Francesca Albanese, U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the disputed territories, apologized Monday for saying that antisemitism means hatred of all Semitic peoples.

“I sincerely apologize,” she wrote in a social media statement. “I misread the term ‘Muselmann’ (Muslim) used in Nazi camps for prisoners at the brink of death, wrongly inferring that the term antisemitism originally meant hatred of all Semitic peoples. In fact it was coined specifically to denote hatred of Jews.”

“Muselmann” in German does literally mean “Muslim,” but it became concentration camp slang for a prisoner who had been reduced to a skeleton through starvation and was, as Albanese correctly noted, on the brink of death. While the reason this term was adopted is uncertain, one theory proposes that the slumped, defeated posture of prisoners in concentration camps evoked the image of a Muslim prostrate in prayer.

The term “Semitic peoples” is a racist term, and there is no ethnic group today that identifies as a Semitic people. Linguists refer to a group of languages as Semitic languages, but using the term for people has been rejected as racist.

Albanese has repeatedly drawn fire for her antisemitic and anti-Israel comments, eliciting the criticism that, as a biased representative, she should not serve as U.N. rapporteur.

At a forum in Doha in February, Albanese gave a video speech wherein she identified Israel as the “common enemy” of humanity. In 2025, she made comments accusing American Jews of faking antisemitic incidents, accusing Israelis of using dogs to rape Arabs, and accusing the “Jewish lobby” of subjugating Americans.

In February 2024, she tweeted at French President Emmanuel Macron that Jews on Oct. 7 were “not killed because of their Jewishness, but as a reaction to Israel’s oppression.” In August of that year, she compared Israel’s campaign in Gaza to the Holocaust. And in July, she reposted a photo comparing Israel’s prime minister to Adolf Hitler.

Albanese’s comments sparked a furious backlash even among European countries, leading Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, and even her native country, Italy, to demand her resignation. The United States went further, sanctioning the U.N. official in July 2025.

In June, the mother of an Oct. 7 victim, in an interview with a German outlet, recounted feeling the hatred connected to Israel at a film premiere where she was invited as a guest of honor. Albanese posted the article with a two-word commentary: “Change medication.” Because of her reference to medication, she invited scrutiny due to her lawsuit claiming that sanctions imposed on her by the U.S. government had caused her and her husband health problems that required them to take medication. Albanese alleged that she had suffered from stomach ulcers and her husband had suffered from anxiety and insomnia.

Ultimately, the United States was forced to remove the sanctions.