U.S. Sanctions U.N. Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese Over Criticism of Israel

Today I am imposing sanctions on UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese for her illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt @IntlCrimCourt action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives.

Albanese’s campaign of political and economic…

— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) July 9, 2025

Israeli politicians are now just openly ordering the Trump admin to block critics of the Jewish state from entering America.

Here's Likudnik Danny Danon insisting Trump sanction UN Special Rapporteur @FranceskAlbs and ban her from our country for "promot[ing] hate." pic.twitter.com/BY7pWNcZtw

— Chris Menahan 🇺🇸 (@infolibnews) April 28, 2025

Repression of Palestinians has become progressively automated, with tech companies providing dual-use infrastructure to integrate mass data collection and surveillance, while profiting from the unique testing ground for military technology offered by the occupied Palestinian territory. Fuelled by US-tech giants establishing subsidiaries and research and development centres in Israel, Israel’s claims of security needs have spurred unparalleled developments in carceral and surveillance services, from CCTV networks, biometric surveillance, high-tech checkpoints networks, "smart walls" and drone surveillance, to cloud computing, artificial intelligence and data analytics supporting on-the-ground military personnel.

[...] In 2021, Israel awarded Alphabet Inc (Google) and Amazon.com Inc. a $1.2 billion contract (Project Nimbus) – largely funded through Ministry of Defense expenditure – to provide core tech infrastructure.

Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon grant Israel virtually government-wide access to their cloud and AI technologies, enhancing data processing, decision-making and surveillance/analysis capacities. In October 2023, when Israel’s internal military cloud overloaded, Microsoft Azure and Project Nimbus Consortium stepped in with critical cloud and AI infrastructure. Their Israel-located servers ensure data sovereignty and a shield from accountability, under favourable contracts offering minimal restrictions or oversight. In July 2024, an Israeli colonel described cloud tech as "a weapon in every sense of the word", citing these companies.

The Israeli military has developed AI systems like "Lavender', "Gospel" and "Where's Daddy?" to process data and generate lists of targets, reshaping modern warfare and illustrating AI’s dual-use nature. Palantir Technology Inc., whose tech collaboration with Israel long predates October 2023, expanded its support to the Israeli military post-October 2023. There are reasonable grounds to believe Palantir has provided automatic predictive policing technology, core defence infrastructure for rapid and scaled-up construction and deployment of military software, and its Artificial Intelligence Platform, which allows real-time battlefield data integration for automated decision-making. In January 2024, Palantir announced a new strategic partnership with Israel and held a board meeting in Tel Aviv "in solidarity"; in April 2025, Palantir’s CEO responded to accusations that Palantir had killed Palestinians in Gaza by saying, "mostly terrorists, that’s true". Both incidents are indicative of executive-level knowledge and purpose vis-à-vis Israel's unlawful use of force, and failure to prevent such acts or withdraw involvement.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin (who identifies as Jewish) called the UN “transparently antisemitic” after its Special Rapporteur accused tech firms including Google of profiting from genocide in Gaza.

The report by Francesca Albanese named Google and Amazon as aiding Israel’s war… pic.twitter.com/cg7zQt1TsL

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) July 9, 2025

Google co-founder Sergey Brin called the United Nations "transparently antisemitic" on Saturday in an internal forum for employees, according to screenshots reviewed by The Washington Post and verified with a current member of the forum.

His comments came in response to a U.N. report released last month that alleged technology firms including Google and its parent company Alphabet had profited from "the genocide carried out by Israel" in Gaza by providing cloud and AI technologies to the Israeli government and military.

"With all due respect, throwing around the term genocide in relation to Gaza is deeply offensive to many Jewish people who have suffered actual genocides. I would also be careful citing transparently antisemitic organizations like the UN in relation to these issues," Brin wrote in a forum for staff at Google DeepMind, the company’s artificial intelligence division, where workers were debating the report, according to the screenshots.

[...] Brin immigrated to the United States as a child with his parents, Russian Jews who sought to escape the antisemitism they faced in the Soviet Union, according to the 2009 book "Googled: The End of the World as We Know It," by Ken Auletta.