Francesca Albanese to speak at event with Samidoun’s Charlotte Kates

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Francesca Albanese, the embattled United Nations special rapporteur overseeing the Palestinian territories, is set to headline a Montreal event featuring Samidoun terror group leader Charlotte Kates.

The inaugural “Coordinating Council 4 Palestine” conference will be held on Friday and Saturday. Kates is scheduled to speak on a panel about “Criminalizing Dissent” on the first day, while Albanese will give the concluding keynote address the following day. The special rapporteur, who has been accused of antisemitism over her comments about Israel, has also accepted an invitation to speak at the University of Toronto about international law and genocide next week.

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The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), an influential Canadian Jewish organization, condemned Albanese for her willingness to participate in an event with Kates, saying it should trigger her eviction from the UN role.

“Francesca Albanese’s choice to appear alongside Charlotte Kates, a leader of the terrorist group Samidoun, is an appalling demonstration of Albanese’s alignment with those who celebrate violence against Israelis and stoke hatred against Jews,” Richard Marceau, the vice president of external affairs and general counsel of CIJA told the National Post in a statement.

“Albanese’s willingness to associate with someone of this record only reinforces the urgent need for her removal from her UN position, as her actions degrade both the values of the United Nations and Canada’s commitment to combating antisemitism.”

Samidoun was labelled a terrorist entity by Canadian and American authorities earlier this month, given its close ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), another designated terrorist group.

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Kates, who founded Samidoun led a crowd of anti-Israel demonstrators in Vancouver in chanting, “Long Live October 7.” She was arrested in the spring after she called the Hamas atrocities “heroic and brave,” but she has not been charge. At a rally celebrating the one-year anniversary of the attacks, Samidoun members chanted, “Death to Canada!” Kates’s husband, Khaled Barakat, is a PFLP official.

Liberal Party MP Anthony Housefather, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s special advisor on antisemitism, previously criticized the UN for failing to discipline Albanese following her earlier controversial remarks about Israel, and said he was not surprised to hear the special rapporteur would be participating in an event featuring Kates.

“I think that it is unsurprising, based on Ms. Albanese’s history of antisemitism, that she would choose to be associated with a woman who was arrested for hate speech and leads an organization that has been designated by Canada as a Terrorist group. I certainly hope that any venue that has scheduled Ms. Albanese as a speaker will reconsider based on this,” Housefather told the Post in an email.

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Albanese’s visit to Canada has been marred by calls to bar her from the country over her remarks that have been denounced as antisemitism. In mid-October, Albanese compared Israel to the Third Reich, arguing that the Jewish state was on a genocidal mission to create a “pure race.” Earlier this summer, Albanese compared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler. Over the summer, Albanese condemned the deaths of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, denouncing them as “acts of aggression” equivalent to an illegal “murder.” When Yahya Sinwar, widely seen as the architect of the October 7 atrocities, was killed this month, she called his death “quite inhumane.” Albanese has made several inflammatory remarks about Jews and Israel, many of which predate her appointment in May 2022.

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Her latest comments drew the condemnation of Jewish leaders, including Canada’s special envoy combatting antisemitism, Deborah Lyons. “It is unacceptable for any official — independent or not — to engage in Holocaust distortion,” Lyons wrote on X, referring to a core component of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, which was adopted by the Canadian government in 2019.

Albanese responded to the controversy last Friday in a statement posted to X. She said she was “deeply disappointed”, that international leaders “have been misled by spurious, recycled allegations against me,” adding that criticism of “Israel’s actions and policies does not render one antisemitic.”

On Monday, CIJA called on the Canadian government to boycott Albanese’s trip and bar her from the country.

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Albanese’s official title is “special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967,” a position that has been criticized for anti-Israel bias. Special rapporteurs are appointed by the Human Rights Council of the UN as independent experts working with the international organization.

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