Donald Trump’s administration is sanctioning UN Human Rights Council special rapporteur Francesca Albanese, a vocal critic of Israel’s war on Gaza.
Announcing the decision, Marco Rubio accused the UN expert of leading a “campaign of political and economic warfare” against the US and Israel, Politico reported.
“The US will continue to take whatever actions we deem necessary to respond to lawfare and protect our sovereignty and that of our allies,” the secretary of state said.
Ms Albanese responded by saying she had “no comment on mafia style intimidation techniques”.
“Busy reminding member states of their obligations to stop and punish genocide,” she told Al Jazeera. “And those who profit from it.”
The sanctioning of Ms Albanese follows an unsuccessful US pressure campaign to force the UN body to remove her from her post. It also comes as Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is visiting Washington to meet president Donald Trump and other officials about the war in Gaza and more.
It is unclear what the practical impact the sanctions will have and whether the independent investigator will be able to travel to the US with diplomatic paperwork.
Ms Albanese, an Italian human rights lawyer, has been outspoken about what she has called Israeli “genocide” of the Palestinians in Gaza. Both Israel and the US, which provides military support to its key ally, have strongly denied that accusation.
The US hasn’t previously addressed concerns with Ms Albanese head-on because it has not participated in either of the UN Human Rights Council’s sessions this year. That is because the Trump administration withdrew the US from the rights body earlier this year.
In recent weeks, Ms Albanese has issued a series of letters urging countries to pressure Israel, including through sanctions, to end its deadly bombardment of Gaza.
She has also been a strong supporter of the International Criminal Court's arrest warrants against Israeli officials, including Mr Netanyahu, for allegations of war crimes in the Palestinian territories. She most recently issued a report naming several large US companies as among those aiding Israel's occupation and war on Gaza.
"Albanese's campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated," Mr Rubio posted on social media. "We will always stand by our partners in their right to self-defence."
The move against Ms Albanese, an independent investigator tasked with probing rights abuses in the occupied Palestinian territories, is being seen by some experts as the latest effort by the US to punish critics of Israel's war on Gaza.
Liz Evenson, international justice director at Human Rights Watch, said that Washington’s decision to sanction Ms Albanese for seeking justice through the ICC “is actually all about silencing a UN expert for doing her job – speaking truth about Israeli violations against Palestinians and calling on governments and corporations not to be complicit”.
“The United States is working to dismantle the norms and institutions on which survivors of grave abuses rely,” Ms Evenson said.
“UN and ICC member countries should strongly resist the US government’s shameless efforts to block justice for the world’s worst crimes and condemn the outrageous sanctions on Albanese.”
Ms Albanese's 1 July report focuses on Western defence companies that provide weapons for Israel's military as well as manufacturers of earth-moving equipment that are used to bulldoze Palestinian homes and property. It cites activities by companies in the shipping, real estate, technology, banking and finance and online travel industries as well as in academia.
"While life in Gaza is being obliterated and the West Bank is under escalating assault, this report shows why Israel's genocide continues: because it is lucrative for many," she wrote.
Israel's diplomatic mission in Geneva, where the Human Rights Council is based, called her report "legally groundless, defamatory and a flagrant abuse of her office".
Independent experts such as Ms Albanese do not represent the UN and carry no formal authority. They, however, report to the council as a means of monitoring the human rights records of countries around the world.
Appointed in 2022, the lawyer has called for sanctions and arms embargoes against Israel.
In retaliation, the Israeli government banned her from entering the country last February.
Ms Albanese has faced sharp criticism from pro-Israel officials and groups in the US and in the Middle East. The US mission to the UN issued a scathing statement last week demanding her removal for "a years-long pattern of virulent antisemitism and unrelenting anti-Israel bias".
The statement said Ms Albanese's allegations of Israel committing genocide or enforcing apartheid were "false and offensive".
Israel's UN envoy, Danny Danon, celebrated the newly announced US sanctions, saying on Wednesday that Ms Albanese's "relentless and biased campaign against Israel and the United States has long crossed the line from human rights advocacy into political warfare”.
The sanctioning of the UN expert is a culmination of a nearly six-month campaign by the Trump administration to quell criticism of Israel's handling of the war in Gaza. Earlier this year, the administration began arresting and trying to deport faculty and students of US universities who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations and other political activities.
Israel’s latest war on Gaza started in October 2023 after about 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken captive during a Hamas raid in southern Israel.
The Israeli war has killed over 57,000 Palestinians so far, according to Gaza's health ministry, the majority of them women and children.
Israel’s unrelenting assault has also reduced almost the entire territory to rubble and displaced the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.2 million people while its siege has left them at the brink of starvation.
It is nearly impossible now for the critically wounded to get the care they need, doctors and aid workers say. "We must stop this genocide, whose short-term goal is completing the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, while also profiteering from the killing machine devised to perform it," Ms Albanese said in a recent post on X. "No one is safe until everyone is safe."
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