GENEVA: Israel on Friday slammed a UN rights expert for “anti-Semitism” after she endorsed a social media post comparing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler.
Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the rights situation in the Palestinian territories, has faced harsh criticism from Israel previously, especially after she in March accused the country of committing genocide in the war in Gaza.
On Thursday, she responded to a post on X, formerly Twitter, displaying a picture of Hitler being celebrated by a crowd with Nazi salutes and cheers above a shot of Netanyahu appearing to be greeted by US congressmen this week.
“History is always watching,” Craig Mokhiber, a former UN human rights official who resigned late last October accusing the world body of failing to prevent the “genocide” of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, wrote in the post.
“This is precisely what I was thinking today,” Albanese, an independent expert appointed by the UN Human Rights Council in 2022 but who does not speak on behalf of the United Nations, said in her response on Thursday.
Israel’s foreign ministry was quick to respond, slamming her on X as being “beyond redemption.”
“It is inconceivable that (Albanese) is still allowed to use the UN as a shield to spread anti-Semitism,” it said.
Israel’s mission to the UN in Geneva also chimed in.
“When a current UN ‘expert’ endorses Holocaust distortion spread by the former (UN rights office) director in New York... the system is rotten to its core,” it said.
“It’s high time to #UNseatAlbanese!“
Israel’s new ambassador in Geneva, Daniel Meron, used the same hashtag, decrying that “Francesca Albanese abuses her (UN) title to spread hatred and inflammatory rhetoric.”
Israel’s top ally the United States also weighed in.
“UN Special Rapporteur’s comparison of Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler is reprehensible and antisemitic,” US ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva Michele Taylor said on X.
“There should be no place for such dehumanizing rhetoric. Special rapporteurs should be striving to improve human rights challenges, not inflame them.”
Albanese on Friday hit back at the criticism, insisting that “the memory of the Holocaust remains intact.”
“Institutional rants and outburst of selective moral outrage will not stop the course of justice, which is finally in motion.”
The Hamas attack that started the war on October 7 resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Out of 251 people taken hostage that day, 111 are still held in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive against Hamas has killed at least 39,175 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
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Israel slams UN expert over Hitler-Netanyahu comparison
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Israel slams UN expert over Hitler-Netanyahu comparison
- Francesca Albanese posted a picture of Hitler being celebrated by a crowd with Nazi salutes and cheers above a shot of Netanyahu
US expected to unveil post-war Gaza leadership
- International 'Board of Peace' is meant to govern Gaza for a transitional period as part of peace plan
- The 14-member Palestinian body will be headed by Ali Shaath, a former deputy minister in the Palestinian Authority
CAIRO: US President Donald Trump is expected on Wednesday to push ahead with his phased plan for Gaza’s future by announcing the administration that will run the war-ravaged Palestinian territory, four Palestinian sources said.
Israel and Hamas in October signed off on Trump’s 20-point plan which says that a technocratic Palestinian body overseen by an international “Board of Peace” is meant to govern Gaza for a transitional period. It is not to include Hamas representation.
The 14-member Palestinian body will be headed by Ali Shaath, a former deputy minister in the Western-backed Palestinian Authority who had been in charge of developing industrial zones, the Palestinian sources said.
Other members tapped by Nickolay Mladenov, the former UN Middle East envoy who is expected to represent the Board of Peace on the ground, include people from the private sector and NGOS, according a list of the names obtained by Reuters.
PHASE TWO OF GAZA PLAN
The first phase of Trump’s plan, which included a ceasefire and hostage release deal, has been shaken by issues including Israeli airstrikes in Gaza that have killed hundreds of people, a refusal by Hamas to disarm, the remains of one last Israeli hostage still not having been returned and Israeli delays in reopening Gaza’s Rafah border crossing with Egypt.
Although the two sides accuse each other of breaching the deal, Trump says he wants to move on to the second phase, a progression that would entail the establishment of the Board of Peace and a yet-to-be-agreed deployment of peacekeeping forces.
Hamas leaders and other Palestinian factions are in Cairo for talks on the second phase, the group said. Egyptian sources said talks with Hamas would now focus on the group’s disarmament.
Hamas has so far not agreed to lay down its weapons, saying it will only give up its weapons once there is a Palestinian state. Further Israeli withdrawals within Gaza are tied to disarmament.
Members of the technocratic Palestinian committee were expected to meet with Mladenov in Cairo on Wednesday. Hamas and its rival Fatah group, led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, have both endorsed the list of members, Egyptian and Palestinian sources said.
It will also include the head of the Gaza Chamber of Commerce Ayed Abu Ramadan and Omar Shamali, who has worked for the Palestinian Telecommunication Group PALTEL, the Palestinian sources said.
Israeli officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Israel and Hamas in October signed off on Trump’s 20-point plan which says that a technocratic Palestinian body overseen by an international “Board of Peace” is meant to govern Gaza for a transitional period. It is not to include Hamas representation.
The 14-member Palestinian body will be headed by Ali Shaath, a former deputy minister in the Western-backed Palestinian Authority who had been in charge of developing industrial zones, the Palestinian sources said.
Other members tapped by Nickolay Mladenov, the former UN Middle East envoy who is expected to represent the Board of Peace on the ground, include people from the private sector and NGOS, according a list of the names obtained by Reuters.
PHASE TWO OF GAZA PLAN
The first phase of Trump’s plan, which included a ceasefire and hostage release deal, has been shaken by issues including Israeli airstrikes in Gaza that have killed hundreds of people, a refusal by Hamas to disarm, the remains of one last Israeli hostage still not having been returned and Israeli delays in reopening Gaza’s Rafah border crossing with Egypt.
Although the two sides accuse each other of breaching the deal, Trump says he wants to move on to the second phase, a progression that would entail the establishment of the Board of Peace and a yet-to-be-agreed deployment of peacekeeping forces.
Hamas leaders and other Palestinian factions are in Cairo for talks on the second phase, the group said. Egyptian sources said talks with Hamas would now focus on the group’s disarmament.
Hamas has so far not agreed to lay down its weapons, saying it will only give up its weapons once there is a Palestinian state. Further Israeli withdrawals within Gaza are tied to disarmament.
Members of the technocratic Palestinian committee were expected to meet with Mladenov in Cairo on Wednesday. Hamas and its rival Fatah group, led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, have both endorsed the list of members, Egyptian and Palestinian sources said.
It will also include the head of the Gaza Chamber of Commerce Ayed Abu Ramadan and Omar Shamali, who has worked for the Palestinian Telecommunication Group PALTEL, the Palestinian sources said.
Israeli officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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