France is calling for the resignation of U.N. “Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories” Francesca Albanese after she branded Israel as a “common enemy,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said on Wednesday.
Albanese, a U.S.-sanctioned and notoriously anti-Israel United Nations official, delivered her latest remarks against Israel during her online participation at a forum hosted on Saturday by the Al Jazeera network in Doha, Qatar. The Times of Israel reports Albanese branded Israel as a “common enemy” that enabled the “genocide” in Gaza during her speech.
“Instead of stopping Israel, most of the world has armed, given it political excuses, political sheltering, economic and financial support,” she said.
“We who do not control large amounts of financial capitals, algorithms and weapons, we now see that we as a humanity have a common enemy,” she reportedly continued.
Le Monde reported that French Foreign Minister Barrot called upon Albanese’s resignation over her Saturday remarks during speaking to lawmakers at the French parliament.
“France unreservedly condemns the outrageous and reprehensible remarks made by Ms. Francesca Albanese, which are directed not at the Israeli government, whose policies may be criticized, but at Israel as a people and as a nation, which is absolutely unacceptable,” Barrot said.
The French Foreign Minister pointed out to lawmakers that Albanese made her remarks at an event that counted with the participation of representatives of Hamas and the Iranian regime and add to a long list of “scandalous statements” justifying the October 7 terrorist attack on Israel.
Fifteen-year-old Palestinian Sarah Saada holds a portrait she painted of UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, in Gaza City on December 30, 2025. (Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP via Getty)
“Ms. Francesca Albanese presents herself as an ‘independent expert’ of the United Nations. She is neither an expert nor independent. She is a political activist who stirs up hate speech and undermines the cause of the Palestinian people that she claims to defend,” Barrot asserted.
“And the United Nations, in no way or circumstance, can Mr. Albanese speak in their name and she betrays its spirit,” he continued. “In reality, her provocations call for only one response: her resignation.”
Barrot emphasized that France will bring up the subject of Albanese’s resignation at the upcoming meeting of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council on February 23.
Albanese first responded to the controversy that arose over her “common enemy” remarks against Israel through a social media post on Monday, in which she claimed that she was instead referring to “the system” as the “common enemy of humanity” that has “enabled the genocide in Palestine.”
Moments before Barrot called for her resignation on Wednesday, Albanese spoke with France 24 and refuted accusations of antisemitism espoused against her as “shameful and defamatory.” The U.N. official accused Israel of allegedly continuing “the plan to fully destroy Gaza.”
“I challenge everyone to find what I’m accused of saying; that Israel is the enemy of humanity. I’ve never said that,” she reportedly claimed during the interview.
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