Trump administration says it is targeting Francesca Albanese for encouraging ICC war crime prosecution against Israel’s Netanyahu.Washington, DC – The administration of United States President Donald Trump has imposed sanctions on United Nations expert Francesca Albanese over her documentation of Israel’s abuses against Palestinians during its war on Gaza.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the penalties on Wednesday, accusing Albanese of waging a “campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel”.
Albanese, who serves as UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, has been a leading global voice in calling for action to end Israel’s human rights violations.
Israel and its supporters have been rebuking Albanese and calling for her to be removed from her UN position for years.
Earlier on Wednesday, she called out European governments for allowing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crime charges in Gaza – to use their airspace while travelling.
“Italian, French and Greek citizens deserve to know that every political action violating the [international] legal order, weakens and endangers all of them. And all of us,” Albanese wrote in a social media post.
Rubio cited Albanese’s push for the prosecution of Israeli officials at the ICC as the legal basis for the sanctions.
Trump had issued an executive order in February to impose penalties on ICC officials involved in “targeting” Israel.
Last month, the Trump administration sanctioned four ICC judges.
On Wednesday, Rubio accused Albanese of anti-Semitism. Advertisement
“That bias has been apparent across the spa …