On 16 June 2025, Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories occupied since 1967, issued a report titled "From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide." The report, which extends over 39 pages, makes direct accusations against major multinational corporations, among them Amazon, BlackRock, Google, Lockheed Martin, and Volvo, for taking advantage of the Israeli occupation and the genocide against the Palestinians. These companies, along with prestigious universities, especially the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, own varied investments in the project of organized displacement of Palestinians and their replacement with Israeli settlers. Albanese concluded her speech with a clear invitation: stop profiting from the genocide and sever ties with Israel.
On July 9, the U.S. Department of State imposed sanctions on Albanese, preventing her from accessing her properties in the United States. The State Department justified its decision, saying that Albanese publicly promotes anti-Semitism, supports terrorism, and expresses explicit contempt for the United States, Israel, and the West. The United Nations responded, warning that this measure creates a "dangerous precedent." At the same time, the spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, emphasized that "unilateral sanctions against special rapporteurs or any other UN official are unacceptable." It is worth noting that Albanese is not the first, as Washington had already sanctioned the judges of the International Criminal Court in June 2025 under the same executive order.
The US sanctions against senior UN officials and institutions sparked a major media uproar, overshadowing discussion of the core findings of the report by Francesca Albanese and her team. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio wanted to employ sanctions as a political tool to make it the most prominent headline, and he succeeded in that to a great extent. Thus, the central question posed by the report was marginalized, and the discussion was reduced to a single issue: the legitimacy of the United States imposing sanctions on United Nations officials.
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