Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that the United States would impose sanctions on Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, for her work with the International Criminal Court to investigate Americans and Israelis.
Ms. Albanese, an Italian legal scholar, has been an outspoken critic of Israeli military actions in Gaza, and the Trump administration has been on a campaign to punish people who criticize Israel’s war in Gaza.
An executive order signed by President Trump in February imposed sanctions 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 United States is not a party to a 1998 treaty that established the court to investigate and prosecute people accused of war crimes, genocide and other offenses.
The Trump administration acted last month against four judges on the International Criminal Court for issuing arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and members of his war cabinet. The United States imposed sanctions on the court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, in February after he brought a case against Israel over the war.
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.”
In a statement on Wednesday, Mr. Rubio criticized her for recommending that the International Criminal Court investigate and prosecute American companies and executives as part of its investigation of war crimes and human rights violations in Gaza.
“We will not tolerate these campaigns of political and economic warfare, which threaten our national interests and sovereignty,” he said.
Special rapporteurs are unpaid independent experts who monitor human rights issues.
Mr. Rubio accused Ms. Albanese of bias that he said made her unfit to serve as special rapporteur, a position she has held since 2022. Israel’s government has banned Ms. Albanese from entering the country since December.
Shortly after Mr. Rubio announced the sanctions, Ms. Albanese wrote on social media, “I stand firmly and convincingly on the side of justice, as I have always done.”
Ms. Albanese did not immediately respond to to a request for comment.
Ms. Albanese 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 a large increase in Israel’s military budget since the start of its campaign in Gaza in October 2023.
The war began in response to a Hamas-led attack on Israel that month in which some 1,200 Israelis were killed and roughly 250 others were taken hostage. The war has devastated Gaza, and at least 57,000 people have died there, according to the Palestinian health authorities.
In her June 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.
Francesca Regalado is a Times reporter covering breaking news.
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