FM Katz calls for UN special rapporteur to be fired for appearing to justify Oct. 7 massacre

UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese addresses the UN, October 2022. (Screenshot/YouTube, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese addresses the UN, October 2022. (Screenshot/YouTube, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz calls on UN chief Antonio Guterres to fire UN special rapporteur for the Palestinians Francesca Albanese, a UN official with a history of antisemitic and anti-Israel remarks, following her most recent remarks appearing to justify Hamas’s October 7 massacre and claiming it was due to “oppression.”

“The victims of 7/10 were not killed because of their Judaism, but in response to Israel’s oppression,” she wrote in a tweet responding to a Le Monde post reporting on French President Emmanuel Macron honoring the victims of Hamas’s October 7 shock onslaught, including a number of French nationals. Macron decried “the biggest antisemitic massacre of our century” as well as “rampant antisemitism” in France in the wake of the attack.

“The ‘greatest anti-Semitic massacre of our century’? No, Mr. Emmanuel Macron. The victims of 7/10 were not killed because of their Judaism, but in response to Israel’s oppression. France & the international community did nothing to prevent it. My respects to the victims,” she wrote.

The French Foreign Ministry responded to her tweet that October 7 was indeed “the largest antisemitic massacre of the 21st century” and “disputing it is a mistake.”

“Seeming to justify it, by including the name of the United Nations, is a shame. These comments are all the more scandalous since the fight against antisemitism and all forms of racism are at the heart of the founding of the UN,” the French ministry wrote.

Katz this afternoon wrote that “framing the October 7th massacre as a reaction to ‘Israeli oppression’ rather than an act of anti-Jewish hatred, is deeply troubling.”

He called on Guterres to fire Albanese “immediately.”

“The time of Jewish silence in the face of such misrepresentations has passed. We must stand strong and vocal against such narratives,” wrote Katz.

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