US Treasury Department lifts sanctions against Francesca Albanese
Sanctions against Albanese were suspended after a court order protecting freedom of speech
The United States lifted sanctions against Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory who had harshly criticised Israel, in compliance with a court order. A notice published on the website of the Treasury Department made official the removal from the blacklist, which cost her a global blockade with the inability to use major credit cards or make any bank transactions. Last week, Judge Richard Leon of the District of Columbia granted the request for a preliminary injunction against the sanctions.
Leon last week ruled that the Trump administration had in all likelihood violated Albanese's First Amendment rights when it imposed the sanctions on her in July 2025 through measures that appeared to directly target her statements critical of Israel, deciding to temporarily suspend them.
The accusations of "blatant anti-Semitism"
"The protection of free speech is 'always' in the public interest," Leon wrote in the opinion that accompanied the order. Albanese has served as UN Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian territories since 2022, with her recent work focusing on Israel's military campaign against Hamas in Gaza: she accused Israel of "genocide" and "human rights violations in Gaza", also referring some officials to the International Criminal Court for possible prosecution, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in announcing the sanctions against Albanese in July 2025, had made thoughtful judgments including those of "blatant anti-Semitism", "support for terrorism" and open "contempt for the United States, Israel and the West". The UN rapporteur had defended herself against accusations of anti-Semitism, also levelled by Israel, rejecting accusations of support for terrorist groups and equating her criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism.
Albanese has been at the forefront in accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza in the course of its military campaign, launched in response to the attacks perpetrated by Hamas on 7 October 2023: she had already ended up in the storm after claiming that the victims of the attack almost three years ago were not killed because they were Jewish, but because of Israeli actions.
