Trump administration says it’s concentrating on Francesca Albanese for encouraging ICC conflict crime prosecution in opposition to Israel’s Netanyahu.
Washington, DC – The administration of United States President Donald Trump has imposed sanctions on United Nations skilled Francesca Albanese over her documentation of Israel’s abuses in opposition to Palestinians throughout its conflict on Gaza.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio introduced the penalties on Wednesday, accusing Albanese of waging a “marketing campaign of political and financial warfare in opposition to america and Israel”.
Albanese, who serves as UN particular rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, has been a number one international voice in calling for motion to finish Israel’s human rights violations.
Israel and its supporters have been rebuking Albanese and calling for her to be faraway from her UN place for years.
Earlier on Wednesday, she known as out European governments for permitting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – who is needed by the Worldwide Legal Court docket (ICC) for conflict crime costs in Gaza – to use their airspace whereas travelling.
“Italian, French and Greek residents need to know that each political motion violating the [international] authorized order, weakens and endangers all of them. And all of us,” Albanese wrote in a social media put up.
Rubio cited Albanese’s push for the prosecution of Israeli officers on the ICC because the authorized foundation for the sanctions.
Trump had issued an govt order in February to impose penalties on ICC officers concerned in “concentrating on” Israel.
Final month, the Trump administration sanctioned four ICC judges.
On Wednesday, Rubio accused Albanese of anti-Semitism.
“That bias has been obvious throughout the span of her profession, together with recommending that the ICC, with out a professional foundation, concern arrest warrants concentrating on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Protection Minister Yoav Gallant,” he mentioned.
The ICC charged Netanyahu and Gallant with crimes in opposition to humanity and conflict crimes in Gaza for depriving Palestinians within the enclave of “objects indispensable to their survival, together with meals, water, and drugs”.
Rubio additionally highlighted a recent report by Albanese that documented the function of worldwide firms, together with US corporations, within the Israeli assault on Gaza, which she describes as a genocide.
“We is not going to tolerate these campaigns of political and financial warfare, which threaten our nationwide pursuits and sovereignty,” the highest US diplomat mentioned.
Trump’s ICC decree freezes the property of focused people within the US and bans them and their speedy members of the family from coming into the nation.
Nancy Okail, head of the Heart for Worldwide Coverage (CIP) suppose tank, decried the sanctions in opposition to Albanese as “devastating”.
“Sanctioning a UN skilled offers the sign that america is performing like dictatorships and rogue states,” Okail instructed Al Jazeera.
Over the previous 21 months, Israel’s US-backed campaign in Gaza has levelled many of the territory and killed a minimum of 57,575 Palestinians, in keeping with native well being officers.