Trump administration says it’s concentrating on Francesca Albanese for encouraging ICC warfare crime prosecution in opposition to Israel’s Netanyahu.
Washington, DC – The administration of United States President Donald Trump has imposed sanctions on United Nations knowledgeable Francesca Albanese over her documentation of Israel’s abuses in opposition to Palestinians throughout its warfare 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 world 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 Felony Courtroom (ICC) for warfare 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 4 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 no reputable foundation, difficulty arrest warrants concentrating on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Protection Minister Yoav Gallant,” he stated.
The ICC charged Netanyahu and Gallant with crimes in opposition to humanity and warfare 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 current report by Albanese that documented the position 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 stated.
Trump’s ICC decree freezes the property of focused people within the US and bans them and their rapid members of the family from getting into the nation.
Nancy Okail, head of the Middle for Worldwide Coverage (CIP) assume tank, decried the sanctions in opposition to Albanese as “devastating”.
“Sanctioning a UN knowledgeable offers the sign that america is performing like dictatorships,” Okail instructed Al Jazeera.
That is rogue state habits.
You can not say you’re for the rule of regulation or any kind of worldwide order should you assist this.
Even should you assume Netanyahu isn’t responsible, punishing the ICC or these engaged in its due course of places you on the facet of dictators and warfare criminals. https://t.co/aflPVyC6b3
— Dylan Williams (@dylanotes) July 9, 2025
Over the previous 21 months, Israel’s US-backed marketing campaign in Gaza has levelled many of the territory and killed not less than 57,575 Palestinians, in line with native well being officers.