(Geneva) Israel on Friday accused an independent UN expert of “anti-Semitism” after she endorsed a message on the social network X by a former UN official comparing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler.
In recent months, Israeli authorities have repeatedly criticised the Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories, Italy’s Francesca Albanese, particularly after she spoke of “genocide” in Gaza.
The expert, who is mandated by the UN Human Rights Council but does not speak on behalf of the organisation, has this time drawn criticism from Israel and the United States for endorsing a message on X showing two photos, one of Hitler surrounded by a crowd saluting him and the other of Mr Netanyahu appearing to be surrounded by members of the US Congress during his visit this week.
“History is always watching us,” wrote the author of the post, Craig Mokhiber, a former UN human rights official who resigned in late 2023, denouncing the organization’s failure to stop the “genocide” of Palestinians.
Commenting on his publication, Mme Albanese responded: “That is precisely what I thought today.” Several Israeli officials on Thursday and Friday denounced his remarks and called for his departure.
The Israeli foreign minister said it was “inconceivable” that she “is still allowed to use the UN as a shield to spread anti-Semitism”: “Once again, she is spreading vile hatred and sullying the memory of the Holocaust.”
The new Israeli ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Daniel Meron, accused him of “abusing” his UN title “to spread hatred and inflammatory statements.”
“Francesca Albanese shows no signs of neutrality or impartiality and cannot serve as a UN human rights expert,” he wrote. US Ambassador Michele Taylor also judged on X that “the comparison of Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler is reprehensible and anti-Semitic.”
The UN Rapporteur responded to these accusations, saying that “the memory of the Holocaust remains intact.”
“Institutional diatribes and displays of selective moral indignation will not stop the course of justice, which is finally underway,” she added.
The war was triggered on October 7 by an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on Israeli soil, which resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data.
In response, Israel launched a major air and ground offensive in Gaza, which left more than 39,000 people dead, mostly civilians, according to data from the Health Ministry of the Hamas-led Gaza government.