The Italian diplomat accused international governments of enabling a “genocide” and referred to a “common enemy of humanity” when speaking about Israel.
Chris Elmore, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign Office, said: “Along with several other countries, we have raised concerns about a series of comments made by the Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
“Ministers have raised these concerns directly with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the UK has asked that the comments of the Special Rapporteur be urgently investigated against the Code of Conduct for her post, and for action to be taken to restore the confidence of the international community in the independence and objectivity of this important role.”
Labour MP Luke Akehurst, who asked Elmore about the government’s position on Albanese, said: “I welcome the Government's response and that it is taking this unacceptable behaviour seriously. The UN clearly must sack Francesca Albanese, as France and others have already called for. Her record of virulent anti-Israel hate is outrageous and longstanding.”
The move followed calls from France and Germany for her removal, along with similar demands from the Czech Republic and Austria.
The Italian human rights expert has long faced accusations of extreme anti-Israel remarks.
In August 2022, three months after her appointment as special rapporteur, she tweeted: “Palestinians' right to resist is inherent to their right to exist as a people. An unlawful act of resistance does not make the resistance unlawful.”
Less than a year before October 7, 2023, she participated in an official Hamas conference and appeared to justify violent resistance.
Addressing the group’s Council on International Relations on “the impact of the Israeli blockade” in November 2022 via video link, she said: “You have a right to resist this occupation. Israel says ‘resistance equals terrorism’, but an occupation requires violence.”
After the October 7 massacre, her remarks continued to spark backlash.
Greta Thunberg (left) with Francesca Albanese (in glasses) on a boat for an anti-Israel protest in Italy last year (Getty)AFP via Getty Images
In December 2023, she referenced the crimes of Hitler’s Germany in relation to Israel’s military response to Hamas.
She posted: “Fellow Europeans, Italians, Germans, after the Holocaust, we should instinctively know that Genocide starts with dehumanising the other. If Israel's current attack [on] Palestinians doesn't prompt our strong reaction, the darkest page of our recent history has taught us nothing.”
In February 2024, she disagreed with comments made by French President Emmanuel Macron, who described the attack in which 1,200 men, women and children in Israel were murdered by Hamas as the “greatest antisemitic massacre of our century”.
Albanese wrote on X: “No… The victims of 7/10 were not killed because of their Judaism, but in reaction to Israel's oppression. France & the international community did nothing to prevent it. My respects to the victims.”
In March 2024, in a post directed at women serving in the IDF, she wrote: “What have you done, what have you become. Dears, when you realise it, you will be haunted forever.”
Later that year, Albanese questioned Israel’s stated war aim of rescuing hostages and accused the country of genocide.
She tweeted: “Israel has used hostages to legitimise killing, injuring, maiming, starving and traumatising Palestinians in Gaza.
“And while intensifying violence against Palestinians in the rest of the occupied territory and Israel… This is genocidal intent turned into action. Crystal clear.”
In July 2024, she agreed with a comparison made between Adolf Hitler and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
But it was her comments in Doha last month, when she used the phrase “common enemy” while talking about Israel, that have been most strongly condemned by leaders around the world.
Albanese, whose term expires in 2028, has denied allegations of antisemitism and rejected accusations that she was describing Israel as that “common enemy”.
Speaking to France 24, she dismissed the latest accusations levelled against her as a "manipulation" of her words.
"I have never, ever said 'Israel is the common enemy of humanity,’” she said, adding that her remarks were about global power structures rather than an attack on a specific nation.
In a post online defending her remarks, Albanese said: “The common enemy of humanity is the system that has enabled the genocide in Palestine, including the financial capital that fund it, the algorithms that obscure it and the weapons that enable it.”
