ROME: An independent UN investigator and outspoken critic of Israel’s policies in Gaza says that the sanctions recently imposed on her by the Trump administration will have serious impacts on her life and work.
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, is a member of a group of experts chosen by the 47-member UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. She is tasked with probing human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories and has been vocal about what she has described as the “genocide” by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza.
Both Israel and the United States, which provides military support to its close ally, have strongly denied that accusation. Washington has decried what it called a “campaign of political and economic warfare” against the US and Israel, and earlier this month imposed sanctions on Albanese, following an unsuccessful US pressure campaign to force the international body to remove her from her post.
“It’s very serious to be on the list of the people sanctioned by the US,” Albanese told The Associated Press in Rome on Tuesday, adding that individuals sanctioned by the US cannot have financial interactions or credit cards with any American bank.
