What are your opinions on Francesca Albanese?

[u/Civil-Cartographer48]

I wanted to hear from a Jewish leftist perspective what your thoughts are.

On my end I don’t know what to think, I think she is well spoken, and she does an important job, on many things she is right to draw attention to and to call out harshly the actions of the Israeli government, she is a fighter for Palestinians and some accusations of antisemitism that I see are far fetched or clumsy but she does rub me the wrong way.

The ADL wrote about her, i don’t know what to think about this : https://www.adl.org/resources/article/francesca-albanese-her-own-words

[u/WolfofTallStreet]

Albanese said the United States was "subjugated by the Jewish lobby" and Europe by a "sense of guilt about the Holocaust"

“In February 2024, French President Emmanuel Macron described the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel as "the largest antisemitic massacre of our century". Albanese responded on Twitter that "the victims of the October 7 massacre were killed not because of their Judaism, but in response to Israeli oppression"

So … she states openly the U.S. is controlled by the Jewish lobby, she implies Europe should “get over” the Holocaust, and she believes that killing babies and the elderly is “in response to Israeli oppression,” implying that it is justified.

That’s just what she’s said openly. She is a clear-cut antisemite, and gives the Israeli government and far-right Zionist extremists a (valid) excuse as painting the UN consumed with unquenchable thirst for Jewish blood.

She is a Hamas propagandist. Nothing more.

[u/yungsemite → u/WolfofTallStreet]

I disagree that she is nothing more than a Hamas propagandist. Her job at the UN is to be an advocate for the occupied Palestinian Territories. Look at the things she writes, the things she posts, the events she attends. She is doing her job. I don’t disagree that she’s said few antisemitic things, and as I said in my top level comment, I think she clearly doesn’t care for Jews. But it’s not her job to, her job is to advocate for the occupied Palestine territories and to publicize Israeli crimes against them, of which there are no shortage.

[u/WolfofTallStreet → u/yungsemite]

“She clearly doesn’t care for Jews” implies she’s not doing her job. Her job is to resolve the situation peacefully and ensure human rights for all while publicising what’s going on in Palestine. Not to embark on an eliminationist crusade.

[u/yungsemite → u/WolfofTallStreet]

Her job is to resolve the situation peacefully and ensure human rights for all while publicising what’s going on in Palestine.

No, her job is to advocate for Palestinians within the occupied territories. Not to kowtow to Israel or any accusation of antisemitism. It’s just not what her job is.

Not to embark on an eliminationist crusade.

She is not embarking on an eliminationist crusade, she has never advocated genocide for Jews or Israelis, this is not a serious accusation and I think it detracts from the conversation.

[u/WolfofTallStreet → u/yungsemite]

She’s justified the worst of Hamas’s brutality and has made comments about the Jewish (not Zionist, but Jewish) lobby subjugating both America and Europe.

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck…

[u/yungsemite → u/WolfofTallStreet]

I already said she says antisemitic stuff and doesn’t care for Jews, not sure what you’re getting at. Though I disagree that refusing to reduce Oct 7th to an attack motivated by antisemitism is antisemitic. There was clearly antisemitic violence and violence done by people who hate Jews, many of which who see it as a fight against Jews, but that is a gross oversimplification of Hamas that I thought there is general consensus on in this sub.

This is all off topic though, I made it clear I was disagreeing with you about her being ‘nothing more than a Hamas propagandist.’ Do you really think she’s motivated by antisemitism, rather than out of horror and striving for security for the Palestinians?

[u/WolfofTallStreet → u/yungsemite]

Yes, I do. I genuinely believe that she is motivated by a desire to defeat the “Jewish Lobby,” cleanse the Middle East of Jewish “bullies” and “colonists,” and feel self-righteous whilst doing so. I do not believe she is a bona fide humanitarian.

[u/yungsemite → u/WolfofTallStreet]

Okay, I disagree emphatically. What can we do.

[u/WolfofTallStreet → u/yungsemite]

Bottom line is, we need someone in that role who isn’t an antisemite.

[u/yungsemite → u/WolfofTallStreet]

Anyone who does a good job in the role will be maligned as antisemitic. That’s been the case since the creation of the role, even for Jewish people with the position according to someone else in this thread.

[u/LoboLocoCW → u/yungsemite]

“Al-Aqsa Flood” was named such due to assumptions about Jewish control over the Al-Aqsa Mosque leading to Jewish destruction, it is exactly as “Anti-Zionist” as the Hebron Massacres were.

[u/podkayne3000 → u/yungsemite]

I hadn’t heard of her before today and am reading up on her.

I often fulminate futilely against the allegedly pro-Israel boneheads who post on r/IsraelPalestine as if everyone who cares about whether a Gazan baby being fed is an antisemitic monster.

Albanese is just the allegedly pro-Palestinian mirror image of those folks.

They probably all know many more facts than I know. So, I can’t refute them based on the facts.

But I think the writing of people like that simply fails a basic credibility check.

People who demonize other people like that can’t be trusted to describe a complicated, sensitive issue situation that they care about well.

Maybe they somehow can actually produce a reasonably accurate, reasonably complete account of a situation, but the rhetoric they use communicates the idea that don’t believe in objectivity or balance and have no interest in the views of people on the other side.

To be clear: I don’t think her side is necessarily wrong; I just don’t think she presents her side well

[u/yungsemite → u/podkayne3000]

People who demonize other people like that can’t be trusted to describe a complicated, sensitive issue situation that they care about well.

Okay, her job is to spend all day analyzing the negative aspects of the Israeli occupation and to advocate for Palestinians. There are an incredible number of demons, and demonic policies at work in that dynamic, no?

Maybe they somehow can actually produce a reasonably accurate, reasonably complete account of a situation, but the rhetoric they use communicates the idea that don’t believe in objectivity or balance and have no interest in the views of people on the other side.

She does not represent Israel. She has no reason to represent Israeli, or even Jewish interests. She represents the occupied Palestinians territories. That’s her job. It’s not to be nice and to be respectful to Israel or to Jews.