Middle East Monitor / December 3, 2022
Israeli occupation authorities are deciding whether to bar Francesca Albanese, the special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied Since 1967, from entering occupied lands, Israeli media revealed on Friday.
Israel National News reported that the Israeli authorities are considering banning Albanese for making anti-Israeli remarks.
Albanese is an international lawyer and researcher who has worked for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and extensively on the Palestinian issue.
The Israeli news website claimed that Albanese took part in a conference last week in the Gaza Strip, which was also attended by Hamas and Islamic Jihad officials, and told the participants: “You have the right to resist this occupation.”
Organized by the Council on International Relations with Palestine, the conference was titled “16 Years of Siege on Gaza: Impacts and Prospects.”
The conference aimed to shed light on the repercussions of the Israeli siege imposed on the coastal enclave.
Albanese is not the first UN representative to be denied access to the Occupied Territories by the Israeli occupation authorities.
Her predecessors, Michael Lynk and Richard Falk, were repeatedly prevented from visiting due to their critical stance on the Israeli atrocities against Palestinians.
In a report on 18 October, Albanese strongly condemned the Israeli “apartheid practices” in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, saying its actions against Palestinians amount to “persecution”.
“Realizing the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination requires dismantling once and for all the Israeli settler-colonial occupation and its apartheid practices,” Albanese asserted.
