The US State Department announced on Wednesday that he will issue sanctions against a UN rapporteur accusing Israel of committing “genocide” against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The Italian Francesca Albanese, the target of the measures, is a special rapporteur for the United Nations for West Bank and Gaza. She has been recurrently expressing herself about what she classifies as “genocide” committed by Israeli military in the long war against Hamas in the Palestinian enclave.
In recent weeks, Albanese has sent several letters by putting up countries to press Israel for the end of the conflict, including through sanctions.
The Italian was already defending actions against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli authorities in the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes.
United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the UN rapporteur uses “blatant anti -Semitism” in his statements and conducts a “campaign” against Israel.
“Francesca’s political and economic campaign against US and Israel will no longer be tolerated. We will always support our partners in their right to self-defense,” said the head of US diplomacy on social network X.
United States sanctions are based on an executive order signed in February by President Donald Trump, which aims to block assets and remove American visas from anyone who collaborates in the ICC investigation of Israel.
In a statement, Rubio accused Albanese of “directly collaborated” with the ICC to issue arrest orders against Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes in Gaza.
In a recent report, Italian claimed that large investment companies, such as Blackrock or Vanguard, have committed “serious violations of international law” for profiting from an alleged “genocide economy.”
