The Italian academic and UN Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories has been returned to the US Treasury’s blacklist over alleged anti-Semitism. It bars Francesca Albanese from credit card use and banking transactions with American institutions.
The United States government has successfully appealed a court order requiring the removal of Francesca Albanese from the Treasury Department’s sanctions blacklist. This reinstates financial restrictions on the Italian academic who serves as United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories.
The sanctions, imposed over allegations of anti-Semitism, bar all US persons and companies from conducting business with Albanese. In practical terms, the measures prevent her from using major credit cards or carrying out banking transactions with American institutions.
Albanese does not hold back on statements
Albanese drew the designation primarily as a result of her public statements that Israel’s actions in Gaza amount to genocide, and her broader commentary on Israeli policy in the occupied Palestinian territories. She has maintained and reiterated these statements in the face of sustained political pressure.
On Wednesday, the day before the sanctions news broke, Albanese appeared in Milan to present a book, using the occasion to restate some of her most contested arguments. She said that the Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023 were in part a consequence of “the impunity granted to Israel, which has maintained an illegal occupation for 70 years”.
Albanese, who is from Bari and holds a background in international law, was appointed UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territories occupied since 1967 in 2022. The mandate is an independent expert role within the UN human rights system; rapporteurs serve in a personal capacity and are not UN staff.
Her designation by the US Treasury is part of a broader pattern of sanctions applied by the Trump administration to officials and institutions it regards as hostile to Israel. They include the International Criminal Court prosecutors who issued arrest warrants for Israeli leaders.
