Israel on Wednesday demanded the resignation of UN independent expert Francesca Albanese after she denounced the “eradication of Palestinians” from their land as “genocide.”
Israel’s UN ambassador, Danny Danon, criticized Albanese after she told a committee at the UN General Assembly that developments in recent months “cement my assessment that Israel is conducting a genocidal campaign against the Palestinians.”
“Once again, the UN has rolled out the red carpet for one of the most anti-Semitic figures in modern history, granting her a stage to spew baseless propaganda and lies,” Danon wrote in a social media post on X.
“Your presence at the UN is a disgrace, a betrayal of all moral standards. Resign immediately. Leave your credentials at the door and join your friends at Hamas and Hezbollah, where you belong,” he added.
This comes a day after Albanese, in a report, accused Israel of treating Palestinians as a “hated encumbrance and threat to be eradicated.”
She said, “The genocide of the Palestinians appears to be the means to an end: the complete removal or eradication of Palestinians from the land so integral to their identity, which is illegally and openly coveted by Israel.”
“Since its establishment, Israel has treated the occupied people as a hated encumbrance and threat to be eradicated, subjecting millions of Palestinians for generations to everyday indignities, mass killing, mass incarceration, forced displacement, racial segregation, and apartheid,” she added.
Israel’s Geneva UN mission also denounced Albanese, accusing her of being a “political activist who abuses an already discriminatory UN mandate,” and of “regularly spewing anti-Semitism, shielding and encouraging terrorism, and distorting the law.”
“As a UN mandate holder, she has breached every possible rule of the UN code of conduct. She must immediately be held accountable for her continuous abuses.” it said.
Meanwhile, Albanese defended herself at a press conference and redirected attention from personal attacks.
“I really don’t feel comfortable entertaining discussions concerning the attacks against me because it’s not about me, and I’m not the story. The story is the fact that there are Palestinians who risk being erased from their land,” she said.
Albanese has faced opposition and accusations of anti-Semitism from Israel and its allies due to her genocide accusations.
She has previously said that the offensive Israel launched after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks was “part of a long-term international, systematic state-organized forced displacement and replacement of the Palestinians.”