Vogue’s glossy whitewash of Francesca Albanese

Francesca Albanese wants the world to wake up. But with a glamorous profile in British Vogue of the UN Special Rapporteur on the “Occupied Palestinian Territories”, it would seem that the world has woken up and is being invited to view Albanese as a figure of admiration doing crucial work for the Palestinian people.

Yet Vogue’s spread omits Albanese’s well-documented record of antisemitism, conspiracy-mongering and pro-terror rhetoric. These are not peripheral concerns; they are central to understanding how she has built her platform and reputation.

Instead, readers are presented with a carefully curated image that leaves this reality out of the frame.

Albanese tells Vogue that it is “not [about] me, it’s [about] what I’m doing.” But what she is doing is not advancing Palestinian interests in international forums – it is amplifying narratives that demonise Jews.

Long before her appointment as UN Special Rapporteur, her remarks claiming that a Jewish lobby subjugates the United States and her assertion at a Hamas-linked conference that the terror group has a “right to resist” should have triggered international condemnation. Instead, since assuming her role, the frequency and reach of such rhetoric have only increased.