Legal forum calls on UN to fire special envoy to Palestinian territories

The International Legal Forum, a global network of more than 4,000 lawyers and activists, has urged the UN to ‘immediately’ fire its special rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories. 

The organisation, which is committed to combating antisemitism, advancing human rights and promoting peace in the Middle East, sent a letter to the UN Secretary General and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, expressing “utter dismay and outrage at the abhorrent statements made by Ms. Francesca Albanese.”

Albanese issued a statement following two terrorist attacks on Friday which killed three British Israelis in the West Bank and an Italian man in Tel Aviv, saying: “Israel has a right to defend itself, but can’t claim it when it comes to the people it oppresses/whose lands it colonises.”

The International Legal Forum called on the UN to “immediately” dismiss Albanese.

“Ms. Albanese explicitly and inexcusably, said that Israel does not have a right to self-defence against Palestinian terror, thereby directly endorsing the murder of Israeli civilians, including children. She has only further reiterated this position since,” the statement said.

“In it is unfathomable that such a statement would ever be made by a UN representative, but this is just the latest in Ms. Albanese’s relentless, systematic and unhinged bias against Israel,” the statement added.

The forum accused Albanese of having a “long history of antisemitism and virulent bias, both before and during her term as Special Rapporteur, using age-old antisemitic tropes such as accusing ‘the Jewish lobby’ of controlling the United States.”

It also said Albenese is “repeatedly dismissing Israeli security concerns, such as following this most recent wave of terror, as well as comparing Israelis to Nazis, expressing support for the BDS Movement and charging the Jewish state with the heinous crimes of apartheid, genocide and war crimes.”