After UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese expressed support on X, formerly Twitter, this week for a post comparing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler, American UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield renewed calls for Albanese’s removal from the international body.
On Thursday, former UN human rights official Craig Mokhiber posted on X a photo of Hitler raising his hand while moving through a crowd on top of a photo of Netanyahu amid a crowd of congresspeople at his Congressional address.
UN Special Rapporteur Albanese is beyond redemption. Once again she spreads vile hatred and abuses the memory of the Holocaust. It is inconceivable that @FranceskAlbs is still allowed to use the @UN as a shield to spread antisemitism. #UNseatAlbanese pic.twitter.com/Gy4kHi3KNp
— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) July 25, 2024
Netanyahu’s photo was edited to be black and white to match the above photo of Hitler. The post bore the caption, “History is always watching.”
In response, Albanese wrote, “This is precisely what I was thinking today.”
The comment from the UN Special Rapporteur was met with a flurry of condemnation.
United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations Human Rights Council, Michele Taylor, posted a graphic to X that read “Special rapporteurs should be striving to improve human rights challenges, not employing dehumanizing rhetoric.”
Along with the image, Taylor wrote, “UN Special Rapporteur @FranceskAlbs’s comparison of Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler is reprehensible and antisemitic. There should be no place for such dehumanizing rhetoric. Special rapporteurs should be striving to improve human rights challenges, not inflame them.”
Thomas-Greenfield reposted Taylor’s post and wrote, “There is no place for antisemitism from UN-affiliated officials tasked with promoting human rights. While the United States has never supported Francesca Albanese’s mandate, it is clear she is not fit for this or any position at the UN.”
There is no place for antisemitism from UN-affiliated officials tasked with promoting human rights. While the United States has never supported Francesca Albanese’s mandate, it is clear she is not fit for this or any position at the UN. https://t.co/d70cv54q57
— Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield (@USAmbUN) July 26, 2024
In a 2022 article on comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany, the World Jewish Congress noted that comparisons of Israeli prime ministers to Hitler are a modern-day manifestation of Holocaust inversion.
The American officials’ condemnations were not the only ones. Other officials, representatives of NGOs, and other X users alike also denounced Mokhiber and Albanese’s comments.
Israel’s foreign ministry wrote, “UN Special Rapporteur Albanese is beyond redemption. Once again she spreads vile hatred and abuses the memory of the Holocaust. It is inconceivable that @FranceskAlbs is still allowed to use the @UN as a shield to spread antisemitism.”
In reply, Albanese stated, “The Memory of the #Holocaust remains intact and sacred thank[s] to people of conscience worldwide. Institutional rants and outburst[s] of selective moral outrage will not stop the course of #Justice, which is finally in motion.”
The Memory of the #Holocaust remains intact and sacred thank to people of conscience worldwide.Institutional rants and outburst of selective moral outrage will not stop the course of #Justice, which is finally in motion.#ICC #ICJ#NeverAgain#StopGenocideInGazaNow… https://t.co/irkKiKYUeV
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) July 26, 2024
Among the hashtags accompanying the post were “#NeverAgain” and “#StopGenocideInGazaNow.”
International human rights lawyer Hillel Neuer wrote, “UN official Francesca Albanese compares Israel’s PM to Hitler. She believes “the Jewish lobby” controls America, BBC has “the Israeli lobby inside your veins” & Hamas has a “right to resist. We call on all democracies to demand her immediate removal.”
Neuer is the executive director of United Nations Watch, the NGO that last month published a report alleging Albanese had been operating an international network aimed at targeting Israel.
Israeli Special Envoy for Combatting Antisemitism Michal Cotler-Wunsh reposted Neur’s statement adding, “Last week, led by @StateSEAS, 35 countries adopted Global Guidelines to Combat Antisemitism at the 30 year commemoration to @InfoAMIA bombing, & in context of the TSUNAMI of antisemitism raging globally – fuelled by the SAME lethal hate. This is UNACCEPTABLE.”
In her post, Cotler-Wunsh tagged Miguel Moratinos, the head of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations.
In response to backlash to his post on X, Mokhiber slammed the “mostly German trolls” and the “defenders of Netanyahu & his genocide,” adding, “The world knows the truth. No one falls for this silly Israel lobby trick anymore. Israel is on trial for genocide in the ICJ. Netanyahu is charged by the ICC prosecutor with crimes against humanity, including extermination. “Never again” is for everybody. If that offends you, you are on the wrong side of history.”
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