Oops, she did it again: Francesca Albanese has once compared Israel to National Socialism. On Thursday, the »UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Territories of Palestine«, used X (formerly Twitter) to comment on a collage of images in which Adolf Hitler and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are cropped together. Her comment: »That’s exactly what I was thinking today.«

The fact that Albanese thinks this way - and not just »today«, but presumably every day - has actually been known for quite a while. The Italian human rights lawyer repeatedly equates the actions of the Israeli military and government with those of the Nazis. She puts the »Nakba«, the flight and expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the course of a war started by Arab states, on the same level as the Shoah, the genocide of six million Jews.

Hostile to Israel

For Albanese, of course, this is not antisemitism. She vehemently rejects accusations of this kind and likes to defend Hamas against them as well. According to her, October 7th, the biggest massacre on Jews since the Shoah, was in no way motivated by antisemitism. It was solely a »reaction to the oppression by Israel«, the U.N. rapporteur wrote on X in February.

Only once, even she was forced to engage in backpadeling: In an open letter in 2014, she had written that the USA was »subjugated by the Jewish lobby«. This had been »an unfortunate choice of words«, she later admitted. »Israel lobby« was a better term.

So far, neither Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock nor her ministry have issued an up-to-date statement on Albanese.

Neutral vs. Anti-Israel Activist

After Albanese’s latest classification of Israel as one of the worst criminal regimes in human history, the question once again arises as to whether she is the right person for the job. According to the U.N.’s code of conduct, special rapporteurs must be neutral. Albanese, however, is an anti-Israel activist.

Obviously, the United Nations are not much better than the sum of their member states. The majority of them are hostile to Israel. This is particularly true of the body that appointed Albanese to office in 2022: Since its inception, the UN Human Rights Council has condemned Israel in resolutions more often than all other countries in the world combined. Prejudice against the Jewish state should not be an obstacle to her appointment as special rapporteur, but rather a prerequisite.

Balance of Power

As right as the demands to finally dismiss Albanese are, they seem hopeless in view of the balance of power in the U.N.. It is unlikely that this latest Nazi-Israel equation of all things will be her undoing. That is because she is surrounded by like-minded people at the United Nations. The creator of the Hitler collage also states in his X profile that he once worked for the world organization.

In Germany, many are now turning their attention to the Foreign Ministry: Annalena Baerbock must increase the pressure on the U.N. Human Rights Council. So far, neither she nor her ministry has issued an up-to-date statement on Albanese.

Without question, it would suit the green Minister well to make it clear once again how little an Israel-hating U.N. rapporteur corresponds to the wishes of the German government. But would that bring about a premature end to Albanese’s term in office? Hardly.