Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Wednesday that the U.S. would sanction Francesca Albanese, the widely criticized United Nations special rapporteur for Israel and the Palestinian Territories.

“Today I am imposing sanctions on UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese for her illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt [International Criminal Court] action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives,” Rubio said in a statement. “Albanese’s campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated. We will always stand by our partners in their right to self-defense.”

She is being sanctioned under the Trump administration’s executive order targeting the International Criminal Court. 

Members of Congress from both parties, as well as officials in both the Trump and Biden administrations, have condemned Albanese for her bias against Israel, downplaying and justifying the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, comparing Israel to Nazi Germany, denying Israel’s right to defend itself and utilizing antisemitic rhetoric, among other issues, calling repeatedly calling for her to be dismissed. The French and German governments have also condemned the U.N. official.

A group of House members issued another call for her dismissal as recently as last month.

“The United States will continue to take whatever actions we deem necessary to respond to lawfare and protect our sovereignty and that of our allies,” Rubio continued.

The sanctions would bar Albanese from entering the U.S., where she has conducted speaking tours, and freeze any assets she, or any of her family members, have in the U.S.

“As chair of the DOJ Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, I applaud Secretary Rubio’s decision to impose sanctions on UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese,” Leo Terrell, a senior counsel at the Justice Department, told Jewish Insider. “In May, I wrote a public letter calling for her removal due to her long and troubling record of antisemitic rhetoric. This long-overdue step sends a clear message: such hatred will not be tolerated.“

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, praised Rubio for the decision. 

“Her relentless and biased campaign against Israel and the United States has long crossed the line from human rights advocacy into political warfare,” Danon said. “Albanese has consistently debased the credibility of the UN by promoting false, dangerous narratives that are detached from reality.”

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), who has led multiple communiques from Congress calling for Albanese to be fired and recently said she has “blood on her hands,” told JI, “Today’s sanctions are …  an important step in response to Ms. Albanese’s regular antisemitism.”

“However,” Sherman continued, “until [the] UN removes Ms. Albanese from her post, it is clear that the UN continues to endorse antisemitism within its ranks.”

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Middle East subcommittee, said, “Francesca Albanese’s absurd campaign against the U.S. and Israel ends today. We will not tolerate antisemitic witch hunts by the UN and its affiliates.”

Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) said, “Albanese is a full-throated supporter of Muslim terror.”

Terrell wrote to Albanese earlier this year condemning her for a series of letters she wrote to organizations and businesses that support and invest in Israel, suggesting they may be criminally liable for genocide and war crimes.

Albanese has also allegedly faced private criticism from U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Hillel Neuer, the executive director of UN Watch, which has scrutinized Albanese’s activity and history, called Rubio’s decision “bold and courageous.” 

“No U.N. official has ever been sanctioned before in history,” Neuer told JI. “Then again, no U.N. official has ever been condemned for Holocaust distortion and antisemitism by France, Germany, Canada, and both Democratic and Republican US administrations. … She will never again spread her poison on American campuses or enter the country. Justice is served. Good triumphs over evil.”

Jewish Insider congressional correspondent Emily Jacobs contributed reporting.

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers wrote to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday, again demanding that Francesca Albanese, U.N. special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories, be dismissed from her position.

Albanese, despite alleged private criticism of her by Guterres and public opposition from U.S. and allied officials, recently had her employment and mandate extended. 

“This extension sends a signal to the world that the United Nations tolerates and even promotes those who spew antisemitic hatred and harbor long-standing prejudice against Israel,” the letter reads. “This pattern of the United Nations allowing employees to direct vile hatred towards the Jewish people and the obsession with the world’s only Jewish state must end now. Every day that the UN fails to address this systemic bias within its organization, its credibility is undermined.”

The lawmakers argued that dismissing Albanese would be a step to show that the U.N. can address antisemitism in its own ranks.

“We’ve seen over and over again the deadly consequences of this noxious rhetoric like Ms. Albanese’s that crosses the line from criticism of Israel into antisemitic demonization,” the letter reads, linking Albanese’s long history of antisemitic comments to the recent antisemitic terrorist attacks in Washington and Boulder, Colo., as well as the global surge of violent antisemitism since Oct. 7, 2023.

The letter was signed by Reps. Brad Sherman (D-CA), Dan Goldman (D-NY), Jefferson Shreve (R-IN), Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL), Laura Gillen (D-NY), Brad Schneider (D-IL), Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), Ritchie Torres (D-NY), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Tom Suozzi (D-NY).

“Special Rapporteur Albanese has a vile and extensive history of outlandish antisemitic statements and an extreme bias against Israel,” the lawmakers wrote. “Ms. Albanese consistently uses offensive and dangerous rhetoric to absurdly compare Israel’s war on Hamas to the systematic extermination of Jews in the Holocaust … She has also outrageously stated that Israel doesn’t have the right to defend itself and has refused to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist.”

“She has had plenty of opportunities to take responsibility for her dangerous and misguided rhetoric but instead continues to double down every time she has been called out publicly and states that she has been ‘wrongly mischaracterized as antisemitic,’” the letter continues.

It also highlights that she has accepted tens of thousands of dollars worth of free travel from pro-Hamas groups in Australia and New Zealand.

Sherman, who led the letter, recently said that Albanese’s rhetoric and activity had eroded U.S. support for the U.N. and foreign aid in general and would contribute to deaths around the world.

“Instead of demonstrating that the UN can address issues such as antisemitism from within and prevent continued efforts to undermine the UN’s credibility, Secretary General Guterres extended Ms. Albanese’s employment,” Sherman said on X.

Democratic Majority for Israel helped organize the letter.

“Ms. Albanese — whose mandate as Special Rapporteur was recently and inexplicably extended — is an extreme anti-Israel activist pretending to be a neutral UN official,” DMFI CEO Brian Romick said. “She regularly spews antisemitic conspiracy theories and attempts to downplay the horrors of October 7th — all completely at odds with the values of impartiality and human rights the UN is supposed to uphold. This week she even encouraged unauthorized flotillas to enter an active war zone, putting lives at risk in a reckless political stunt. Keeping her in this role further damages the UN’s credibility. We’re proud to back this effort to hold both her and the institution accountable.”

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), in a blistering statement, accused the U.N.’s special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, of antisemitism and said that her activity has undermined the United Nations and eroded U.S. support for the U.N. and foreign aid in general and will contribute to deaths around the world.

The statement comes in response to a letter from Albanese, who has faced ongoing accusations of antisemitism from U.S. officials and lawmakers who have described her as unfit for her role, to Israel Bonds, accusing the group of involvement in crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide.

“Only for a demonstrated antisemite like Ms. Albanese could stabilizing Israel’s economy after the worst massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust be something negative,” Sherman said. “This is just the latest instance in Ms. Albanese’s long history of antisemitism – she has regularly used antisemitic terms like the ‘Jewish lobby’ and claims that Israel doesn’t have the right to defend itself or even to exist.”

He said that, “Albanese and her ilk have turned once-legitimate entities like the United Nations into kangaroo courts and clown shows, significantly undermining U.S. support for the funding of international institutions and foreign aid.”

Sherman argued that actions by officials like Albanese make it harder for U.S. supporters of foreign aid to fight the Trump administration’s cuts to U.S. foreign development assistance and to support funding to international organizations. He drew a connection between Albanese and the antisemitism at the U.N. and what he said were 3.3 million anticipated deaths as a result of cuts to U.S. foreign aid.

“There’s a substantial amount of blood on her hands – but her victims live in countries that she doesn’t care about,” Sherman continued. “In fact, it seems the only thing she cares about is justifying attacks on Israel and Jews worldwide.”

Sherman also argued that the goal of Albanese and others in the anti-Israel movement is to weaken Israel economically and militarily so that future terrorist attacks can successfully eliminate the Jewish state.

“Believe that the anti-Israel movement means it when they say they want to eradicate Israel and will use any means to do it,” Sherman said. “Ms. Albanese condemns, and seeks to prevent, every effort of the Israeli government to feed and house its poorest citizens and care for the disabled. Due to her blinding rage of antisemitism, she seeks to hurt the most vulnerable.”

Albanese, in her letter to Israel Bonds, formally known as the Development Corporation for Israel, alleged that the group is responsible for a host of crimes against humanity and human rights violations, and suggested it faces international criminal liability.

“The applicable legal framework and the gravity of the situation on the ground in the occupied Palestinian territory, particularly in Gaza, indicate that there are reasonable grounds to believe that DCI is contributing to gross human rights violations that require the immediate cessation of the concerned business activity, and the remedy of the harm done to Palestinians,” Albanese wrote in the letter, which was obtained by JI.

“The continued failure to act responsibly in line with international law risks implicating DCI in an economy of much more serious violations, and increasing the associated liability. Indeed, given the international crimes being considered by the [International Court of Justice] and the [International Criminal Court], DCI is now on notice of a serious risk of being implicated in international crimes, the disregard of which may give rise to criminal liability, both for DCI and its executives,” she continued.

Dani Naveh, the CEO of Israel Bonds, said in a statement, “We will not be deterred by our enemies driven by antisemitism. Hamas, which carried out the atrocities of October 7, and its supporters, will not prevail. Their efforts have failed time and time again, as evidenced by the billions of dollars Israel Bonds has raised globally since the horrific attacks of October 7, 2023,” and called on supporters of Israel to respond by buying more bonds.