Francesca Albanese In Her Own Words

Francesca Albanese — In Her Own Words

 (Selected statements as of March 12, 2026 — click here for PDF)

 

 

Antisemitism

  • In July 2014, Albanese fundraised for her former employer UNRWA by postingthat America is “subjugated by the Jewish lobby.” She recently doubled down on this statement in a May 2025 interview with Al Jazeera.
  • In July 2014, Albanese posteda message addressed to the BBC that “the Israeli lobby is clearly inside your veins” and spoke of an Orwellian nightmare caused “once again by Israel’s greed.”
  • On October 7, 2023, as the Hamas massacre was still unfolding, Albanese minimized the atrocities by posting: “Today’s violence must be put in context.”
  • Albanese denied that the October 7 Hamas massacre was the worst antisemitic attack on Jews since the Holocaust, instead justifying it as a “reaction to Israel’s oppression.”
  • On Ocober 22, 2025, Albanese reposted the statement: “Israel is the incarnation of evil.”
  • On January 6, 2026, Albanese quote-tweeted the statement: “Israel is pure evil in a way the world just has never seen before.”
  • In December 2024, Albanese accused Israel of the “depravity of the century.”
  • Albanese questioned whether six Israeli hostages shot in the head by Hamas in a Rafah tunnel were “executed or killed,” implicitly lending support to the false rumor propagated by Hamas supporters that IDF soldiers themselves had killed the hostages in a bombing.
  • In July 2024, Albanese endorsed comparingthe Prime Minister of Israel to Adolf Hitler.
  • In August 2024, Albanese compared contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis by referringto Gaza as “the largest and most shameful concentration camp of the 21st century.”
  • In October 2024, Albanese comparedIsrael with the “Third Reich” and its “pure race” laws.
  • In June 2024, Albanese posted that “Israel has been an apartheid state toward the Palestinians ‘ab initio,’” effectively denying Israel’s legitimacy and the Jewish right to self-determination in Israel from the beginning.
  • In September 2024, again rejecting Israel’s legitimacy dating back to 1948, Albanese posted on X that “even stones of the UN building in NY know that Israel is an apartheid state” that must “offer an apology and reparation to millions of Nakba survivors and all those it has tormented and persecuted for decades.”
  • In June 2025, Albanese told El Pais that “Israel commits crimes like it breathes.”
  • Albanese condemned Israel’s June 2024 rescue of four hostages as “The #Nuseirat massacre,” while ignoring Hamas culpability for taking the hostages, holding them in civilian homes, and attempting to prevent the rescue by shooting at the soldiers carrying it out, endangering Palestinian civilians in the vicinity.
  • Albanese boosted a claim that the LA fires were linked to Israel’s actions in Gaza as “symptoms of the same disease,” and she added, “all injustices are connected.” (January 12, 2025).
  • Albanese routinely calls for arms embargoes on Israel but completely ignores Iran’s role in supplying Hamas with weapons and military training.

 

Disinformation and Incitement

  • Albanese spread a conspiracy theory blaming the CIA and the Mossad for the 2015 Paris terrorist attack by ISIS that massacred Charlie Hebdo journalists. (January 11, 2015).
  • Albanese cited widely debunked Lancet article to falsely claim that in first nine months of war, Israel killed 186,000 Palestinians. (July 8, 2024).
  • During the war in Iran, Albanese quote tweeted a fake, AI-created image of coffins of Iranian schoolgirls, and refused to remove it after it was identified as fake. (March 3, 2026)
  • Albanese accused Israel of using dogs to “torture” and “rape” Palestinians citing no sources. (May 10, 2025).
  • Well after it was established that a misfired Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket hit the parking lot of Gaza’s al-Ahli Hospital on October 17, Albanese continued to promote the false narrative that this was an “atrocity” caused by an Israeli “strike.” (October 19, 2023).
  • Albanese claimed that Hitler’s ideology remains “in the DNA of the Western system.” (June 23, 2025).
  • Albanese pressured the media to hide the fact that a Hamas-run entity supplies their casualty statistics on Gaza. (May 3, 2025).
  • Albanese embraced the ridiculous claim that “Zionists are staging antisemitic incidents.” (May 30, 2025).
  • Albanese defended the failed “Flotilla,” absurdly accusing Israel of an “act of aggression” against the United Kingdom. (June 9, 2025).
  • Albanese condemned Israel’s June 2024 hostage-rescue, claiming it reflected Israel’s “genocidal intent.” (June 8, 2024).
  • Albanese completely exaggerated the casualties without citing any sources in an interview published in El Pais when she said “[In Gaza] there are 400,000 people who have disappeared.” (June 27, 2025).
  • At a press conference at the U.N. in Geneva, Albanese claimedthat people “should start the thinking of 680,000” as the “real death toll in Gaza,” adding that of these 680,000 killed, 380,000 of those are infants under the age of five when census data shows that there aren’t even that many children under five in Gaza. In an interview the following week, Albanese admitted she used these numbers for the shock factor. (September 15, 2025).

 

Justifying and Minimizing Hamas October 7 atrocities

  • On October 7, 2023, as the Hamas massacre was still unfolding, Albanese tweeted “Today’s violence must be put in context” and then proceeded to justify it as a response to “six decades of hostile military rule.” (October 7, 2023).
  • Albanese went so far as to defend the Hamas October 7th invasion of Israel in an interview with JNS, arguing that “Killing soldiers is not an international crime. I mean, why is this so unbelievable? You seem to be puzzled by this. What is the right to resist for the Palestinians? No one wants to live under oppression.” (December 22, 2023).
  • Albanese continued to raise doubts about the October 7th atrocities, saying “This is the thing: it’s very difficult to also understand, to have clarity, on what has happened. But let’s assume that what they say in the media is true…” (January 14, 2024)
  • In an interview with British Channel 4 News, Albanese, who repeatedly calls Israel’s military operation in Gaza a “genocide,” refused to call Hamas’s heinous massacre of 1200 Israelis on October 7th an act of genocide. Instead, Albanese criticized those who call the atrocities a ‘genocide’ to justify the “brutal revengeful response” by Israel. (March 18, 2025).
  • She defended pro-Palestinian guests on Piers Morgan Uncensored for refusing to condemn Hamas for October 7th, posting “When someone feels entitled to ask any Palestinian to condemn the horrors and crimes of October 7—after decades of brutal occupation, dispossession, massacres after massacres, torture and humiliation—I stop taking them seriously. Moral authority doesn’t come from selective memory.” (May 16, 2025).
  • On Hamas’s sexual violence against Israeli women, Albanese’s first reaction on October 11, 2023 was to deny and minimize. She tweeted “Caution!” “ISR military did not confirm such claims” and warned that “Divulging unverified information risks to escalate tension & endanger lives.” (October 11, 2023).
  • Instead of standing with Israeli women, Albanese demonized them in a repugnant tweet on International Women’s Day—March 8, 2024, writing that they “they will be haunted forever” when they “realize” what they have “done” and what they have “become.” (March 8, 2024).
  • Even after the publication of extensive witness testimony, photo, video, and forensic evidence and reports by two UN entities affirming the sexual violence committed by Hamas, Albanese continues to engage in denial. In a July 8, 2025 interview on Sky News, in response to a question about a new Israeli report detailing the evidence on Hamas sexual crimes, Albanese again questioned whether such crimes had in fact occurred. She said “I cannot pronounce myself on violence that I don’t know of… IF it has occurred, of course, it deserves justice.” (July 8, 2025).

 

 

Demonizing Israel

  • Albanese quote tweeted: “Israel is pure evil in a way the world just has never seen before.” (January 6, 2026).
  • Albanese reposteda tweet describing Israel as “the incarnation of evil” while praising Iran’s Ayatollahs as morally superior, even going so far as to say that “the Ayatollahs, compared to the Zionists, become Doctors Without Borders.” (October 22, 2025).
  • Albanese condemned Israel’s targeted assassinations of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukr as “murders” and “acts of aggression.” (August 10, 2024).
  • Albanese deemed Israel’s targeted strike on Hamas Commander Mohammed Deif, one of the masterminds behind October 7, as “senseless massacre of Palestinian civilians.” (July 13, 2024).
  • Albanese tweeted “While we savor our #summer, #Israel continues to displace, starve, torture, and murder Palestinians…” (July 1, 2024).
  • Albanese reacted to the Israeli rescue of hostages from Gaza in June by accusing the Jewish state of “genocidal intent turned into action,” prompting a German Member of Parliament to condemn her “disgusting commentary,” adding that Albanese “must finally be removed from her position as UN Special Reporter.” (June 8, 2024). Albanese later dubbed the hostage rescue as “The #Nuseirat massacre.”
  • In honor of International Women’s Day, Albanese demonized female Israeli soldiers saying they “will be haunted forever” when they realize what they have done to Palestinian women. (March 8, 2024).
  • In December 2023, Albanese tweeted that “what Israel is doing to the Palestinians, especially in Gaza, is the “monstrosity of our century.”
  • In multiple tweets in October 2023, Albanese denied that Israel was acting in self-defense and accused it of “carpet bombing” Palestinian civilians and of “ethnic-cleansing” against Palestinians. (October 14, 21, 26, and 27, 2023).
  • Before Israel started its ground invasion, Albanese led an official UN statement by seven experts warning of “genocide” in Gaza. (October 19, 2023). Albanese had already accused Israel of genocide prior to October 7 when she endorsed a claim that Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians. (March 1, 2023). Indeed, she has been falsely accusing Israel of “genocide” since at least July 2014.
  • Less than ten days after the Hamas atrocities, and with the terrorist leaders threatening to repeat the massacre, she called Israel’s operation against Hamas a policy of “revenge” against Palestinian civilians. (October 16, 2023).
  • Albanese has equated the Palestinian “Nakba” with the Nazi Holocaust. (January 20, 2022).
  • After the Hamas-instigated war with Israel in May 2021, Albanese organized events focused on demonizing Israel, including a panel titled “Israel Apartheid Exposed: What’s Next?” (June 9, 2021).
  • Albanese accuses Israel of apartheid, including against Arab Israelis. (May 14, 2021).
  • Albanese equates Israeli bombings in Gaza with indiscriminate Hamas rockets on Israeli civilians and deems both to be war crimes – “Dropping bombs and killing civilians is a WAR CRIME (no self-defense can be invoked).” (May 14, 2021).
  • Albanese dubbed Israel’s May 2021 airstrikes on the sources of Hamas rocket fire against Israeli civilians as “horrific” and “immoral.” (May 12, 2021).

 

Rejecting Israel’s Right to Exist

  • In an interview for the Palestine Chronicle, Albanese attacked Israel’s very existence, saying the Jewish state is “in long-standing breach of the basic principles of international law, which started 70 years ago with the forced depopulation of two-thirds of the indigenous Arab population in what became the State of Israel in British Mandate Palestine.” (October 28, 2021).
  • In July 2024, Albanese called to end “Israel’s Apartheid regime,” after posting the month before that “Israel has been an apartheid state toward the Palestinians ‘ab initio,’” a complete rejection of Israel’s legitimacy and right to exist. (June-July 2024)
  • Albanese tweeted about Israel’s “violent 55 year-old occupation,” and then endorsed her follower’s correction (later deleted) that it is “74 years, not 55.” Albanese responded to the correction, tweeting “that is another story. Even more painful. Still longing for justice,” meaning, longing for justice regarding the very creation of Israel in 1948. Then Albanese liked a reply claiming that Israel’s occupation goes back more than 100 years, to the Balfour Declaration in 1917. (August 8, 2022).
  • Albanese regularly posts to reject Israel’s right to self-defense against Palestinian terrorism as a matter of international law. In a June 19, 2025 post, Albanese denied Israel’s rights to self-defense and actively sought to render Israel defenseless against Palestinian terrorism. Separately, on June 14, 2025, she rejected that Israel’s targeted strikes on Iranian nuclear and military targets constituted self-defense. (June 2025).
  • Similarly, Albanese routinely calls for arms embargos on Israel, which would ultimately prevent Israel from being able to defend against deadly Hamas terrorism like the October 7th She has been advocating for an arms embargo against Israel for years. In May 2021, she called to “end arms sales to Israel,” arguing this would “de-escalate the situation.” (May 13, 2021).

Calling to Expel Israel from the UN

  • Albanese tweeted “Time to #UnseatIsrael from the UN.” (July 18, 2024).
  • In reaction to Israeli operations against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, Albanese accused Israel of violating international law “for decades” and asked “When will Israel be #Unseated?” (October 13, 2024).
  • Albanese again pushed to expel Israel from the UN for being a “serial violator,” tweeting “Precision: unseating Israel is a consequence of it being serial violator of int’l law, including UN Charter, decisions, resolutions, administrative rules, etc.” (December 10, 2024).
  • Criticizing the Israeli Knesset legislation banning UNRWA, Albanese tweeted “It is time to UNseat Israel.” (January 22, 2025).

Publicly Supporting Terror Groups

  • Shortly after being appointed in May 2022, Albanese asserted “Palestinian violence is inevitable because the right to exist of the Palestinian people has been denied for 55 years.” (May 2022, RAI News Interview).
  • Albanese also said “Israel says ‘resistance equals terrorism’ but an occupation requires violence and generates violence. The Palestinians have no other room for dissent than violence.” (June 2022, Atreconomia).
  • Astonishingly, Albanese participated in a conference organized by the Hamas-linked “Council on International Relations -Palestine.” Speaking by video, she told the assembled terrorists, “You have a right to resist this occupation.” She added: “Israel says ‘resistance equals terrorism,’ but an occupation requires violence and generates violence.” Albanese participated in the Hamas-linked conference together with Ghazi Hamad, former Hamas Deputy Foreign Minister; Abd al-Latif al-Qanu, Hamas spokesperson; Ahmad al-Mudallal, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) leader; Khadr Habib, PIJ leader in Gaza; as well as Basem Naim and Isam al-Da’alis from Hamas. (November 2022, CIR Palestine).
  • As far back as 2014, Albanese argued for a militarized Hamas to rule Gaza, writing “Israel demands a demilitarized (and ‘de-hamasised’) Gaza. So that it can rule over it the same way it does in the West Bank.” (July 25, 2014, X).
  • In an interview with JNS, Albanese implied that the Palestinians had no other choice but to invade Israel in response to its “illegal” occupation and other violations—“So excuse me, what did the Palestinians have to do…I’m just asking what they are left with?” (December 22, 2023, JNS).
  • Albanese blamed the October 7 Hamas atrocities on Israeli policies that had “turned some of the people into these individuals full of rage and vengeance.” (May 15, 2024, DAWN).
  • Albanese repeatedly legitimized Islamic Jihad rocket attacks against Israeli civilians, instead condemning Israel’s airstrikes on the terrorist group (August 2022). She again endorsed this tweet in August 2024 when she whitewashed the Hamas October 7 atrocities, tweeting that “’The war’ did not start on October 7” and blaming Israel for all the past conflicts with Hamas. (August 10, 2024, X).
  • When the United States sanctioned the PFLP-affiliated Addameer organization, Albanese tweeted support: “My full solidarity to @Addameer.” (June 11, 2025, X).

 

Terror Groups Use and Rely on Albanese’s Reports and Statements

 

  • Basem Naim, Member of Hamas Politburo: The Hamas website Seraj TVreported that Dr. Basem Naim “expressed his appreciation” to UN Rapporteur Albanese and said “Today we listened with great care to the report of UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, which she read before the Human Rights Council, in which she noted that the Israeli military occupation has turned the entire Palestinian territories into an ‘open prison.’” (Seraj TV, July 12, 2023).
  • Jihad Taha, Hamas Spokesman: The Hamas website Seraj TVreported that Hamas spokesman Jihad Taha praised Albanese’s speech to the Human Rights Council and “renewed Hamas’s call to the international community and the United Nations to work to do justice to our people and our cause by condemning and boycotting the rogue Zionist entity.” (Seraj TV, July 11, 2023).
  • Abdul Latif al-Qanou, Hamas Spokesman:The Telegram channel of Hamas-run Al-Aqsa TV posted the following quote attributed to Hamas Spokesman Abdul Latif al-Qanou: “We commend the position of the United Nations Special Rapporteur in the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, in which she condemned the violations of the government of the gross occupation against our people.” (Al-Aqsa TV Telegram Channel, September 2, 2023).
  • Ahmed Bahar, Former Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) and Senior Hamas Leader: The Hamas website Seraj TVreported that Acting Speaker of the Legislative Council, Ahmed Bahar “praised” Albanese’s position at the Human Rights Council, as confirming the position that “the occupation is committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in occupied Palestine in violation of all international laws, charters, and norms.” (Seraj TV, July 11, 2023).
  • The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP): An official press statement from the PFLP published by the Resistance News Networkon Telegram stated that the PFLP “welcomed the report issued by the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, presented to the Human Rights Council in Geneva, and her conclusion that ‘Israel’ committed acts of genocide in the [Gaza] Strip…” (Resistance News Network Telegram Channel, March 27, 2024).
  • Hamas’s Shehab News AgencyThe Telegram channel of Hamas-affiliated Shehab News Agencyposted the following: “UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Palestine, Francesca Albanese: A Palestinian state already exists, and Israel is practicing apartheid against Palestinians and growing more brutal and sadistic towards its victims every day.” (Shehab News Agency Telegram Channel, July 22, 2024).
  • Hamas’s Shehab News AgencyThe Telegram channel of Hamas-affiliated Shehab News Agencyposted the following: “UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine, Francesca Albanese: Israel cannot claim self-defense in this conflict, and the deliberate killing of Palestinians continues and has reached a shameful stage.” (Shehab News Agency Telegram Channel, August 7, 2022).
  • Iran’s Islamic Republic News AgencyIn an article titled “Palestinians have right to resist oppression: UN rapporteur,” Iran’s Islamic Republic News Agencyreported that Albanese said, “Palestinians – like it or not – have the right to resist oppression.” (Islamic Republic News Agency, September 17, 2024).

 

For more on Albanese, click here.

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