Trump administration sanctions UN human rights rapporteur Francesca Albanese

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The US government is sanctioning the UN’s special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, accusing her of engaging in a campaign of political and economic warfare against the US and Israel.

Transcript

00:00There seems to be quite a major escalation as the Trump administration continues to take

00:07action against those who they see as critics of both Israel and the United States as a

00:13supporter of Israel.

00:15Francesca Albanese has become one of the most high profile outspoken critics of Israel and

00:22supporter of the plight of the Palestinians in the occupied territories.

00:28She has a role as an independent member of the United Nations and her role is to be focused

00:33on human rights abuses and the plight of the Palestinians.

00:37But in that role, she has been critical of Israel's conduct, particularly in Gaza, and

00:44she has accused them of genocide, an accusation which Israel rejects wholeheartedly.

00:51But this is after we had already seen the U.S. government take action against members

00:57of the International Criminal Court after they chose to go after and to put in warrants

01:03in place for high level Israeli officials.

01:07Now we are waiting to see exactly the details of what this will mean, but the timing is of

01:12course important.

01:13At the moment we have the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington for a multi-day

01:20trip.

01:21He has met with the Defence Secretary here, as well as the Republican leader of the Senate.

01:26And you would have to think these two events are connected.

01:30Donald Trump still says he is confident that we could see a ceasefire agreement between Israel

01:36and Hamas.

01:38But this once again seems to be a clear indication that the United States is siding with Israel on

01:43some of these contentious issues.

01:46But this will obviously be very worrying to those who support the plight of the Palestinians.

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