By: Fern Sidman

In a landmark move that highlights the intensifying clash between Western democracies and international bodies accused of weaponizing human rights discourse, the United States has formally imposed sanctions on United Nations Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, citing what it calls her “illegitimate and shameful efforts” to instigate International Criminal Court (ICC) proceedings against American and Israeli officials, private entities, and national institutions.

Announced Wednesday by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the sanctions mark the culmination of a months-long campaign by the Trump administration to hold Albanese accountable for what officials have termed a sustained campaign of “lawfare”—legal warfare—waged through her UN platform in favor of Palestinian terrorist narratives and against Western democracies.

“Francesca Albanese’s campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated,” Secretary Rubio stated bluntly in a post shared across multiple platforms. “We will always stand by our partners in their right to self-defense.”

According to a report on Wednesday in The Times of Israel, the sanctions will target Albanese’s access to financial institutions under U.S. jurisdiction and may bar her entry into the United States. The move also opens the door to potential secondary sanctions against individuals or organizations seen as materially supporting her activities.

Rubio’s office framed the action as part of a broader U.S. policy to confront what it sees as creeping abuses of international legal mechanisms by ideologically driven actors within the UN system. “The United States will continue to take whatever actions we deem necessary to respond to lawfare and protect our sovereignty and that of our allies,” he added.

The Times of Israel report noted that Albanese, an Italian academic and legal scholar, has drawn widespread condemnation from Israeli officials and Jewish advocacy groups for her inflammatory rhetoric—particularly her characterization of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza as “genocide.” She has repeatedly dismissed the legitimacy of Israeli self-defense operations, while framing the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre of Israeli civilians as a reaction rooted in “decades of oppression imposed on the Palestinians.”

That massacre, which left over 1,200 Israelis dead and saw more than 250 hostages taken into Gaza, was met with near-universal international condemnation, with leaders from across the political spectrum denouncing it as one of the most barbaric terrorist attacks in modern history. Yet Albanese’s public statements since have, in the words of a senior Israeli diplomat cited by The Times of Israel, “amounted to rhetorical exoneration of crimes against humanity.”

In July, the Trump administration penned a letter to United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres calling for Albanese’s removal from her post. The letter, obtained by The Times of Israel, accuses Albanese of “virulent antisemitism and support for terrorism,” citing both her public remarks and reports of her private associations.

Among the letter’s allegations were claims that Albanese’s office had facilitated confidential briefings for legal organizations affiliated with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, some of which have open ties to groups designated as terrorist organizations by the U.S. and Israel. While Albanese has denied any wrongdoing, she has not refuted the substance of those allegations.

Israeli Foreign Ministry officials, speaking anonymously to The Times of Israel, welcomed the U.S. action as a “long-overdue correction of a grotesque double standard.” “The idea that a UN official can call for ICC prosecutions of Israeli and American soldiers while ignoring Hamas atrocities is morally obscene,” one senior official said.

Legal scholars and UN insiders contacted by The Times of Israel expressed concern that Albanese’s continued role could further erode the credibility of the Special Rapporteur mechanism itself—a platform ostensibly created to promote impartial human rights reporting, but which in this case has become, in the words of one former UN Human Rights Council staffer, “an unfiltered megaphone for radical anti-Western ideologies.”

Critics argue that Albanese’s conduct exceeds the bounds of permissible criticism and ventures into the terrain of advocacy that aligns disturbingly with terrorist talking points. In particular, her persistent refusal to acknowledge Hamas as a terrorist organization has alienated even moderate voices in the international human rights community.

The Times of Israel report also noted that bipartisan frustration with Albanese has reached a crescendo. While previous sanctions against UN officials were largely symbolic or reserved for situations involving foreign adversaries like Iran or North Korea, the move against Albanese signals a more assertive U.S. posture toward alleged bias within multilateral institutions themselves.

Notably, this latest action comes amid growing pressure from Jewish organizations, including the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and the Simon Wiesenthal Center, both of which have long decried Albanese’s rhetoric and what they view as her blatant misuse of the UN’s moral authority.

“Sanctioning Francesca Albanese is not just a policy decision—it is a moral imperative,” a spokesperson for the American Jewish Committee told The Times of Israel. “The United Nations should be a bulwark against extremism, not a platform for it.”

For its part, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has yet to respond formally to the sanctions or to calls for Albanese’s removal, though internal sources suggest Guterres is under significant pressure to review her mandate ahead of the UN General Assembly session this fall.

Whether the sanctions will curtail Albanese’s influence remains to be seen. But one thing is clear: the United States—backed by its closest ally in the Middle East—has drawn a red line. As The Times of Israel report indicated: “Washington has moved from mere disapproval to active countermeasures, signaling a new era in how America confronts institutional antisemitism disguised as human rights advocacy.”

In the words of a senior administration official: “Enough is enough.”