People hold Hamas flags May 7, 2021. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad

Hamas on Tuesday praised United Nations Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese for describing the West Bank and Gaza as an “open-air prison” during public statements she made to announce the release of a new report on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Albanese, citing postmodernist philosopher Michel Foucault, accused Israel of limiting the movements of Palestinians, as well as surveilling and disciplining them.

“In her speech, Albanese shed light on the Israeli crimes and violations against the Palestinian people that have turned the occupied Palestinian territories into an open-air prison where all forms of discrimination and apartheid are exercised against the Palestinian people,” said the group, which is designated as a terrorist organization by Australia, Canada, the European Union, Israel, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Hamas then called for sanctions against Israel, saying, “The UN must take more measures to hold Israeli occupation leaders accountable for crimes and violations against the Palestinian people.”

Albanese, appointed to her position in May 2022 to report on conditions in the Palestinian territories, has taken controversial positions before, eliciting widespread criticism from Israeli officials and nongovernmental organizations. Last August, only three months into her tenure, she defended Palestinians’ “right to resist” Israeli “occupation” during three days of fighting in which Gaza fired over 1,100 rockets at Israel. The remarks were interpreted by one watchdog as approving of “killing Israelis.”

In the past, Albanese, who repeatedly accuses Israel of “apartheid,” “genocide,” and “war crimes,” has acknowledged that being impartial in assessing the facts of the conflict is a personal challenge. In an interview with the Institute for Palestine Studies in which she discussed Palestinian refugees and the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) she said, “I feared deep down perhaps I feared that embarking on research on a matter on which I deeply held personal views could compromise my objectivity.”

This latest controversy follows the release of the Human Rights Council Commission of Inquiry’s (CoI) report accusing Israel of war crimes and suppression of Palestinian civil society. Israel, responding to its claims, called the report the work of “kangaroo trials” and noted that one of the group’s commissioners, Miloon Kothari, has publicly uttered antisemitic conspiracies, accusing Jews of controlling social media to promote a pro-Israel narrative.

Israel’s relationship with the UN has become increasingly frosty in recent years.

In December, the UN General Assembly scheduled a controversial vote on a resolution asking the International Court of Justice to issue an advisory opinion on the “occupied” Palestinian territories after after observance of Shabbat began in New York City, which caused the US Mission to the UN to vote on Israel’s behalf by proxy.

After the resolution passed, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan, speaking before the Security Council, accused the body of allowing Palestinian leaders to obstruct the peace process by waging a “jihad war of multilateral terrorism” intended to “destroy the Jewish state.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.