"A lawyer heading the UN Human Rights Council’s open-ended investigation into Israel’s treatment of Palestinians said Saturday that Israel does not have the right to self-defense against Palestinians, after two deadly terror attacks and volleys of rocket fire against Israel.
Other UN human rights bodies have also been mum about terrorism and rockets — also fired from Lebanon and Syria — over the past week, while criticizing Israel.
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, said ‘the loss of life in the [occupied Palestinian territories and] Israel is devastating, especially at a time that should be of peace for all, Christians, Jews, Muslims.’
‘Israel has a right to defend itself, but can’t claim it when it comes to the people it oppresses/whose lands it colonizes,’ Albanese said on Twitter. Albanese regularly refers to Israel as a colonial enterprise that subjugates Palestinians, and rejects the conflict paradigm, assigning Israel sole responsibility for all disputes.
She said she was ‘saddened’ by the death of a tourist in a suspected terror attack in Tel Aviv on Friday, without assigning any responsibility. The tourist, Alessandro Parini, and Albanese are both Italian. All three fatalities in the recent attacks were civilians.
Albanese has not mentioned the recent rocket barrages or a terror attack that killed two sisters in the West Bank on Friday, but has repeatedly lashed Israel over the past week, including by calling for an International Criminal Court investigation into Israel.
Albanese has a history of antisemitism, which she has not explicitly apologized for, denouncing criticism of her rhetoric as a smear campaign.
The UN Human Rights Council, based in Geneva, has repeatedly criticized Israel over the past week, mostly for Israeli police forcefully removing Palestinian rioters from the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s flashpoint Temple Mount, but does not appear to have made any mention of Palestinian terror or rockets.
The Twitter accounts for the UN Human Rights Council, UN Special Procedures, UN Human Rights MENA, and UN Geneva have all shared anti-Israel content in the past week, but none has mentioned violence against Israel.
The UN Human Rights Council and Albanese’s office did not respond to requests for comment from The Times of Israel..."