United Nations, February 13 (RHC)-- A United Nations special rapporteur has been banned from entering the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories after being accused by Israel of supporting the Palestinian cause.
Francesca Albanese was officially denied visa to Israel following a post on her X social media account, in which she wrote: “The victims of 7/10 were not killed because of their Judaism, but in response to Israel’s oppression.”
Albanese, who has been the UN’s point person for the occupied Palestinian territories since 2022, made the post after French President Emmanuel Macron claimed that the Hamas-led attack was the "greatest anti-Semitic massacre of our century.”
The UN special rapporteur went on to stress, “I reject all racism, including anti-Semitism which is a global threat. But explaining these crimes as anti-Semitism obscures their true cause."
The Israeli regime’s foreign and interior ministries confirmed the ban on Albanese on Monday, saying she would not be allowed into the occupied territories and that the ban was attributed to her "outrageous statement."
In a post on X later in the day, Albanese said the ban must not become a “distraction from Israel's atrocities in Gaza,” and that UN special rapporteurs are no stranger to such moves by the occupying regime.
Albanese has been an outspoken critic of Israel and has previously described the regime’s treatment of Palestinians as tantamount to apartheid.
Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7 after Palestinian resistance groups waged the surprise Operation al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime's decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.
