France calls on UN rapporteur Albanese to resign over ‘common enemy’ Israel remarks |
PARIS, France — France was calling for the resignation of the UN special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories over comments she made targeting Israel at a conference, the French foreign minister said on Wednesday.
“France unreservedly condemns the outrageous and reprehensible remarks made by Ms. Francesca Albanese, which are directed not at the Israeli government, whose policies may be criticized, but at Israel as a people and as a nation, which is absolutely unacceptable,” Jean-Noel Barrot told French lawmakers.
Speaking via videoconference at a forum Saturday in Doha, Qatar, organized by the Al Jazeera network, Albanese referred to a “common enemy” that enabled the “genocide” in Gaza.
“The fact that instead of stopping Israel, most of the world has armed [Israel], given Israel political excuses, political sheltering, [and] economic and financial support,” she said.
“We who do not control large amounts of financial capital, algorithms, and weapons — we now see that we as a humanity have a common enemy,” she continued.
On Wednesday, Albanese defended herself in an interview with TV channel France 24 that was recorded before Barrot’s statement, denouncing what she called “completely false accusations” and........