France, Germany call on UN rights rapporteur on Palestinian territories to resign

France and Germany are calling for the resignation of the UN special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories over comments she made allegedly targeting Israel at a conference, the foreign minister said on Wednesday.

"France unreservedly condemns the outrageous and reprehensible remarks made by Ms Francesca Albanese, which are directed not at the Israeli government, whose policies may be criticised, but at Israel as a people and as a nation, which is absolutely unacceptable," Jean-Noel Barrot told French lawmakers.

Germany followed suit, with its foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, calling for the official to quit. 

"I respect the UN system of independent rapporteurs. However, Ms Albanese has made numerous inappropriate remarks in the past. I condemn her recent statements about Israel. She is untenable in her position," Wadephul wrote on X.

Speaking via videoconference at a forum on Saturday in Doha organised by the Al Jazeera network, Albanese referred to a "common enemy" that enabled the "genocide" in Gaza.

"The fact that instead of stopping Israel, most of the world has armed, given Israel political excuses, political sheltering, economic and financial support," she said.

"We who do not control large amounts of financial capitals, algorithms and weapons, we now see that we as a humanity have a common enemy," she continued.

On Wednesday, Albanese defended herself in an interview with TV channel France 24 recorded before Barrot's statement, denouncing what she called "completely false accusations" and "manipulation" of her words.

"I have never, ever, ever said 'Israel is the common enemy of humanity'," she said.

But Barrot said Albanese's comments added "to a long list of scandalous positions", accusing the Italian rights expert of "justifying" the 7 October, 2023 attacks against Israel and "comparing Israel to the Third Reich".

"She is a political activist who stirs up hate speech that does a disservice to the cause of the Palestinian people," he said, responding to a question from Carole Yadan, a lawmaker from the presidential camp.

Yadan was among 20 other deputies a day earlier to warn Barrot in a letter that Albanese should be "stripped of any UN mandate with immediate effect" following her remarks.

France is one of the UN Security Council's five permanent members.