UN Official Who Justified Oct. 7 Terror Attacks Banned From Entering Israel

Jerusalem, 12 February, 2024 (TPS) -- Israeli authorities said on Monday that Francesca Albanese, a UN official with a history of comments justifying Palestinian terror, will be banned from entering Israel.

Albanese is the UN’s “Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories,” whose mandate is to investigate solely “Israel’s violations.” She was seeking to visit the Palestinian Authority on behalf of the UN Human Rights Council.

She sparked fresh criticism on Saturday when she wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, “The victims of 7/10 were not killed because of their Judaism, but in response to Israel’s oppression.”

Albanese was responding to French President Emmanuel Macron, who referred to the October 7 massacre as “the largest antisemitic massacre of our century.”

The decision to bar Albanese’s entry was made by Foreign Minister Israel Katz and Interior Minister Moshe Arbel.

“The era of Jews being silent is over. If the UN wants to return to being a relevant body, its leaders must publicly disavow the anti-Semitic words of the “special envoy” – and fire her immediately. Preventing her from entering Israel might remind her of the real reason why Hamas slaughtered babies, women and adults,” they said in a joint statement.

Albanese, who formerly worked in Jordan for UNRWA, is an Italian lawyer who has called Israel an “apartheid” state and repeatedly compared the Palestinian situation to the Nazi Holocaust.

Days after two people were killed in twin bombings of Jerusalem bus stops, she told an audience at a Hamas-organized event, “you have a right to resist Israel.”

In December, she said Hamas’s murder of Israeli soldiers on October 7 was “not illegal.”

At least 1,200 people were killed and 240 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the remaining 134 hostages, Israel recently declared 31 of them dead.