WJC slams UN’s Albanese for Holocaust inversion, Israel-Nazi comparisons

The World Jewish Congress slammed UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese on Tuesday for repeatedly engaging in Holocaust inversion by comparing Israel to Nazi Germany.

“The constant statements made by [Albanese] comparing Israel to Nazi Germany are not only deeply offensive, but a gross distortion of history,” the WJC wrote on X/Twitter. 

The constant statements made by @FranceskAlbs comparing Israel to Nazi-Germany are not only deeply offensive, but a gross distortion of history. This blatant Holocaust inversion and antisemitism weaponizes the tragedy of the Jewish people to demonize Israel. Such speech by…

— World Jewish Congress (@WorldJewishCong) October 15, 2024

The statement followed a post that Albanese made to the platform on Monday, where she wrote, “Our collective obliviousness to what led, 100 years ago, to the Third Reich's expansionism and the genocide of people not in conformity with the "pure race" is asinine. And it is leading to the commission of yet another genocide, yet another regional war and potentially yet another global one.”

Because of their history, one might have thought Germans & Italians would be at the forefront of the opposition to the Netanyahu-driven assault on Gaza, which is now metastasising across the region.Our collective obliviousness to what led, 100 years ago, to the Third Reich's… https://t.co/6ToWv80mts pic.twitter.com/l5776HVh2p

— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) October 14, 2024

Albanese's history of Holocaust inversion

Albanese has a well-documented history of making comparisons between Israel and Israeli figures to Nazi Germany and Adolph Hitler.

In July, Albanese expressed support on X for a post comparing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler.

“This is precisely what I was thinking today,” the UN rapporteur wrote in reply to a post by UN human rights official Craig Mokhiber, who shared an image on X of Hitler raising his hand while moving through a crowd on top of a photo of Netanyahu amid a crowd of congresspeople.

“This blatant Holocaust inversion and antisemitism weaponizes the tragedy of the Jewish people to demonize Israel,” the WJC added in its Monday statement.

In response to a January 21 post on X by anti-Israel figure Mohammed El-Kurd, where the Palestinian activist claimed that Zionism was colonial and responsible for the "genocide" in Gaza, Albanese replied that her understanding of anti-Palestinian racism was shaped by the historical European racism toward Jews that led to the Holocaust.

In December, Albanese wrote that the Holocaust should have taught Europeans that genocide starts with dehumanization and that if “Israel's current attack [against] Palestinians [doesn’t] prompt our strong reaction, the darkest page of our recent history has taught us nothing.”

“Such speech by officials not only undermines the [UN]’s integrity but also violates the principles on which it was established—principles born from the Nazi attempt to destroy the Jewish people,” the WJC continued. It’s imperative the UN ensures its platforms are not hijacked to spread hatred and fuel division. Accountability is needed now.”

The day after Albanese’s Monday post implying Israel was conducting a genocide of people who did not conform to its idea of a “pure race,” the UN special rapporteur commented on Sky News headline on the four IDF soldiers killed in a Hezbollah drone attack, all of whom were 19 years old.

“Is @SkyNews accusing Israel of using child soldiers?” Albanese wrote in response to a headline dubbing the four as “teenage victims.”