The Trump administration has officially reinstated broad financial sanctions against Francesca Albanese, the controversial United Nations official overseeing Palestinian Arab territories, after a federal appeals court cleared the way for the penalties to return.

According to Agence France-Presse, the renewed sanctions came after an appellate court effectively overturned an earlier judicial ruling that had temporarily blocked enforcement against Albanese.

An updated notice posted Wednesday on the website of the United States Department of the Treasury confirmed that Albanese’s sanctions status has once again been activated.

The designation freezes any assets tied to the American financial system and effectively cuts Albanese off from major global banking networks, severely restricting her ability to conduct ordinary financial transactions or use major credit card services.

Washington first imposed sanctions on Albanese in July 2025, accusing her of spearheading efforts to push the International Criminal Court toward prosecuting American and Israeli officials, corporations, and business leaders.

Earlier this month, however, the sanctions were temporarily halted after a federal judge issued an injunction, ruling that the administration had likely violated Albanese’s free speech protections by penalizing her following her outspoken criticism of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

The United States Department of State later emphasized that the suspension of sanctions reflected only a temporary legal development and did not represent any change in U.S. policy toward Albanese.

Albanese has long faced criticism from Israel and its allies over what opponents describe as persistent anti-Israel bias.

Most recently, several European Union foreign ministers condemned comments she delivered during an Al Jazeera conference, where Albanese stated: “The fact that instead of stopping Israel, most of the world has armed, given Israel political excuses, political sheltering, economic and financial support … We who do not control large amounts of financial capitals, algorithms and weapons, we now see that we as a humanity have a common enemy.”

Albanese later denied that she had referred to Israel itself as humanity’s enemy.

She insisted in a subsequent interview that she “never, ever, ever said ‘Israel is the common enemy of humanity,'” dismissing the accusations as “completely false accusations.”

Criticism surrounding Albanese stretches back years. In 2022, old social media posts resurfaced in which she alleged that the “Jewish lobby” controls the United States.

At the time, Albanese rejected claims that the comments were antisemitic, arguing instead that her remarks had been “mischaracterized.” Nevertheless, scrutiny over her rhetoric and conduct has continued to intensify.

Her attacks on Israel escalated sharply following the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre in Israel, which Albanese described as an event that must be viewed in “context” and as a response to alleged Israeli “aggression.”

In late March, Albanese accused Israel of receiving “a license to torture Palestinians” and claimed that “torture has effectively become state policy” in the Jewish state.

Israel’s diplomatic mission in Geneva responded forcefully to those remarks.

“Francesca Albanese is not a promoter of human rights; she is an agent of chaos… and any document she produces is nothing but a politically-charged, activist rant.”

The Israeli statement further accused Albanese of promoting extremist rhetoric designed to delegitimize Israel.

Albanese “advocates dangerous extremist narratives to undermine the very existence of the State of Israel”, the statement said.