For years she did what she wanted, said what she wanted regarding the Jewish world, intending to gain applause from those who hated the Jewish people. She got that applause. Time passed. Today she can't even open bank accounts in her homeland.
Albanese's past sends chills. In social media posts, she stated that the United States is "subjugated by the Jewish lobby" and accused the BBC of being penetrated by an "Israeli lobby," invoking classic conspiracy tropes regarding Jewish power and influence.
In Qatar - one of the Muslim Brotherhood's banks - she referred to Israel as humanity's "common enemy" and compared Israeli military actions in Gaza to the Holocaust. Always proud of her own stance, Albanese was also interacting favorably with social media content that equated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Adolf Hitler." She was claiming that the victims of the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacres "were not killed because of their Jewishness" but rather as a reaction to Israeli oppression.
Following her advocacy for International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutions regarding actions of the Jewish state, the US Treasury designated her as a global financial outcast, which froze her US assets, effectively barred her from banking, cut off her credit cards, and blocked her from traveling to the US. Because of the severe global secondary impact of US sanctions, these restrictions even affected her ability to open accounts or use cards in her home country of Italy.
Additionally, her husband, Massimiliano Cali, who is a senior economist at the World Bank in Washington, faced immense professional and legal risks due to the breadth of the sanctions. Following a federal court injunction blocking the sanctions, the US government appealed and successfully reimposed the measures during the ongoing legal battle, continuing the financial and travel restrictions on her.
Multiple U.S. administrations and UN envoys have labeled her rhetoric as "malignant" and "virulent antisemitism". She was also the first UN Special Rapporteur to be formally condemned for antisemitism by both Germany and France. Other European nations—including Austria, Italy, and the Czech Republic—have joined calls demanding her resignation.
European universities, including the Free University of Berlin and Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, have canceled scheduled speaking events featuring Albanese following public pressure. The party is over. Organizations like the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the World Jewish Congress (WJC), and the NGO UN Watch have heavily documented her statements, arguing they violate the UN's expected code of impartiality.
