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They say that there are generally only two certainties in life: death and taxes. We can add a third, namely that the United Nations is rotten to the core with anti-Semitism, and that at the top of this pyramid is Francesca Albanese.

Albanese holds omnipresence title of “UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967”.

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In short, his mandate can be described as aiming to pathologically target the State of Israel for opprobrium and demonization, while reflexively excusing and justifying Palestinian terror.

Despite allegedly being an “independent expert,” even in the pantheon of Jew-hatred at the UN, there has been no other official with such an inexhaustible resume of unrepentant and unbridled anti-Semitism, engagement in the distortion of the Holocaust and whitewashing of terror.

Speaking this week in Princeton, Albanese – once again – sought to justify the October 7 massacre carried out by Hamas, by alleging it was not anti-Semitic, but rather in response to Israel’s alleged oppression.

Maybe Albanian missed the conversation » a Hamas terrorist had with his father on the day of the massacre, excitedly calling home to tell him the news: “I killed ten Jews with my own hands!”

But Albanese has repeatedly sought to justify the unjustifiable over the past year, whitewashing the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.

In February this year, responding to comments by French President Emmanuel Macron at a ceremony in Paris honoring the 42 French-Israelis murdered on October 7, during which he rightly called the Hamas attack of “the greatest anti-Semitic massacre of our century”, Ms. Albanese tweeted: “The victims of 7/10 were not killed because of their Judaism, but in reaction to Israel’s oppression.”

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The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs immediately condemned Albanese’s remarkscalling them a “disgrace”, while the German Foreign Ministry added: “Justifying the horrific terrorist attacks of September 10 and denying their anti-Semitic nature is appalling. Making such statements within the UN is disgraceful and goes against everything the UN stands for.

Yet we shouldn’t be surprised.

In November 2022, while addressing a conference organized by Hamas in Gaza, Albanese implored the participants “You have the right to resist.” Are the mass murders, rapes, torture and kidnappings of Jewish women and children, including Canadians, the kind of “resistance” Ms. Albanese is referring to?

In addition to massively violating its obligations of impartiality and independence under the UN’s own rules Code of Conduct for Special RapporteursAlbanese also has a long history of peddling an endless array of anti-Semitic tropes, such as accusing the United States of being “subjugated by the Jewish lobby,» and engaging in repeated distortions of the Holocaust, such as assimilate Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler, then, again this month, outrageously comparing Israel, Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.

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In response to the above message, Albanese was immediately condemned by the UNITED STATES, France And Germanywho also called for his withdrawal from the United Nations.

Yet the Canadian government has remained deafeningly silent.

Next week, Ms Albanese is due to travel to Canada for a series of public lectures, including at University of Toronto. Meanwhile, in Montreal, Ms. Albanese is expected to speak at a event alongside Charlotte Kates, a leader of Samidoun, a group recently designated by Canada as a terrorist entity, due to their links to the PFLP.

If the Canadian government is serious about combating the relentless rise in hatred of Jews, it will refuse entry to this unrepentant anti-Semite and apologist for terrorism, posing as a UN official.

In fact, last week our organization, a global coalition of lawyers, including in Canada, wrote to the Minister of Immigration, Marc Miller, asking him to do precisely that, given the public interest and of its legal obligations. We also noted that given Albanese’s continued incitement and reasonable likelihood of engaging in this type of hateful and extremist public behavior, this constitutes a clear and direct threat to the security of the Canadian Jewish community and a violation of the “deliberate promotion of anti-Semitism” under the law. THE Criminal Code, which also includes a ban on “condoning, denying or minimizing” the Holocaust.

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Albanese’s remarks, including the justification of harm to Israelis, the use of misleading stereotypes and repeated comparisons to the Nazis, would also clearly fall within the scope of the practical definition of anti-Semitism as part of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, the most widely adopted global definition of anti-Semitism, which the Government of Canada adopted in 2019.

Unfortunately, we have not heard from the minister.

Similarly, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly has yet to condemn Albanese’s latest objectionable remarks distorting the Holocaust, which have been unequivocally condemned by Canada’s allies in the United States, France and Canada. Germany.

October 28, 2024 press conference on Parliament HillThe Center for Jewish and Israeli Affairs (CIJA), the leading advocacy group for Canada’s Jewish community, also called on Joly and the government to condemn Albanese, citing his deeply troubling record of anti-Semitic remarks and the concerns of the Jewish community. Canadian. who are already subject to incessant daily attacks.

Yet this call also appears to have fallen on deaf ears.

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There is no doubt that the United Nations and the very system of multilateralism are part of the DNA of Canadian foreign policy. Just last week, on the occasion of United Nations Day, Joly praised the UN as an “indispensable force for good in the world”. Yet here you have an individual engaging in the most vile and reprehensible anti-Semitic behavior, under the auspices of the United Nations, and Joly is nowhere to be seen or heard.

If the Canadian government is serious about tackling the scourge of anti-Semitism that has invaded Canada and strives to play its role as a responsible actor in the international community, it will unequivocally condemn Albanese and say that she is not welcome in Canada.

Arsen Ostrovsky is a human rights lawyer and CEO of The International Legal Forum. You can follow him on ‘X’ at: @Ostrov_A.

National Post

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