Family of UN Special Rapporteur Sues To Reverse American Sanctions Over ‘Unabashed Antisemitism’

The family of the United Nations special rapporteur for Palestinians, Francesca Albanese, is suing to reverse sanctions imposed on her last year by the Trump administration for “spewing unabashed antisemitism.”The lawsuit was filed Wednesday by Ms. Albanese’s husband, Massimiliano Cali, and their daughter, who is a minor. The sanctions have barred Ms. Albanese from accessing her Washington home and prevented American individuals and companies from doing business with her.The suit is framed as a free speech issue, with the plaintiffs arguing that Ms. Albanese’s “expression of her views about the facts as she has found them in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and about the work of the ICC is core First Amendment activity.” The complaint also contends that the sanctions violate her Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable seizure and her Fifth Amendment due process rights.Though Ms. Albanese and Mr. Cali are not American citizens, the complaint argues that their daughter, who was born in America, can file the suit. The State Department dismissed the suit as “baseless” and called Ms. Albanese a “disgrace.” A human rights lawyer and executive director of UN Watch, Hillel Neuer, was equally scathing in written remarks to The New York Sun, saying that Ms. Albanese “loves espousing her views on ‘settler-colonialism’ and communism until she needs to protect her million-dollar condo in Georgetown from sanctions.”Mr. Neuer added that “Albanese is also an Italian living in Tunisia claiming rights under the first, fourth, and fifth amendments. This is a laughable suit and one of no substance when numerous democracies have also called for her removal. She has earned those sanctions for the poison she spreads.” As a U.N. special rapporteur, Ms. Albanese is charged with submitting objective, unbiased reports on Palestinian human rights. However, she has been condemned by officials under both the Biden and Trump administrations, as well as France, Germany, and others, for perpetuating antisemitic rhetoric and anti-Israel bias.Secretary of State Marco Rubio formally sanctioned her in July 2025, citing what he said were examples of antisemitic speech, expressions of support for terrorism, and “open contempt for the United States, Israel, and the West.” Mr. Rubio also pointed to her efforts to work with the International Criminal Court to prosecute Americans and Israelis, though neither country recognizes the court’s jurisdiction.A day after the lawsuit was filed, a watchdog group, UN Watch, submitted a formal complaint against Ms. Albanese to the U.N. Coordination Committee, alleging “gross violations of UN Code of Conduct” including the mandate for “restraint, moderation, and discretion.” The filing included a list of condemnations from America, France, Germany, Canada, the Netherlands, Latvia, Estonia, Hungary, and Argentina over her “antisemitism, Holocaust inversion, justifying terrorism,” and other conduct. UN Watch also urged the committee to investigate statements Ms. Albanese recently made or reshared on social media, among them “Israel is the incarnation of evil” and “Israel is pure evil in a way the world just has never seen before.”Ms. Albanese has also drawn criticism for expressing support for Hamas. At a 2022 conference organized by the terror group, she declared, “You have a right to resist.” She has also justified the October 7 massacre as a “reaction to Israel’s oppression” and dismissed accounts of mass rape and sexual assault during the attack as “fabrications,” despite extensive evidence that Hamas deliberately used sexual violence as a weapon of war.In response to the lawsuit, Senator John Fetterman, a Democrat, wrote on X that Ms. Albanese “rightly earned those sanctions and is better fit for Hamas’ PR department.”

Family of UN Special Rapporteur Sues To Reverse American Sanctions Over ‘Unabashed Antisemitism’

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