Israel slams UN official over Netanyahu-Hitler comparison

Special rapporteur Francesca Albanese has previously called for sanctions on Israel’s prime minister

Israel has slammed Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, for “anti-Semitism” after she endorsed a social media post comparing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler.

On Thursday, Albanese responded to a post on X (formerly Twitter), showing Hitler surrounded by a cheering crowd, above a photo of Netanyahu being greeted in the US Congress this week.

“History is always watching,” Craig Mokhiber, a former UN human rights official, wrote in the post. Mokhiber resigned late last October, accusing the world body of failing to prevent the “genocide” of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

“This is precisely what I was thinking today,” Albanese said in response on Thursday.

Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress in Washington on Wednesday to defend Israel’s war in Gaza, in which more than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Palestinian enclave’s Health Ministry.

Israel launched its military operation in October last year after Palestinian militant group Hamas killed around 1,100 people and took 250 hostages in a surprise attack on the Jewish state.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry was quick to respond to the social media discussion, slamming Albanese on X as being “beyond redemption” and accusing her of using “the UN as a shield to spread anti-Semitism.”

Israel’s mission to the UN in Geneva also hit out at Albanese, saying, “the system is rotten to its core” when “a current UN ‘expert’ endorses Holocaust distortion” spread by the former UN rights office director.

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Israel’s new ambassador in Geneva, Daniel Meron, also weighed in, saying Albanese “abuses” her UN title to spread “hatred and inflammatory rhetoric.”

Albanese has faced harsh criticism from Israel in the past, including this March after she presented a report concluding that there were “reasonable grounds” to believe Israel had crossed the red line of committing “genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza. After the release of the report, which Israel rejected, Albanese said she had received threats.

Roughly half of House and Senate Democrats skipped Netanyahu’s Wednesday’s address, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, according to an Axios headcount. Pelosi called the speech the “worst” in Congress’ history, denouncing the Israeli leader’s lack of progress toward a ceasefire and a hostage deal with Hamas.