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The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) is calling for the firing of Francesca Albanese from her role as “United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories” after a recent “X” post in which she likened Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
Replying to a July 24 tweet posted by human rights lawyer Craig Mokhiber, with juxtaposed pictures of Netanyahu and Hitler accompanied by the caption, “History is always watching,” Albanese — who has a long record of antisemitic sentiment — wrote, “This is precisely what I was thinking today.”
This is precisely what I was thinking today.
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) July 24, 2024
“This comparison is deeply troubling and constitutes Holocaust distortion as well as antisemitism,” CAM CEO Sacha Roytman noted in a letter sent to United Nations Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations Miguel Ángel Moratinos earlier this week. “The Holocaust was a unique atrocity in human history, and comparing current Israeli political figures to Hitler not only diminishes the gravity of the genocide perpetrated by the Nazis but also assigns blame to Jews for the horrific massacre that was committed against them by the Hamas terrorist organization on October 7th.”
“This analogy makes a mockery of history and desecrates the memory of the millions of victims of the Holocaust,” Roytman added. “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli actions to those of the Nazis is a manifestation of contemporary antisemitism, according to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism. As you know, the IHRA definition of antisemitism is used by the European Union, the United States, and more than 40 other UN member states.”
“As a grandchild of Holocaust survivors myself, seeing this comment made publicly by a UN Representative, with a repetitive history of antisemitic comments, is truly shocking,” Roytman noted. “This rhetoric legitimizes hostility toward Jews worldwide, who are already facing unprecedented threat levels. Promoting accurate knowledge about the Holocaust is crucial to the collective effort to combat antisemitism and foster mutual respect and social harmony among all peoples and nations.”
Roytman concluded, “I urge the United Nations to address Special Rapporteur Albanese’s disturbing behavior and uphold its commitment to fighting antisemitism in all its forms.”
Albanese’s public expressions of antisemitism date as far back to 2014, when commenting on Israel’s Operation Protective Edge against the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip she asserted, “America and Europe, one of them subjugated by the Jewish Lobby, and the other by the sense of guilt about the Holocaust, remain on the sidelines.”
Roytman previously called for Albanese’s firing last July after she made false claims about Israeli military activities against Palestinian terrorist groups in the West Bank city of Jenin,
