Harvard welcomed Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, as a featured virtual speaker at its Carr Center for Human Rights Policy on Monday despite being banned that same day by Israel for comments justifying Hamas‘s terrorist attack on Oct. 7, 2023.
On Saturday, Albanese had claimed that the slaughter in Israel of more than 1,000 civilians was a “response to Israel’s oppression.”
“The ‘greatest anti-Semitic massacre of our century’? No, Mr. @EmmanuelMacron,” she wrote in a social media post in response to France’s president paying tribute to Israel’s victims. “The victims of 10/7 were not killed because of their Judaism, but in response to Israel’s oppression.”
On Monday, Israel declared that Albanese would be barred from entry to the country by refusing to issue her a visa and would deny entry even if she had a diplomatic passport from the U.N..
Despite her comments about Israel and being barred from the country, Harvard still held her event for almost an hour.
She touted in the Harvard event that former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan would frequently refer to her job as “a rapporteur” as the “crown jewel of the United Nations” because it is the “eyes and ears of human rights.”
“We strictly abide by U.N. rules and values like impartiality, integrity, and commitment to human rights,” she said of her job on Monday afternoon.
Albanese continued, “The question of impartiality is particularly sensitive to my mandate because it has always been a political issue.”
She added that her “mandate” is to monitor and document the violations in the territory that Israel has “occupied” since 1967.
The U.N. official also insisted that she has documented and written about the violations committed by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Albanese said that while “impartiality” is important, she will continue to go on what she believes are facts and report on what she has found.
She went on to respond to the news of Israel’s ban.
“Today, it was all over in the news as something for me that’s known news. The fact that Israel denies me entry because of something very upsetting that I’ve said. It’s extremely, extremely disheartening,” she said.
Albanese said she found the Israeli government accusing her of antisemitism as “very painful.”
“It’s really something I deeply stand against,” she said on Monday.
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She expressed frustration that her work is hampered because she has not been able to enter the “occupied Palestinian territory,” which affects her observations there.
Since the attack on Israel in October, Harvard has been criticized, received lawsuits, and lost millions in donations for its handling of antisemitism on campus, which partially led to the resignation of Claudine Gay as the university’s president.
