JERUSALEM (dpa-AFX) - The United States has imposed sanctions on Francesca Paola Albanese, the UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories alleging that she has directly engaged with the International Criminal Court in efforts to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute US, Israeli nationals without the consent of those two countries. Neither the United States nor Israel is party to the Rome Statute, based on which the International Criminal Court was founded.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this action is a gross infringement on the sovereignty of both countries.
Albanese has spewed unabashed antisemitism, expressed support for terrorism, and open contempt for the United States, Israel, and the West, he said in a statement.
Albanese, an independent U.N. investigator for human rights in Gaza and the West Bank, has been critical of Israel's military operations in the Gaza Strip. She had called for the International Criminal Court to prosecute U.S. corporate executives for allegedly profiting from the war.
On her recommendation, ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in November last year.
'She has recently escalated this effort by writing threatening letters to dozens of entities worldwide, including major American companies across finance, technology, defense, energy, and hospitality, making extreme and unfounded accusations and recommending the ICC pursue investigations and prosecutions of these companies and their executives,' Rubio said.
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