The United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) confirmed to the independent organization UN Watch on Tuesday that it was taking “appropriate measures” over allegations that Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese had illegally received funds from pro-Hamas groups.
UN Watch filed a legal complaint against Albanese through the UN system in June, presenting evidence that pro-Hamas groups may have paid him to perform during visits to Australia and New Zealand in the months immediately following Hamas’ Oct. 7 siege of Israel. At least one such group, the Australian Friends of Palestine Association (AFOPA), reportedly claimed to have “sponsored” Albanese’s visit to the country in December, according to UN Watch. Other groups have accused Albanese of “being a Muslim.”guestGroup’s “”.
AFOPA (Australian Occupational Health Agency) Published In December, he was photographed in Australia with Prime Minister Albanese and Israeli leaders who praised her efforts to oppose Israel’s right to self-defence following the rape, murder and torture perpetrated by Hamas terrorists in October.
AFOPA has been Mentioned He called Hamas, a genocidal terrorist organization that explicitly opposes the existence of Israel and the Jewish people, a “genuine resistance group” and called on the Australian Parliament not to designate the group as a terrorist organisation.
“If one side is to be designated a ‘terrorist,’ it is the State of Israel, not Hamas,” AFOPA argued in Congress.
As the “special rapporteur” for the Palestinian Territories, Albanese is tasked with investigating alleged human rights violations in the West Bank and Gaza. At press time, neither Albanese nor the UN had disclosed how his visit to Australia and New Zealand would relate to his official duties.
UN Watch estimates that Albanese’s trip to Australia cost $20,000 and has called on the UN to release a detailed statement of how the trip cost money and receipts showing how it was spent. Claimed Her trip was paid for by the United Nations, which has yet to acknowledge her claim or respond to requests for receipts.
In response, UN Watch said on Tuesday it had received a letter saying the matter had been referred to Mr Albanese’s boss, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk, for “appropriate response and action”.
BREAKING: The United Nations has opened an investigation into allegations that Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese improperly accepted outside funds from pro-Hamas groups to cover the costs of a $20,000 lobbying trip to Australia. We are filing paperwork today to terminate her mandate. pic.twitter.com/G9jt58DIrt
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) July 2, 2024
UN Watch explained that the response was a confirmation of an investigation into the trip.
“The United Nations Office of Internal Oversight’s investigative division recently announced that it had opened an investigation into allegations of financial irregularities by Francesca Albanese,” the non-governmental organization said in a statement. Claimed.
“Following the investigation, UN Watch announced today that it has filed proceedings with the United Nations calling for Mr Albanese’s removal from his position,” it added, introducing a proposed resolution to have Mr Albanese fired.
UN observer chief Hillel Neuer issued a statement accusing Albanese of regular “abuse”.[ing] She uses her position at the UN to peddle a constant stream of anti-Semitic and Hamas propaganda on social media, on television and in her own reporting.”
“Every day she continues to serve in this position will cast a shadow over the Human Rights Council and the entire United Nations,” Neuer said Tuesday.
Mr Albanese has responded defiantly to the UN Watch revelations, appearing to deny that his employer is investigating possible financial wrongdoing.
“I welcome any review of my work and all documents are available to the UN as I have never had and never will have anything to hide,” Albanese said in a statement on social media. “However, UN Watch’s recent actions are outrageous as they falsely claim the UN has ‘opened an investigation’ against me, using an email from the UN which merely acknowledged receipt of a complaint.”
“UN Watch: Continued disregard for international law, continued turning a blind eye to Israel’s slaughter of Palestinian civilians and children, and continued focus on the world’s most pressing issue: my research assistant’s (unpaid!) fellowship,” she concluded. “Now, back to work.”
I welcome any review of my mandate and all documents will be made available to the United Nations because I have never had, and never will have, anything to hide.
But the latest #UNWatch This behavior is outrageous. They simply used an email from the UN acknowledging receipt of the complaint… pic.twitter.com/5lxfsuSnzh
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the Conflict in Palestine (@FranceskAlbs) July 2, 2024
Since being appointed as the Special Rapporteur, Mr Albanese has built up a strong track record of virulently anti-Israel and anti-Semitic public comments. During his stay in Australia, the UN envoy Sydney Morning Herald She called Israel a “military dictatorship” and argued that Israel has no legitimate right to self-defense against terrorist groups like Hamas.
“You cannot claim self-defence against people in occupied territory,” Albanese argued, adding that self-defence only applies to “imminent threats of a state emanating from a state, not from armed groups within a state”.
Albanese also argued that “75 percent of the people of Gaza” should “return” to Israel.
Speaking ahead of his visit to Australia, Mr Albanese declared that the October 7 atrocities, the biggest mass killing of Jews since the Holocaust, were not motivated by anti-Semitism.
“The victims of the October 7 massacre were not killed because they were Jewish, but as a reaction to Israeli oppression,” Albanese said in a social media post.
Prior to October 7, Albanese had repeatedly compared the Israeli government to Nazi Germany and accused Israel of genocide.
“In a 2014 Facebook post, she wrote that America was ‘controlled by the Jewish lobby’. Last November, she said at a Hamas conference that ‘we have a right to resist,'” recalled UN Watch’s Neuer, who spoke before the US House of Representatives in November.
At the same event, a hearing on anti-Semitism at the United Nations, Jonathan Schanzer, senior vice president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), presented evidence that Albanese had repeatedly complained about the “Jewish lobby” and “Israeli greed,” and used other anti-Semitic language.
