Francesca Albanese and the limits of expertise

Francesca Albanese is the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Palestine. She talks about herself as an expert. She defends this role against accusations that her reports take a one-sided view of the Palestinians in the Middle East conflict. The impression arose because she sees all the blame for the violent dispute there as being on Israel's side.

For example, they have no right to self-defense if the attacked state militarily occupies territory. This implies that the murders of October 7th were acts of resistance. For Albanese it is clear that Israel is committing genocide. All of this could be discussed if necessary. Just not with clueless or malicious people. Their limitation is most evident in the attempt to invalidate the historical argument of the founders of Israel. He stands out extremely in the claim that the Nazis' extermination of the Jews was not primarily aimed at the Jews.

She indulges in her own fantasies without knowing anything

Albanese recently stated in a conversation that the term anti-Semitism had historically not specifically referred to Jews, but to all people in the Middle East. For the National Socialists, the Jews were primarily non-Europeans. This is shown, among other things, by the fact that some inmates in the concentration camps, namely the particularly weak ones, were referred to as Muslims. This almost seemed to suggest that the real target of the Nazi murders were Muslims.

Albanese has now been shown the fallacy of this idea. She could have read what is true in all the histories of anti-Semitism or on Wikipedia, in the fifth and sixth sentences of the article on this term. If she now “sincerely apologizes” for her error, the question remains what to make of a Middle East and international law expert who lacks fundamental knowledge in her field. Who has neither read Primo Levi, her Italian compatriot, nor anything at all about concentration camps or the concept of anti-Semitism. Who, without knowing anything, indulge in their own fantasies about the history of the questions that are being asked in a deadly way in the Middle East.

Your combination of maximally sharp judgments and minimal knowledge, wrapped up in the claim to be an expert, is fatal. Even more fatal: Francesca Albanese is not alone in this nonchalantly foolish approach to the most serious crises of our time. In March 2025, 77 German-speaking international law experts protested against the cancellation of Albanese's lectures at local universities. It violates freedom of expression and academic freedom. What kind of science? Fortunately, the lawyers did not manage to read the Basic Law into an obligation for universities to invite stupid people to lecture.