Top entertainment figures back under-fire UN Palestinians expert

PARIS: Over a hundred top figures from the world of entertainment signed an open letter Saturday in support of UN Palestinian human rights expert Francesca Albanese who faces calls to resign over comments about the war in Gaza.

France and Germany have called for Albanese to step down over remarks last weekend in which she referred to a “common enemy of humanity” after criticising “most of the world” and the media for enabling Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza.

Critics and Israel have accused the UN Special Rapporteur of referring to Israel as a “common enemy”, while Albanese has denounced this as a “manipulation” and “completely false”.

In a letter organised by the Artists for Palestine group and shared with AFP, over a 100 cultural figures backed Albanese, including actors Mark Ruffalo and Javier Bardem, Nobel-winning author Annie Ernaux, and British musician Annie Lennox.

The signatories “offer our full support to Francesca Albanese, a defender of human rights and therefore also of the Palestinian people’s right to exist,” the letter says.

“There are infinitely more of us, in every corner of the Earth, who want force no longer to be the law. Who know what the word ‘law’ truly means,” it concludes.

Published on the website of Artists for Palestine, it also reproduces the full remarks by Albanese who was speaking via videoconference at a forum in Doha last Saturday organised by the Al Jazeera TV network.

Other celebrities to offer support for Albanese include actresses Rosa Salazar and Asia Argento, Oscar-nominated film directors Yorgos Lanthimos and Kaouther Ben Hania and Latin music star Residente.

A group of French MPs sent a letter to French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot on Tuesday denouncing Albanese’s remarks as “antisemitic”.

Barrot called for her to step down on Wednesday, saying that France “unreservedly condemns the outrageous and reprehensible remarks”.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul on Thursday said her position was “untenable”.

Albanese has been a consistent outspoken critic of Israel’s more-than-two-year bombardment of Gaza which has resulted in the deaths of over 70,000 people and the destruction of most of the territory’s infrastructure.