Early on in the Mishnah in Chapters of the Fathers, Joshua ben Prachiya instructs readers to “Make a rabbi for yourself, acquire a friend and judge everyone favorably.” Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur for Palestinian rights who has been long and widely accused of Jew-hatred, appears to have appointed rabbinic supporters in her own anti-Israel image.
“Thanks to the rabbis who came from all over New York to support me and stand in solidarity with their Palestinian brothers and sisters,” Albanese wrote last week. “Their words resonate with me every day since: only united, Jewish, Palestinians, people of conscience, will we win the battle against colonial genocide and apartheid, and help usher in a new era of justice and freedom in the Levant.”
The U.N. adviser, whom the global body considers an independent “expert,” shared a link to the anti-Israel, Chassidic sect Neturei Karta (“Guardians of the City”), whose social-media handle states that it is “opposed the establishment and retain all opposition to the existence of the so-called State of Israel.”
“On Nov. 1, anti-Zionist Jews gathered outside the New School, New York City, countering Zionist protests against U.N. rapporteur Francesca Albanese,” the group wrote. “With banners reading, ‘True Jews say: We appreciate U.N. and UNRWA support for oppressed Palestinians,’ they showed solidarity, rejecting Zionist intimidation and standing for justice in Palestine. Free Palestine.”
The group, which is ostracized by mainstream U.S. Jewry, attended one of the stops on Albanese’s speaking tour in the United States and Canada, following her release of a report and presentation of it to the U.N. General Assembly. The report purports to provide “clearly identifiable” evidence of Israeli genocide against Palestinians.
‘The fringe of the fringe of the fringe’
Jewish and pro-Israel groups have slammed the report as a “gross perversion of history” and “weaponizing Holocaust comparisons,” JNS has reported.
“Someone on Francesca Albanese’s staff ought to tell her that the Neturei Karta are the fringe of the fringe of the fringe,” wrote Jason Greenblatt, a former White House Middle East envoy.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism wrote that Neturei Karta “is a tiny Jewish sect, shunned by the majority of Jews” and “implacably opposed to the existence of the State of Israel for theological reasons and frequently attends anti-Israel demonstrations.”
“They number in the hundreds, but some estimates put their membership at 5,000. That means they represent, at most, 0.03% of the global Jewish population,” the British nonprofit stated. “Their views are so extreme that a few years ago, they visited Iran to participate in then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s Holocaust-denial conference.”
“Tokenizing a fringe Jewish sect, which is itself often guilty of pushing antisemitic tropes, to push your own agenda proves that you do not, at heart, care about the interests or well-being of the Jewish community at large,” it added.
The New School, where Albanese and Neturei Karta appeared, is under federal Title VI investigation for alleged discrimination based on “shared ancestry” under the 1964 Civil Rights Law.
The New School Free Press, a student publication, reported in March that the “investigation is likely related to how the university responded to protests related to the ongoing violence in Gaza.” In a statement to the publication about the U.S. Education Department probe, the New School said that “antisemitism has no place on our campus.”
Albanese canceled a keynote address at a Palestinian conference in Montreal, which was slated to be part of her speaking tour, after it was revealed that another scheduled speaker was the head of Samidoun, a U.S.- and Canadian-designated terror group.
A spokesman for António Guterres, the U.N. secretary-general, told JNS that the U.N. leader’s office has “distanced ourselves” from Albanese after she “attacked” Guterres over Gaza-related issues.
The spokesman said Guterres did not contact Albanese about the Montreal event. “I cannot imagine her being the type to take kindly to any pressure from the secretary-general not to do something,” the spokesman said.
As a special rapporteur, Albanese has an independent mandate and doesn’t report to anyone in the United Nations system.
Rabbi Dovid Feldman spoke at The New School after UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese’s address on Nov 1, 2024, urging resistance against intimidation aimed at silencing truths on Palestine. Criticism of Zionism, he emphasized, is a call for justice, not anti-Semitism.… pic.twitter.com/7A0fZq3nTT
— Neturei Karta (@NetureiKarta) November 4, 2024
