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UN Adviser Notorious for Anti-Israel Bias Calls for Ending Military Aid to Ukraine

Corey Walker

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Francesa Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, speaks at a conference, “A Cartography of Genocide: Israel’s Conduct in Gaza,” at the Roma Tre University, in Rome, Italy, Oct. 6, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Remo Casilli

Francesca Albanese, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Palestinian territories, is facing backlash for calling for an end to military assistance to Ukraine and arguing the war there serves a broader geopolitical interest in keeping Europe weak.

The controversy follows remarks Albanese made on September 19 at the Festival di Open in Parma, Italy. Asked about the war in Ukraine, Albanese said that she agreed with those who believe weapons shipments to Kyiv should stop and that the conflict should instead be brought back into the political arena for talks. She acknowledged that Russia invaded Ukraine and described the invasion as illegitimate, while arguing that there were broader political and geopolitical factors behind the conflict.

Albanese, who has a mandate from the UN to advise the international body on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, acknowledged last week that she did not have a solution for ending the war in Ukraine and said that she was not an expert on the conflict.

“I agree with those who believe that we need to stop sending weapons to Ukraine and bring the discussion back into the political sphere,” Albanese said.

“I don’t have the solution for ending the war,” she continued, “but I am convinced that the situation in Ukraine is being exploited to justify that horrible argument that we are already at war and that it is a hybrid war.”

The UN adviser also suggested that there was a political calculation within NATO, which she said is led by the United States, that could benefit from a weaker Europe and prolong the conflict at the cost of Ukrainian lives.

“There are a number of reasons that led to that war, but a war remains a war and it is illegitimate,” she added.

Albanese lamenting what she described as a perceived double standard in the international community’s approach to Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. She argued that international institutions were much more vigorous in applying international law to the conflict in Ukraine and suggested that the lack of sanctions applied to Israel indicated unfairness in application of such laws.

“What I said from the beginning to the diplomats I met, especially those from the Western world, was that when Russia invaded Ukraine, you applied international law exactly according to the books and manuals on how to respond to aggression, from A to Z,” she said. “How is it possible that, in the face of a case that, from the standpoint of aggression, presents similarities — I’m not saying the situations are the same, but there is still an act of aggression — such as Israel’s against Palestine, the same thing is not done?”

Critics were quick to castigate Albanese for her comments.

“Russian propaganda immediately seized on Albanese’s words and her UN title to validate Moscow’s narrative,” UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer said in a statement. “Having acknowledged Russia’s aggression, she insinuated that there were ‘reasons’ for it and then sought to deprive its victim of the means to defend itself.”

Russia Direct, which is a Russian propaganda social media account, quickly reposted Albanese’s remarks while spotlighting her position  as a UN rapporteur.

Journalist Oz Katerji slammed Albanese as someone who “apologizes” for anti-regimes in Syria, Russia, and Iran, as well as for the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah. “So, of course she thinks Ukraine should be cut off from arms,” he added on social media.

Palestinian activist Ihab Hassan quoted Albanese as saying in 2024 that “the situation in Ukraine falls out of my mandate, and I cannot comment on that,” before noting that “she is publicly arguing that weapons shipments to Ukraine should stop.” He then asked, “So, what changed?”

Albanese has repeatedly presented the Gaza conflict through the framework of international law and alleged double standards. Her critics argue that her public interventions frequently move beyond the narrowly defined role of a UN special rapporteur and into political advocacy.

The UN’s special rapporteur system is designed to provide independent expertise on specific human-rights situations. Albanese’s mandate concerns human rights in the Palestinian territories, rather than European security or the Russia-Ukraine war.

Albanese, an Italian lawyer and academic, has held her current position since 2022. It authorizes her to monitor and report on alleged “human rights violations” that Israel supposedly commits against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

Critics of Albanese have long accused her of exhibiting an excessive anti-Israel bias, calling into question her fairness and neutrality.

Albanese has an extensive history of using her role at the UN to denigrate Israel and seemingly rationalize the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s attacks on the Jewish state.

In the months following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, atrocities across southern Israel, Albanese accused Israel of committing “genocide” against the Palestinian people in revenge for the attacks and circulated a widely derided and heavily disputed report alleging that 186,000 people had been killed in the Gaza war as a result of Israeli actions.

The United Nations launched a probe into Albanese in 2024 for allegedly accepting a trip to Australia funded by pro-Hamas organizations. She also celebrated the anti-Israel protesters rampaging across US college campuses, saying they represented a “revolution” and gave her “hope.”

While speaking at a Washington, DC bookstore in October, Albanese also accused Israel of weaponizing the fallout of the Oct. 7 slaughters to justify the continued “colonization” of Gaza.

Citing her alleged antisemitism and intense anti-Israel posture, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on Albanese in 2025.

“Today I am imposing sanctions on UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese for her illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt [International Criminal Court] action against US and Israeli officials, companies, and executives,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on X in July 2025.

“Albanese’s campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated,” he added. “We will always stand by our partners in their right to self-defense.”

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