Danon Presents Albanese With Draft Resignation Letter at UN

Israel’s UN ambassador Danny Danon displayed a draft resignation letter for special rapporteur Francesca Albanese in footage of a confrontation at the United Nations published overnight. He called on her to sign the document, which had been written in her name. The exchange followed the presentation of her report accusing Israel of targeting Palestinian media workers during the Gaza war. Danon rejected her accusations and accused her of overlooking Hamas’s crimes while using her UN position to promote an extremist political agenda. “Your accusations are not proof, your assumptions are not evidence, and repeating the word ‘genocide’ does not make it true,” Danon told her. The draft letter accused her of abusing human-rights advocacy to justify terrorism. The United States also called for her removal on October 26. Speaking at a General Assembly Third Committee meeting, Ambassador Jeffrey Bartos, the U.S. representative for UN management and reform, urged member states to say publicly what he said they had told him privately: “That Albanese must go.” Her report was submitted to the General Assembly as document A/81/249. In July 2025, the U.S. State Department sanctioned Albanese under an executive order targeting the International Criminal Court, saying she had engaged with the court in efforts to prosecute U.S. and Israeli nationals.