U.S. representatives to the United Nations slammed Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories who has faced repeated accusations of antisemitism, and said at a hearing on Wednesday that the next U.N. secretary-general will be faced with a choice of whether to turn the page on the institution’s antisemitic and anti-Israel bias.

Jeff Bartos, the U.S. representative to the U.N. for management and reform, said before the House Foreign Affairs Committee that the U.N. is “really at a crossroads” — saying it does important humanitarian work but also “employs a lunatic like Francesca Albanese, an absolute lunatic.”

“She puts on that U.N. uniform, and it’s such a disservice to the brave humanitarians who are out in the field risking their lives for total strangers,” Bartos said. “It does such a disservice to the brand of the U.N. It is the greatest self-sabotage, as a businessman, I’ve ever seen in my business career, that the U.N. allows its brand to be soiled and spoiled by this bigot.”

He said that the U.S. wants to see the next secretary-general, after Secretary-General António Guterres steps down in December, take a different approach, and that the U.S. is trying to “guide” the U.N. “in the right direction.”

“The U.N. has a decision to make with a new secretary-general coming in,” Bartos said. “Are they going to continue to tolerate this hatred of America and the West and Jews and Israel? Are they going to move in a new direction? We are not only watching it closely, we have a great team that works on it every day, and rest assured that we are going to hold them accountable.”

Jeff Bartos (@AmbUNReform), the U.S. representative to the U.N. for management and reform, said before a House committee that the U.N. is “really at a crossroads” — saying it does important humanitarian work but also “employs a lunatic like Francesca Albanese, an absolute… pic.twitter.com/Ka6DJSlfp1

— Jewish Insider (@jewishinsider) July 23, 2026

He said that the U.N. must pick a secretary-general with “leadership, the moral clarity and the courage to tackle this,” calling it an “existential issue for the organization about whether it wants to be a hotbed of hatred for the one Jewish state and for the West, or whether it wants to get back to basics, its core founding mission of international peace and security and humanitarian aid.”

Both Bartos and U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz condemned the United Nations Relief and Works Agency and the U.N. system’s response to the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel. Bartos said that UNRWA has “no future” in Gaza, highlighting recent comments he made at an UNRWA conference urging other countries not to keep putting money into the agency.

“What was different this year … was the acting director of UNRWA actually agreed to a couple of the points we raised,” Bartos said. “I almost fell over in my chair. Are we making progress? Glacially, but we are making progress.”

Waltz said that the U.S. is working with various partners, including the Palestinian Authority and the Gaza technocratic government under the auspices of the Board of Peace, as well as countries like Morocco and the United Arab Emirates to reform anti-Israel and pro-terrorism curricula promulgated by UNRWA  in Gaza and to see that governmental institutions take over responsibilities like education.

Bartos described legislation led by Reps. Mike Lawler (R-NY) and Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) aimed at dismantling and replacing UNRWA as “terrific” and said that the State Department would support it.

Asked about Turkey’s relationship with Hamas and other activities at odds with U.S. interests, Waltz described Turkey as an ally, if a sometimes “difficult” one, and emphasized that the U.S. is working with the Turkish government to take action against Hamas-supporting charities operating in Turkey.

Waltz also said that the U.S. has stripped taxpayer funding from the U.N. organizations like UNRWA that have been particularly involved in antisemitic and anti-Israel bias, as it works to try to repair and reform them.

Waltz indicated that, in spite of the collapse of the U.S.-Iran ceasefire, U.S. technical negotiators remain engaged in talks with Iran over its nuclear program. He noted that the regime is still trying to reconstitute its nuclear program and maintains its stockpiles of highly enriched uranium.

Waltz also said that the U.S. and other parties are still negotiating what will replace the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, which is set to shut down. Some partners and the U.N. have urged replacing it with a similar body, in spite of UNIFIL’s longstanding failures.

Pushing back on New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Waltz said during the hearing that Mamdani does not have the authority to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — as Mamdani acknowledged this week.

He questioned why Mamdani has not threatened action against malign actors like officials from Iran or North Korea and condemned efforts by a Mamdani administration official to meet with Iranian government representatives.

“On the eve of Tisha B’Av, it’s fundamentally offensive that the mayor is spending any of his time on this issue,” Bartos added.