UN Rapporteur Target of ‘Smear Campaign’ for Denouncing Zionist Occupation

Date: 26 April 2023 - 22:49

News ID: ۱۱۴۳۴۹

NEW YORK (Dispatches) – Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, is undeterred by the recent campaigns by the Zionist regime accusing her of anti-Semitism for doing her job.
“This is neither the first nor the last time my mandate and persona will come under attack,” Albanese told Middle East Eye. “An apartheid regime, as the international legal framework acknowledges, may resort to the persecution of persons and organizations opposing it.”
Since assuming her role in May 2022, Albanese has faced significant opposition from the Zionist right wing for her remarks on the Zionist-Palestine conflict. As part of her job as the UN rapporteur, she has named and shamed the occupying regime for human rights abuses, including the crime of apartheid and operating as a settler colonial regime that is not held accountable for committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in the occupied Palestinian territories.
In December, the Zionist regime’s hasbara (PR) platform ACT-IL launched a campaign calling for her dismissal. This was followed by a similar petition on Change.org.
In early April, the momentum to remove Albanese from her role intensified, in what looked like a coordinated campaign using articles and tweets.
Between 9-12 April, multiple articles were published in several Zionist outlets, accusing Albanese of anti-Semitism.
The articles were timed to coincide with a Twitter campaign to pressure UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk to dismiss Albanese. Zionist agents also mobilized an Italian legislator to demand Albanese’s resignation.
Albanese says the articles contained many untrue allegations, accusing her of inciting violence and “condoning anti-Jewish terrorism”, which the UN rapporteur has denied as unsubstantiated. She said that these accusations were based on a misrepresentation of a conference she attended as an event and her affirmation of the right of Palestinians to self-defence.
Albanese has also dismissed all the accusations of anti-Semitism as “lies” and part of a “smear campaign”.
Despite the relentless pressure, Albanese is adamant that she will continue to speak out against the Zionist regime’s occupation. “I must stay focused on my work and [on] the millions oppressed under or affected by the occupation, as well as the many threatened around the world for denouncing it,” she told MEE.