US EditionUN Rapporteur for Palestine says she won't resign despite French backlash
Francesca Albanese denies antisemitism claims linked to AI-manipulated videos and refuses to resign amid calls from European governments, with over 100 public figures backing her mandate.
- On Friday, Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, refused to resign, calling the accusations ludicrous and affirming she retains the trust of the UN Human Rights Council while pointing to seven reports documenting 62 states including France.
- A group of MPs cited two short video clips from an Al Jazeera forum last week, but one was later shown to be fake and manipulated using artificial intelligence.
- Support for her mandate has increased in recent months, with more than 100 public figures including Mark Ruffalo, Javier Bardem, Annie Ernaux and Annie Lennox signing an Artists for Palestine open letter defending her work and highlighting states' complicity through arms, diplomacy and finance.
- Rights advocates warn the controversy threatens the independence of international mechanisms, noting attempts to discredit her follow a pattern targeting UN officials who investigate alleged violations by Israel.
- Albanese's role as a leading critic of Israel's conduct in Gaza positions her at the center of accountability debates, while the artificial intelligence-manipulated video reveals risks to fact-based scrutiny and may chill future investigations.
9 Articles
9 Articles
The Foreign Ministers of France and Germany are said to have fallen for a maliciously cut-up film, the UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine claims. That is not true.
Defiant Albanese rejects smear campaign, refuses to step down
UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese has defiantly rejected calls for her to step down following a coordinated smear campaign led by pro-Israel politicians, insisting she retains "the trust of the UN Human Rights Council" and will not be intimidated. Speaking to Euronews on Friday, the UN rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories dismissed the allegations against her as "ludicrous", pushing back forcefully against pressure from Fran…
by Angelo Palazzolo On 23 February, at the UN Human Rights Council, the resignation of Francesca Albanese, special rapporteur for human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories will be formally requested. The initiative will be promoted by the French Foreign Minister, accompanied by colleagues from Germany, Italy (our Tajani could not be missing), Austria and the Czech Republic. The accusation is heavy: to have defined Israel as a common e…
On 11 February 2026, Jean-Noël Barrot called for the resignation of the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories for words she never made. The minister took up a charge made by macro- MP Caroline Yadan on the basis of a truncated video. The historian Sophie Bessis and the essayist Dominique Eddé denounce a French foreign policy without compass, which chose to take it from Francesca Albanese while silent on th…
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