US sanctions UN expert Albanese over Israel criticism
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the penalties on Wednesday, accusing Albanese of waging a 'campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel'.
Albanese, who serves as UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, has been a leading global voice in calling for action to end Israel's human rights violations.
Israel and its supporters have been rebuking Albanese and calling for her to be removed from her UN position for years.
Earlier on Wednesday, she called out European governments for allowing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crime charges in Gaza – to use their airspace while travelling.
'Italian, French and Greek citizens deserve to know that every political action violating the [international] legal order, weakens and endangers all of them. And all of us,' Albanese wrote in a social media post.
Rubio cited Albanese's push for the prosecution of Israeli officials at the ICC as the legal basis for the sanctions.
Trump had issued an executive order in February to impose penalties on ICC officials involved in 'targeting' Israel.
Last month, the Trump administration sanctioned four ICC judges.
On Wednesday, Rubio accused Albanese of anti-Semitism.
'That bias has been apparent across the span of her career, including recommending that the ICC, without a legitimate basis, issue arrest warrants targeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant,' he said.
The ICC charged Netanyahu and Gallant with crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza for depriving Palestinians in the enclave of 'objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine'.
Rubio also highlighted a recent report by Albanese that documented the role of international companies, including US firms, in the Israeli assault on Gaza, which she describes as a genocide.
'We will not tolerate these campaigns of political and economic warfare, which threaten our national interests and sovereignty,' the top US diplomat said.
Trump's ICC decree freezes the assets of targeted individuals in the US and bans them and their immediate family members from entering the country.
Nancy Okail, head of the Center for International Policy (CIP) think tank, decried the sanctions against Albanese as 'devastating'.
'Sanctioning a UN expert gives the signal that the United States is acting like dictatorships and rogue states,' Okail told Al Jazeera.
Over the past 21 months, Israel's US-backed campaign in Gaza has levelled most of the territory and killed at least 57,575 Palestinians, according to local health officials.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Jazeera
3 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
US sanctions Cuban president, ‘regime-controlled' luxury hotels
The US State Department has imposed sanctions on senior Cuban officials, including President Miguel Diaz-Canel, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced as he marked the fourth anniversary of a brutal crackdown on historic antigovernment protests. In a post on X, Rubio said the State Department would be 'restricting visas for Cuban regime figureheads', including President Diaz-Canel, Defence Minister Alvaro Lopez Miera, Interior Minister Lazaro Alberto Alvarez Casas, and their 'cronies' for their 'role in the Cuban regime's brutality toward the Cuban people'. Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, also announced that the State Department has added the Torre K hotel to its restricted list of entities in order to 'prevent US dollars from funding the Cuban regime's repression'. The Cuban government has promoted the luxury high-rise Torre K in central Havana as a symbol of modernisation. But the government has faced criticism for its large investment in luxury hotels amid a severe economic crisis in the nominally socialist one-party state. 'While the Cuban people suffer shortages of food, water, medicine, and electricity, the regime lavishes money on its insiders,' Rubio said. Ten other 'regime-linked properties' were also added to the State Department's List of Prohibited Accommodations, it said in a statement. The statement said the sanctions were being enacted in 'solidarity with the Cuban people and the island's political prisoners', citing the Cuban government's brutal crackdown on the July 2021 demonstrations – the largest since the Cuban revolution in the 1950s. The police crackdown resulted in one death and dozens of wounded protesters. 'Four years ago, thousands of Cubans peacefully took to the streets to demand a future free from tyranny. The Cuban regime responded with violence and repression, unjustly detaining thousands, including over 700 who are still imprisoned and subjected to torture or abuse,' the State Department said. Rubio also accused Cuba of torturing pro-democracy activist Jose Daniel Ferrer, whose bail was revoked as he was taken into custody alongside fellow dissident Felix Navarro in April. 'The United States demands immediate proof of life and the release of all political prisoners,' Rubio said. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez slammed the latest measures as part of a 'ruthless economic war' being waged by the administration of US President Donald Trump. 'The USA is capable of imposing migratory sanctions against revolutionary leaders and maintaining a prolonged and ruthless economic war against Cuba, but it lacks the ability to break the will of these people or their leaders,' he said on X. In January, then-US President Joe Biden had removed Cuba from the blacklist of countries sponsoring terrorism. But Trump returned the country to the blacklist immediately after returning to the White House as he resumed his 'maximum pressure' campaign against Cuba that typified his foreign policy during his first term.
Al Jazeera
4 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
US State Department begins layoffs in Trump's shake-up of diplomatic corps
More than 1,350 US State Department employees have been fired in a major diplomatic shake-up ordered by President Donald Trump, in a move critics predict would curb the United States' influence around the world. Friday's mass layoff, which affect 1,107 civil service and 246 foreign service officers based in the United States, come at a time when Washington is grappling with multiple crises on the world stage: Russia's war in Ukraine, the almost two-year-long Gaza conflict, and the Middle East on edge due to high tension between Israel and Iran. Diplomats and other staff clapped out departing colleagues in emotional scenes at the Washington headquarters of the department, which runs US foreign policy and the global network of embassies. Some were crying as they walked out with boxes of belongings. 'It's just heartbreaking to stand outside these doors right now and see people coming out in tears, because all they wanted to do was serve this country,' said US Senator Andy Kim, a New Jersey Democrat who worked as a civilian adviser for the State Department in Afghanistan during the administration of former President Barack Obama. The layoffs at the department came three days after the Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to begin carrying out its plan to gut entire government positions. The conservative-dominated top court lifted a temporary block imposed by a lower court on Trump's plans to lay off potentially tens of thousands of employees. The 79-year-old Republican says he wants to dismantle what he calls the 'deep state'. Since taking office in January, he has worked quickly to install fierce personal loyalists and to fire swaths of veteran government workers. Trump's Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the foreign policy department is too cumbersome and requires thinning out of some 15 percent. 'It's not a consequence of trying to get rid of people. But if you close the bureau, you don't need those positions,' Rubio told reporters on the sidelines of his ASEAN meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 'Understand that some of these are positions that are being eliminated, not people.' The American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) – the union representing State Department employees – condemned the 'catastrophic blow to our national interests'. 'We oppose this decision in the strongest terms.' The State Department employed more than 80,000 people worldwide last year, according to a fact sheet, with about 17,700 in domestic roles. The US Agency for International Development (USAID), long the primary vehicle to provide US humanitarian assistance around the world, has already been mostly dismantled. According to The Washington Post, State Department employees were informed of their firings by email. Foreign Service officers will lose their jobs 120 days after receiving the notice and will be immediately placed on administrative leave, while civil service employees will be separated after 60 days, the newspaper said. Ned Price, who served as State Department spokesman under former Democratic President Joe Biden, condemned what he called haphazard firings. 'For all the talk about 'merit-based,' they're firing officers based on where they happen to be assigned on this arbitrary day,' Price said on X. 'It's the laziest, most inefficient, and most damaging way to lean the workforce.'
Al Jazeera
6 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Israeli settlers beat to death US citizen in West Bank, family says
Israeli settlers have beaten to death a United States citizen in the occupied West Bank, the victim's family members and rights groups have said. Settlers attacked and killed Sayfollah Musallet – who was in his early 20s – in the town of Sinjil, north of Ramallah, on Friday, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Musallet, also known as Saif al-Din Musalat, had travelled from his home in Florida to visit family in Palestine, his cousin Fatmah Muhammad said in a social media post. Another Palestinian, identified by the Health Ministry as Mohammed Shalabi, was fatally shot by settlers during the attack. Rights advocates have documented repeated instances where Israeli settlers in the West Bank ransack Palestinian neighbourhoods and towns, burning homes and vehicles in attacks sometimes described as pogroms. The Israeli military often protects the settlers during their rampages and has shot Palestinians who show any resistance. The United Nations and other prominent human rights organisations consider the Israeli settlements in the West Bank violations of international law, as part of a broader strategy to displace Palestinians. While some Western countries like France and Australia have imposed sanctions on violent settlers, attacks have increased since the outbreak of Israel's war in Gaza in October 2023. When Donald Trump took office earlier this year, his administration revoked sanctions on settlers imposed by his predecessor, Joe Biden. Israeli forces have killed at least nine US citizens since 2022, including veteran Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh. But none of the incidents have resulted in criminal charges. The US provides billions of dollars to Israel every year. Advocates have accused successive US administrations of failing to protect American citizens from Israeli violence in the Middle East. On Friday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) called on Washington to ensure accountability for the killing of Musallet. 'Every other murder of an American citizen has gone unpunished by the American government, which is why the Israeli government keeps wantonly killing American Palestinians and, of course, other Palestinians,' CAIR deputy director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said in a statement. He then pointed out that Trump has repeatedly promised to prioritise American interests, as typified by his campaign slogan 'America First'. 'If President Trump will not even put America first when Israel murders American citizens, then this is truly an Israel First administration,' Mitchell said. The Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU) also called for action from the US administration, noting that settlers are 'lynching Palestinians more frequently – with full support from Israel's army and government'. 'The US government has a legal and moral obligation to stop Israel's racist violence against Palestinians. Instead, it's still backing and funding it,' the group said in a statement. The US Department of State did not respond to Al Jazeera's request for comment about the killing of Musallet. The Palestinian group Hamas condemned the murder of Musallet, describing it as 'barbaric', and called on Palestinians across the West Bank to rise up to 'confront the settlers and their terrorist attacks'. Israel said it was 'investigating' what happened in Sinjil, claiming that the violence started when Palestinians threw rocks at an Israeli vehicle. 'Shortly thereafter, violent clashes developed in the area between Palestinians and Israeli civilians, which included the destruction of Palestinian property, arson, physical confrontations, and stone-throwing,' the Israeli military said in a statement. Israeli investigations often lead to no charges or meaningful accountability for the abuses of Israeli officers and settlers. As settler and military violence intensifies in the West Bank, Israel has killed at least 57,762 Palestinians in Gaza in a campaign that rights groups have described as a genocide.
