The United States has once again included Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories who had harshly criticized Israel, on the list of sanctioned people. In recent days the sanctions had been lifted in response to a judicial order, but the Trump administration had specified that it was a temporary measure.
Francesca Albanese on the black list
The reinstatement of sanctions was made official with a notice published on the Treasury Department website. Albanese is once again on a global “blacklist” that bars her from using major credit cards or making banking transactions. The U.S. Treasury’s move came after an appeals court issued an administrative stay on an earlier ruling while the court weighs the merits of the case.
Albanese, an Italian citizen, was at the forefront in accusing Israel of having carried out a genocide in Gaza in its devastating military campaign after the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023. The standoff with the US administration began in 2025. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, announcing the sanctions, said that the woman had “spread blatant anti-Semitism, expressed support for terrorism and open contempt for the United States, Israel and the West”.
Due to sanctions, Albanese cannot enter US territory and does not have access to his bank accounts. The UN rapporteur has repeatedly denounced that she no longer has a credit card and that she is “forced to travel with cash”, defining the measure as punitive and persecutory. Albanese’s husband and daughter sued the Trump administration in February, arguing that sanctions would make it “nearly impossible to meet the demands of daily life.”