Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) CEO Sacha Roytman Dratwa sent a letter on Friday to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk demanding the removal of Francesca Albanese from her role as “Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”
Highlighting false claims made by Albanese against the Israeli military during its recent operation against terrorist groups in the Palestinian city of Jenin, Roytman Dratwa noted such rhetoric “abets the spread of misinformation and outright lies that often seep into mainstream media reporting.”
Furthermore, he added, “Albanese’s baseless and unhinged vilification of Israel also fuels antisemitic hatred and real-world threats endangering Jewish communities across the globe.”
“Not once has Special Rapporteur Albanese condemned the brutal and relentless wave of Palestinian terrorism that has targeted Israeli civilians in recent years,” the letter continued. “And the facts show that all Palestinian fatalities in Jenin this past week were combatants affiliated with internationally-recognized terrorist groups. The condemnation that Israel has received for this surgical counter-terror operation is proof that it is held to a standard applied to no other country in the world.”
Roytman Dratwa pointed out that International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism “includes the example of ‘applying double standards by requiring of Israel a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.'”
“Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese’s obsessive disdain for Israel — including her comparisons of Israelis to Nazis, another example of antisemitism according to the IHRA definition — undermines the UN’s welcome efforts to fight anti-Jewish bigotry,” he emphasized. “Therefore, we urge you to immediately dismiss Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese from her position, as she has determinatively shown she cannot fulfill her mandate in good faith due to her lack of impartiality.”
Read the letter in full here.
