UN Special Rapporteur Draws Outrage After Mocking Murdered Woman’s Mother

Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, has triggered a fresh diplomatic and public backlash after replying contemptuously to Sonia Bohl-Danker, the mother of a young German woman murdered in Hamas’s October 7 attack on Kibbutz Nir Oz.

Bohl-Danker had posted on X about the hostile, anti-Israel atmosphere she said she experienced at an event in Berlin in March, where Albanese was the guest of honor at a premiere at the Babylon cinema. In her post, Bohl-Danker said she had never been in a place where she felt so much hatred toward Israel, describing keffiyehs throughout the hall, harsh slogans, and open hostility toward anything linked to the Jewish state.

Albanese responded with the dismissive remark, “take your medication,” prompting immediate condemnation. Israel’s UN ambassador, Danny Danon, wrote on X that Bohl-Danker, whose daughter Caroline Bohl was 22 when she was killed by Hamas terrorists, had described the extreme hatred she witnessed at the film screening and said Albanese’s answer showed there was no bottom to her moral decline.

Albanese has long been a controversial figure and has faced sustained criticism from Israel and its allies for one-sided remarks on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Her positions have previously led the US administration to impose unusual sanctions, including travel restrictions and a complete freeze on access to international financial systems, such as bank accounts and credit cards.