As a UN special rapporteur, Francesca Albanese has an obligation under the UN Human Rights Council Code of Conduct to “uphold the highest standards of efficiency, competence and integrity, meaning, in particular, though not exclusively, probity, impartiality, equity, honesty and good faith.”
Furthermore, she has a duty to “always seek to establish the facts, based on objective, reliable information emanating from relevant credible sources, that she has duly cross-checked to the best extent possible.” Nonetheless, despite these official UN rules, Albanese has a long history of using her mandate to spread falsehoods and misinformation.
For instance, in July 2025, Albanese posted a photo of a young boy named Osama al-Raqab, portraying him as a victim of the “planned famine” being conducted by Israel as “a technique of genocide.” However, in reality, al-Raqab is a very sick child who suffers from cystic fibrosis. In June of this year, Israel facilitated his medical transfer from Gaza to Italy to receive treatment for his condition. Albanese is yet to remove her post or even apologize for spreading such blatant misinformation.
Likewise, last year Albanese was criticized by the UN Spokesperson after spreading a phony graphic based on an apparent Sky News article which purportedly claimed that a Gazan doctor was “likely raped to death in an Israeli prison.” In reality, the genuine Sky News article made no such claim at all while the graphic Albanese shared was created by the anti-Israel group “LandPalestine.” Nevertheless, despite the clear disinformation, Albanese herself added that “the racism of Western media who are not covering this, and Western politicians who are not denouncing this… is absolutely sickening.” The UN Spokesperson responded that UN officials like Albanese need to take “special care not to pass along any disinformation.” Again, Albanese has not yet taken down her false post.
Even before her mandate began, Albanese has also engaged in malicious conspiracy theories targeting Israel and the United States. For example, days after the deadly 2015 ISIS terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo, Albanese spread misinformation from Iranian state-owned media which claimed that the “CIA and Mossad carried out the Paris attack.”
Unsurprisingly, Albanese has also repeatedly spread false statistics and made up numbers to support her egregious claims against the Jewish state. Below are a few examples of Albanese making up math to distort the facts:
Albanese Falsely Claims a Prominent Medical Journal Marks Gaza Death Toll at 186,000 (July 8, 2024)
In a social media post on X, Albanese falsely states that “If one includes both direct & indirect deaths from Israel’s assault, the death toll in Gaza goes up to 186,000 people, according to the medical journal @TheLancet. That’s 1 in every 12 Gaza inhabitants killed in the last 9 months of genocide.”
However, in reality, this is not a scientific article published in The Lancet, nor is it the position of the medical journal. In fact, it’s just a 1-page letter by politically biased Palestinian scientists-which the editors make clear is not peer-reviewed. The lead signatory is a Palestinian named Rasha Khatib, a virulently anti-Israel activist from Ramallah who believes that “Israeli violence is to maintain a neo-colonial military occupation and apartheid-like inequality,” whereas “Palestinian violence is the inevitable response…”
Additionally, the letter itself does not claim that 186,000 Palestinians were “killed in the last 9 months.” Instead, this is a rough estimate of what “indirect” deaths could be in future years.
Misinformation Alert: Francesca Albanese is spreading lies.
1. Nowhere does the Lancet say this amount "were killed in the last 9 months." Rather, it's a rough estimate of what "indirect" deaths may result in future years.
2. More importantly, this is not a scientific article.…
- Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) July 8, 2024
Albanese Falsely Claims “400,000 People” Have “Disappeared” in Gaza (June 27, 2025)
In an interview with El País, as supposed evidence that Israel is committing genocide, Albanese falsely claims that in Gaza, “there are 400,000 people who have disappeared.” A few days prior to her interview, the Palestinian ambassador to the Ivory Coast, Abdal Karim Ewaida, posted on X that “a Harvard report reveals that 377,000 people are missing in Gaza (probably dead under the rubble),” adding that this figure “is based on Israeli military data.”
However, in reality, no Harvard report exists and the study did not come from Harvard University. Instead, the study in question was posted in a researcher database managed by the university. Most importantly, though, the study never claimed that 377,000 Gazans went missing at all. Instead, the number was referring to an apparent comparison in the total population for three population centers from before October 7th and May 2025, not implying that these Gazans were dead or unable to be located. Furthermore, the 377,000 figure was in itself an admitted error by the researcher incorrectly recorded the population data for one of the centers.
Albanese Falsely Claims Tel Aviv Stock Exchange Rose 213% Since War in Gaza Began (June 30, 2025)
In Albanese’s latest biased report for the UN Human Rights Council, Albanese falsely stated that there has been “a record 179 per cent increase in United States dollar-equivalent equity prices of the companies listed in the Tel Aviv stock exchange since the start of the assault on Gaza, translating into a $157.9 billion gain.” For reference, a footnote adds that this is calculated by comparing October 12, 2023, to May 22, 2025. Furthermore, when presenting her report to the Council, Albanese inflated the figure even higher, now saying the Exchange has “soared by 213 percent in USD” since October 2023.
In reality, the figure is closer to 67% when importing the same dates Albanese uses in her report. This is calculated by tracking the TA-125 Index, the Israeli equivalent of the U.S. S&P 500 which represents the 125 most highly capitalized companies listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. As shown in the graph below, from October 12, 2023, to May 22, 2025, the TA-125 Index rose by 51%, translating to a 67% gain in real terms once converted to USD. If we extend this period to July 3rd, the day Albanese presented her report and made the “213%” claim, the truth is closer to only 110%.
As for where Albanese came up with her inflated numbers, Yannay Spitzer, Assistant Professor of Economics at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, suggests that Albanese may have erroneously indexed the market based off of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (ticker symbol: TASE), the public company which operates the stock exchange and in no way represents the entire performance of the market. For instance, from October 12, 2023 to July 3, 2025, TASE posted a gain of 203%, which is close to Albanese’s “213%” figure. However, Professor Spitzer adds that since the numbers do not match exactly, “if this is the source of the mistake, it is not a single mistake.” Nonetheless, he concludes that “the data on Tel Aviv indicators are visible to everyone and you need to be an amateur to reach such inflated numbers without noticing that they are completely out of the scope of reason.”
Albanese Falsely Tells UN Human Rights Council that Israel killed 420,000 Palestinians in One Year (July 10, 2023)
At the 53rd session of the UN Human Rights Council in 2023, while presenting her biased and one-sided report targeting Israel, Albanese egregiously stated that Israel killed “420,000 Palestinians” since “the beginning of [her] mandate” in March 2022. Afterwards, following pushback, Albanese was forced to issue a rare correction letter, stating that she misspoke under “time pressure” and meant to “426” instead of “426,000.” Noticeable, this is just one example of a clear pattern: Albanese’s mistakes and rhetorical slip-ups only go in one direction and always error on the side of promoting or inflating the anti-Israel narrative. Never once has Albanese made blunder which favored Israel, demonstrating her overt bias.
.@FranceskAlbs, your letter above apologizing for getting the numbers wrong by 1,000% quotes yourself as having said "426,000" instead of "426" due to "time pressure" - but in fact what you had said was "420,000." Are you trying to downplay your mistake? https://t.co/fkjzkAISPe
- Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) July 14, 2023
