{"id":50176,"date":"2026-04-14T05:33:04","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T05:33:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=50176"},"modified":"2026-04-14T05:33:04","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T05:33:04","slug":"my-life-has-become-a-rollercoaster-francesca-albanese-on-death-threats-danger-and-dread-after-accusing-israel-of-genocide-human-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=50176","title":{"rendered":"\u2018My life has become a rollercoaster\u2019: Francesca Albanese on death threats, danger and dread after accusing Israel of genocide | Human rights"},"content":{"rendered":"


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I<\/span>n retrospect, arranging to interview Francesca Albanese in a cafe was not the best plan. Before we could start, the waitress wanted a photo with the Italian human rights lawyer. So did the cashier. Then the cook came out of the kitchen in his whites for a group photo. Some of the customers wanted their turn. Albanese was gracious with all comers and chatty in three languages, so the process took some time.<\/p>\n

Albanese, 49, has been getting similar rock star welcomes everywhere she goes lately, which is not the norm for unpaid UN legal experts. In other times, her job title<\/a> \u2013 UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 \u2013 would sound like a recipe for obscurity. She is one of more than 40 special rapporteurs, human rights experts appointed to do pro bono investigations and reports on areas of concern.<\/p>\n

These are no ordinary times, however. The untreated wound of Israel-Palestine has shown its capacity every generation to give the rest of the world a fever. The Hamas attack<\/a> on 7 October 2023, which killed about 1,200 people, provoked a ferocious Israeli response that has killed more than 75,000 Palestinians<\/a> in Gaza, displaced more than 90% of its population and reduced the overwhelming bulk of the territory to ruins.<\/p>\n

Albanese was not the first person to describe the Israeli military campaign as a genocide, but she was the first person with the initials UN in her title<\/a> to do so. She has used her megaphone consistently over the past two years not just to condemn the Israeli government and its military, but also the constellation of western states and corporations that have abetted them. Her message, delivered emphatically in person and in a series of UN reports, is that we are living in an interlocking system that has shown itself capable of mass killing.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Albanese speaking at a press conference during a session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva last month.<\/span> Photograph: Denis Balibouse\/Reuters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For her public stance, Albanese\u2019s life has been threatened and her family put in danger. She has faced the prospect of arrest<\/a> in Germany for her choice of words. Donald Trump\u2019s administration has named her a \u201cspecially designated national<\/a>\u201d, a term usually reserved for terrorists, drug traffickers and the occasional murderous dictator. She is the first UN official to have received the designation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was bad. That sort of puts you together with mass murderers and drug dealers of international proportions,\u201d Albanese says. \u201cIt was a paradox of facing one of the harshest forms of punishment without due process, because I\u2019ve not even been afforded the possibility to defend myself. I\u2019ve just been sanctioned without trial.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s executive order sanctioning Albanese prohibited any American person or entity from providing her with \u201cfunds, goods or services\u201d \u2013 a description so broad it has been compared to a \u201ccivil death\u201d. Her apartment in Washington, bought when she and her family were living in the US capital, has been seized. She can no longer use a credit card anywhere in the world, as almost all such transactions are processed by US-based services. \u201cI go around with cash or I have to borrow from friends or from family members,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n