France to demand Francesca Albanese's resignation at upcoming U.N. Human Rights Council session

"France will demand the resignation of UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese during the United Nations Human Rights Council session on February 23, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot announced during a parliament meeting earlier this week.

The decision comes as result of Albanese’s antisemitic remarks at Saturday’s Al Jazeera Forum, where she spoke alongside a ‘representative of Hamas and a representative of the Iranian government while the repression continues.’

Her comments, Barrot said, ‘target not the Israeli government, whose policies can be criticized, but Israel as a people and as a nation, which is absolutely unacceptable.’

Barrot noted that Albanese’s words ‘add to a long list of scandalous positions, justifying October 7, the worst antisemitic massacre in our history since the Holocaust, mentioning the ‘Jewish Lobby’ and comparing Israel to the Third Reich.’

‘She presents herself as a UN independent expert, yet she is neither an expert nor independent — she is a political activist who stirs up hate speech and undermines the cause of the Palestinian people that she claims to defend.’

French Parliment Member Caroline Yadan further noted in a Thursday post to X/Twitter that herself, alongside fifty other members of Parliament sent a letter to Barrot demanding Albanese be immediately removed from all UN mandates.

Yadan explained that the letter was sent in response to Albanese’s repeated ‘positions marked by radical rhetoric’ which are ‘incompatible with the requirements of neutrality, impartiality and credibility attached to this mandate.’

‘By recently describing Israel as an ‘enemy of humanity’, she has crossed an additional threshold, fitting into rhetoric that constitutes contemporary forms of antisemitism,’ Yadan went on, referencing Albanese’s remarks at the Saturday forum.

‘This situation cannot continue,’ Yadan pressed. ‘France must work to ensure that sanctions are imposed and that Francesca Albanese is immediately removed from any United Nations mandate.’..."