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Over a hundred figures from the world of entertainment signed an open letter Saturday in support of UN Palestinian Palestinian territories rapporteur Francesca Albanese who faces mounting calls to resign over comments about Israel and the war in Gaza.
France, Italy and Germany, along with several other European nations, have called for Albanese — who has been repeatedly accused of antisemitism and extremist rhetoric toward Israel — to step down over remarks last weekend cited a “common enemy” that enabled Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza — a charge Israel has strongly rejected.
Pro-Israel activists accused Albanese of referring to Israel as the “common enemy,” which she denied.
In a letter organized by the Artists for Palestine group and shared with AFP, over a 100 cultural figures backed her, including actors Mark Ruffalo and Javier Bardem, Nobel-winning author Annie Ernaux and British musician Annie Lennox.
The signatories “offer our full support to Francesca Albanese, a defender of human rights and therefore also of the Palestinian people’s right to exist,” the letter says.
“There are infinitely more of us, in every corner of the Earth, who want force no longer to be the law. Who know what the word ‘law’ truly means,” it concludes.
Published in French on the Artists for Palestine website, it also reproduces the full remarks by Albanese, who was speaking via videoconference at a forum last Saturday organized by the Al Jazeera TV network.
Other celebrities to offer support for her include actresses Rosa Salazar and Asia Argento, Oscar-nominated film directors Yorgos Lanthimos and Kaouther Ben Hania, Latin music star Residente, and photographer Nan Goldin.
A group of French MPs sent a letter to French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot on Tuesday denouncing Albanese’s remarks as “antisemitic.”
Barrot called for her to step down a day later, saying that France “unreservedly condemns the outrageous and reprehensible remarks.”
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul on Thursday said her position was “untenable.” Austria and Italy, Albanese’s home country, also said her comments showed she was unsuitable for her post.
Albanese is one of the most outspoken critics of Israel’s more-than-two-year war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip that was launched following the October, 7, 2023, Hamas massacre.
She has called it “the shame of our time” and says she always asks prime ministers, presidents and foreign ministers the same question: “How do you sleep? When will you act?”
Albanese has a long history of making statements accused of being antisemitic, anti-Israel and pro-Hamas.
On October 11, 2023, four days after the attack, Albanese said she doubted reports of rape and sexual violence. Instead, she said the US and Israel were spreading these claims to escalate tensions. She said Israel had no right to self-defense immediately after the Hamas invasion of Israel; said Israelis should be “considered suspect” and investigated when they are abroad; said other countries should halt pharmaceutical exports to Israel; characterized Israel as a “genocidal society”; and positioned the Jewish state as an impediment to global justice.
She told a Harvard University gathering that when Hamas refers to killing Jews (Yahudi), they do not actually mean Jews.
She has called accusations that UNRWA employees participated in the October 7 massacre “fallacious allegations,” though there has been clear evidence supporting it.
Last November, she posted a cartoon denouncing Israel, depicting what appeared to be a global spiderweb, its strands draped with cash and weapons, in an image that experts said echoed age-old antisemitic tropes.
The Italian-born legal expert, who began her unpaid role in 2022, was targeted with sanctions by the Trump administration in July last year over what it called her “unabashed antisemitism” and “biased and malicious” work.
UN special rapporteurs like Albanese are independent experts who are appointed by the UN rights council, but do not speak on behalf of the United Nations.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres distanced himself from Albanese on Thursday when his spokesman said, “We don’t agree with much of what she says.”
“We wouldn’t use the language that she’s using in describing the situation,” his spokesman Stephane Dujarric added.
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