The United States this week imposed financial and travel sanctions on Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Italian lawyer had led a “campaign” against Israel and displayed “blatant antisemitism”, invoking a February 2025 executive order signed by President Donald Trump that enables punitive measures against individuals who support international investigations targeting US or Israeli officials. The decision was swiftly condemned by the United Nations, which called the move an attack on the independence of its human-rights experts. The European Union also voiced “deep regret”, with Commission spokesperson Anouar El Anouni stressing the bloc’s commitment to protecting UN mandate holders. Hamas denounced the sanctions as further evidence of Washington’s “flagrant bias” toward Israel, while human-rights lawyers interviewed by several media outlets argued that unilateral measures against a UN official violate the UN Charter and international law. Albanese has pledged to continue her work. Days before the sanctions were announced, she presented a 27-page report that accused more than 60 companies—including Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet and Palantir—of enabling what she described as Israel’s “economy of genocide” in Gaza and the West Bank. The US action against her follows earlier sanctions on International Criminal Court judges over probes involving Israel, underscoring mounting friction between Washington and multilateral accountability mechanisms.