusual. An Italian legal scholar and outspoken critic of Israel, Ms. Albanese serves as the United Nations’ special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories. She is not a U.N. official, but was appointed as an unpaid independent expert to monitor human rights issues.
Mr. Rubio linked the sanctions decision to a broader American effort to retaliate against the International Criminal Court, which issued arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister and Yoav Gallant, the former defense minister, last year, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip.
At the same time, the court issued a warrant for the arrest of Hamas’s military chief, Muhammad Deif, accusing him of crimes against humanity, including murder, hostage taking and sexual violence. Israel says it killed him in an airstrike, and Hamas has confirmed his death.
Ms. Albanese does not work for the International Criminal Court, but she has encouraged it to prosecute Israeli leaders and international companies over the war against Hamas in Gaza. Her often fiery posts on social media have drawn criticism from Israel and its allies, who have accused her of antisemitism.
“We will not tolerate these campaigns of political and economic warfare, which threaten our national interests and sovereignty,” Mr. Rubio said.
In a phone interview with The New York Times, Ms. Albanese said that she and her supporters were “tired of these mafia techniques of intimidation” from the United States.
“I will deal with the consequences — it doesn’t matter,” she said, describing herself as standing “for justice.” She brushed off accusations of antisemitism as an effort to deflect attention from atrocities being committed in Gaza and the West Bank.
The U.N. human rights chief, Volker Türk, in a statement on Thursday called for a swift reversal of the sanctions decision.
“Even in face of fierce disagreement, U.N. member states should engage substantively and constructively, rather than resort to punitive measures,” he said, calling for “attacks and threats” to stop.
Palestinians and their allies often view Ms. Albanese as an unflinching advocate for Palestinian rights at one of the darkest moments in their history. The war against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 57,000 people, including thousands of children, according to local health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Israel and American Jewish groups have denounced Ms. Albanese for accusing Israel of committing genocide, an accusation they strongly reject. They argue that she rarely condemns violence against Israeli civilians or criticizes Palestinian armed groups like Hamas, whose Oct. 7, 2023 attacks killed about 1,200 people in Israel and ignited the nearly two-year-long war.
At the time of that attack, Ms. Albanese said that she unequivocally condemned attacks on civilians, but that the violence had to be taken into account in the context of “six decades of hostile military rule.”
The United States has cracked down on pro-Palestinian activism since President Trump returned in office in January, but Ms. Albanese’s advocacy also drew criticism from the Biden administration.
On social media, Ms. Albanese has appeared to liken Israel’s actions in Gaza to the Holocaust, as well as agreeing with an image that appeared to compare Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, to Hitler. After Israeli forces killed Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, she conceded that he had been a military target but called his killing “inhumane.”
Before assuming her role, she also suggested in an open letter posted on a personal Facebook account in 2014 that “the Jewish lobby” controlled the United States’ stance on Israel. Ms. Albanese later told The Times of Israel that her choice of words was “infelicitous, analytically inaccurate and unintendedly offensive.” In her interview with The Times she declined to comment on the letter.
Ms. Albanese’s defenders called the U.S. sanctions an effort to muzzle legitimate criticism of the Israeli military campaign in Gaza.
“It’s an effort to censor an important global voice for the purpose of defending Israel’s atrocities in Gaza,” Kenneth Roth, a former head of Human Rights Watch who is now a visiting professor at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, said in a phone interview. “It’s nothing more or less than that”
Of Ms. Albanese Mr. Roth said: “She has been a very courageous, outspoken voice. I find her to be legally sophisticated, factually accurate and unsparing in her criticism but fair.”
In February, Mr. Trump signed an executive order that could bar people associated with the International Criminal Court from entering the United States and from purchasing property and assets in the country.
The Trump administration also acted last month against four judges on the court for issuing the arrest warrants for Mr. Netanyahu. The United States similarly imposed sanctions on the court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, in February for requesting the warrants.
Last week, in a speech to the U.N. Human Rights Council, Ms. Albanese said that Israel was “responsible for one of the cruelest genocides in modern history.”
Ms. Albanese also wrote a report in late June to the U.N. Human Rights Council detailing the profit derived by corporations — including arms manufacturers, banks and large asset managers like BlackRock and Vanguard — from the large increase in Israel’s military budget since the start of its campaign in Gaza in October 2023.
In that report, Ms. Albanese called on U.N. member states to impose sanctions and an arms embargo on Israel. She also called on countries to suspend trade and investment relations with Israel, and to hold companies involved in violations of international law in the occupied Palestinian territories accountable.
Aaron Boxerman is a Times reporter covering Israel and Gaza. He is based in Jerusalem.
Francesca Regalado is a Times reporter covering breaking news.
The post U.S. Imposes Sanctions on U.N. Expert Who Has Denounced Israel Over Gaza War appeared first on New York Times.
