Nosheen Iqbal

She's been accused of anti-Semitism.

And she's had all sorts of abuse thrown at her, even at the United Nations itself.

From The Guardian, I'm Nosheen Iqbal.

Today in Focus, Francesca Albanese in her own words.

Francesca Albanese, welcome to Today in Focus.

Now, you are an international lawyer specialising in human rights in the Middle East.

And since 2022, you've been the UN's special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories.

Last July, in an extraordinary move, the US government sanctioned you.

It's a fate that you shared with Vladimir Putin, Bashar al-Assad and the late Ayatollah Khamenei.

What impact did that have on your life?

So you can't use a credit card or a debit card?

So even going to the supermarket, something as trivial as that, you're always having to carry cash.

And so this includes your own employment as a professor as well, right?

So this includes you teaching in the US, which you did.

You can do that no longer.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The US government has said it sanctioned Francesca Albanese for cooperating with the ICC, the International Criminal Court, which is pursuing prosecution of Israeli nationals for war crimes.

It also accused Albanese of being unfit for service as a UN special rapporteur.

In February, Francesca's husband and daughter filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, arguing that she was being punished for speaking out about Israel's abuses against Palestinians.