In response to her accusation by French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot and more than fifty French representatives, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, denied on Wednesday in an interview with France 24 that she had said that “Israel is the common enemy of humanity,” denouncing “completely false accusations” and “distortion” of her statements. After the Minister announced that he would request Albanese’s resignation during the next session of the Human Rights Council, the Rapporteur published a recording of her intervention in a response on the “X” platform, calling for the submission of only one quote in which she described Israel as an “enemy of humanity.”

Published on: 02/12/2026 - 15:46 Last updated: 02/13/2026 - 17:32

To view this content from YouTube, it is necessary to allow the collection of viewing rates and YouTube ads.

It appears that an application in your Internet browser is preventing the video player from loading. In order to view this content, you must cancel its use.

After France called on Wednesday for her resignation against the backdrop of what she considered “outrageous and reprehensible statements” about Israel, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, denied what was attributed to her.

In an interview with France 24 on Wednesday, Albanese denounced “completely false accusations” and “distortion” of her statements.

Read also: UN Rapporteur Francesca Albanese: Israel “uses the anti-Semitism card”

The UN rapporteur said: “I never, never, ever said that Israel is the common enemy of humanity,” explaining: “I spoke about Israel’s crimes, apartheid, and genocide, and I condemned the regime that does not allow Israel to be brought to justice or stop its crimes, as a common enemy.”

Calls to drop its “international mandate”

Before that, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot had stated before members of the French National Assembly, saying: “France unreservedly condemns the outrageous and reprehensible statements made by Francesca Albanese, which do not target the Israeli government, whose policies can be criticized, but rather Israel as a people and a nation, which is completely unacceptable.” The minister also announced that he would request Albanese's resignation during the next session of the UN Human Rights Council on February 23.

Read also: France calls for the resignation of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese

This decision came in direct response to a question posed by the representative of the French people residing outside France, Caroline Yadan, who had previously asked the minister to drop her “UN mandate,” because the UN rapporteur had - in her words - “described Israel as the common enemy of humanity” during the conference held on February 7.

The MP, along with some French and Israeli media, was among the first to claim that Albanese had made such a statement. On February 8, she posted a photo of the rapporteur on the X platform with the quote: “Israel is the common enemy of humanity,” and wrote: “These anti-Semitic statements made in Qatar cannot be justified.”

Two days later, 53 representatives from the Renaissance Party signed a letter - with Caroline Yadan being the first to sign it - sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs denouncing these alleged statements, without a direct quote this time. The letter stated: “On February 7...I described Israel as the common enemy of humanity.”

The letter was signed by figures including former Prime Minister Elizabeth Bourne and former government spokeswoman Olivia Gregoire, and demanded that Francesca Albanese be stripped of “any international mandate with immediate effect.”

“International law is challenged to the core.”

During a video intervention on Saturday at a forum organized by Al Jazeera in Doha, Albanese touched on a “common enemy” that, in her words, allowed “genocide” to occur in Gaza.

She literally said: “Instead of stopping Israel, most countries in the world armed it, gave it political excuses and a political umbrella, and provided it with economic and financial support.” She added: "We, who do not control huge capital, algorithms, or weapons, now realize that, as humanity, we have a common enemy."

During her participation in a round table, the rapporteur denounced the “genocide” committed by Israel in Gaza, as well as the inaction of part of the Western world. In the face of criticism, Albanese herself published a recording of her intervention in a response to the “X” platform on February 9, directed specifically to Caroline Yadan. She said: “Apart from your personal attacks and the disdain you have shown towards me, I invite you, Madam Yadan, to provide just one quote in which I have described Israel as an ‘enemy of humanity’.” She attached her comment to the clip in question, which is four minutes long, in English.

In her speech, in which she denounced the “genocide” in Gaza and said that she was defending “international law that is challenged to the core,” the rapporteur directed her criticism mainly at Western countries collectively.

She used the term “a common enemy” faced by humanity, but seemed to refer to a broader system confronting those who do not control “huge financial capital, algorithms, or weapons.”

Albanese said in the controversial clip: “It is worrying that instead of stopping Israel, a large segment of the world has armed it, given it political justifications, political sanctuary, and economic and financial support. It is a challenge. And the amplification by most of the Western media of pro-apartheid and genocide rhetoric is also a challenge. At the same time, here is the opportunity, because if international law has been challenged to its core, it is also true that the international community has never before faced challenges like the ones we all face today. We control huge capital, algorithms, and weapons. We now see that we have a common enemy, and respect for basic freedoms is the last peaceful path available to us to regain our freedom.

“The common enemy of humanity is the system.”

On Platform

When she was hosted on the “Face to Face” program on France 24 on February 11, she repeated the same position, which is consistent with the entirety of her speech at the Doha Forum on February 7.

Albanese explained during the interview: “For me, whether Israel has the right to exist or not, because this in the end is the essence of the question at hand, I do not find it necessary to question that. Israel exists, and it is a member of the international community that does not recognize the right to self-determination of another people, and continues to keep it under occupation and oppression, and from here, it must be held accountable in accordance with applicable international law.”

Moreover, criticism also targeted Albanese for her attendance at a forum in which participants included the head of Hamas's political bureau abroad, Khaled Meshal, as well as Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

Although these personalities were actually present, as shown in the forum program. However, Francesca Albanese spoke within the framework of a round table in which experts in international law participated exclusively, including the former Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda.

Keywords related to the article

The content you want to browse is no longer in service or is currently unavailable.