The Campaign Against Francesca Albanese And The Politics Of Accountability |
Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, is being asked to resign by France, Germany, Italy, Austria and the Czech Republic, all because of comments she never made. The controversy began after Albanese spoke at a conference in Doha, but an edited clip of her remarks was then circulated by the pro-Israel advocacy group called UN Watch.
The manipulated clip made it appear as though Albanese had described Israel as “the common enemy of humanity.” The countries calling for Albanese’s resignation did not check the fake viral video for authenticity.
On 16 February 2026, UN staffers defended Albanese against attacks from European ministers. But Albanese and International Criminal Court (ICC) officials face sanctions, asset freezes, and banking blackouts after she accused major US firms of collaborating in Israel’s Gaza genocide. She is facing sanctions from the US, despite the UN’s insistence that she has diplomatic immunity.
The US has added her name, along with ICC staff, to the US Treasury Department’s Specially Designated Nationals list, alongside suspected terrorists, drug traffickers and arms dealers.
The US openly admits that it sanctioned ICC staff for their attempts to investigate crimes by Israel’s leaders in Gaza and by the US military in Afghanistan.
Albanese wrote letters to the US’s most powerful companies and warned them about contributing to gross human rights violations by Israel in Gaza and the West Bank.
The report titled “From economy of occupation to economy of genocide: Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967” was prepared by Albanese and published on 2 July 2025.
The report explains that colonial endeavours and associated genocides were historically driven and enabled by the corporate sector, and that commercial interests contributed to the dispossession of indigenous people from their lands, which is known as “colonial racial capitalism”.
The report argues that the same is true of Israeli colonisation of Palestinian lands, its expansion into the occupied Palestinian territory and its institutionalisation of a regime of settler-colonial apartheid.
A 2025 report disclosed that a British construction company chaired by a major Conservative Party donor manufactured bulldozers used to demolish Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank and Muslim homes in India and occupied Kashmir
A 2025 report disclosed that a British construction company chaired by a major Conservative Party donor manufactured bulldozers used to demolish Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank and Muslim homes in India and occupied Kashmir
The report further explains the role of corporate entities in sustaining the illegal Israeli occupation and its ongoing genocidal campaign in Gaza, and focuses on how corporate interests underpin the Israeli settler-colonial twofold logic of displacement and replacement aimed at dispossessing and erasing Palestinians from their lands.
The report discusses corporate entities in sectors such as arms manufacturers, technology firms, building and construction companies, service industries, banks, pension funds, insurers, universities and charities, as they enable the denial of self-determination and other structural violations in the occupied Palestinian territory, including occupation, annexation and crimes of apartheid and genocide, along with ancillary crimes and human rights violations such as discrimination, wanton destruction, forced displacement, pillage, extrajudicial killing and starvation.
In the past, the “Control Council Law No. 10” proceedings, which were the twelve trials conducted after the Nuremberg Trials by the US Army between 1946 and 1947, prosecuted 185 individuals from the German elite, including members of the Schutzstaffel (SS), the civil service, the officer corps, the military and industrial spheres, and the medical profession.
These trials are important as corporations and leading industrialists in Nazi Germany were prosecuted for the first time on charges of human rights violations.
In the “Flick Case”, some of the biggest corporate groups in the world at the time were charged for profiting from the use of slave labour.
In the “IG Farben Trial”, a private German chemicals company allied with the Nazis that manufactured the Zyklon B gas used to commit genocide against millions of European Jews, Roma, socialists and other innocent civilians in the Holocaust was prosecuted.
Similarly, the “Krupp Trial” dealt with the forced labour enterprises of the Krupp Group and other crimes committed by the company.
Several companies of US origin collaborated with Nazi Germany in committing atrocities, displaying the horrific face of unchecked and unregulated corporate greed.
The present day and age, unfortunately, is not very different. In 2023, South Africa approached the International Court of Justice against Israel, alleging violations of the Genocide Convention, while Genocide Watch warned about the genocide of Muslims in India in 2022.
Bulldozers have reportedly become a weapon of India’s Hindu ultranationalist Bharatiya Janata Party to destroy the homes and livelihoods of Indian Muslims. Arundhati Roy has called out the use of bulldozers against Muslim homes and businesses for purely punitive reasons.
A 2025 report disclosed that a British construction company chaired by a major Conservative Party donor manufactured bulldozers used to demolish Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank and Muslim homes in India and occupied Kashmir.
The family of Albanese has sued the Trump administration over US sanctions imposed on her last year, arguing that the sanctions are an effort to punish her for bringing into the limelight the rights abuses Israel has committed against Palestinians.
More than 100 prominent artists have signed an open letter in Albanese’s support. She has exposed the true face of capitalism in her report, but it is uncertain whether the private sector will be prosecuted for collaborating with Israel in committing genocide.
While the ICC is facing sanctions, the UN is facing a financial crisis, thereby threatening its existence and making the future of human rights and international law uncertain and bleak.