UN Gaza rapporteur Francesca Albanese banned from Swiss university event due to 'lack of balance'

The University of Bern has cancelled a scheduled Amnesty International event featuring United Nations Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese, claiming it was not "balanced" enough.

In a statement on Friday, the Swiss institution said that following a review of the panel’s line-up, it had determined the event no longer met its standards for being "science-based and balanced" and withdrew permission for it to be held on campus.

Despite the ban, Albanese is still scheduled to speak later this week in Geneva at another Amnesty International event at Uptown Geneva.

The cancellation came as the pro-Palestinian official released her latest UN report, accusing more than 60 companies of profiting from Israel’s occupation and assault on Gaza.

The report, which will be presented to the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday, calls on corporations to sever ties with Israel and urges the International Criminal Court to consider prosecuting corporate executives for complicity in war crimes, including genocide and apartheid.

Among the companies named are Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Lockheed Martin, Elbit Systems, Caterpillar and Hyundai.

Albanese claims these firms have contributed to "the transformation of Israel’s economy of occupation into an economy of genocide", accusing them of direct involvement in surveillance, arms supplies, and infrastructure used in the occupation and the military campaign in Gaza.

"Too many influential corporate entities remain inextricably financially bound to Israel’s apartheid and militarism," the report claimed.

It also criticises Big Tech firms for treating the occupied Palestinian territories as “a unique testing ground” for technologies including AI-powered predictive policing, battlefield automation, and military cloud computing.

Microsoft and Amazon were named for their role in Israel’s Project Nimbus and their support of Israel’s military cloud infrastructure.

Palantir was cited for allegedly providing battlefield AI used in Gaza, while arms producers were accused of knowingly supplying weapons used in civilian areas.

Israel’s mission in Geneva has dismissed the report as "legally groundless" and accused Albanese of abusing her UN mandate.

The New Arab has approached the University of Bern for comment on the ban.