‘Rabbi Linda’s’ Latest Victim: Francesca Albanese

Everyone’s favorite ‘fake Rabbi’ – created by an enterprising Jewish lawyer in order to expose antisemitism and terror-support (not to mention the stupidity) of the haters – has taken another scalp, this time Francesca Albanese, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian territories.

A United Nations official was duped by an invitation and honorarium offer from the satirical “Chief Rabbi of Gaza” to speak to anti-Israel protesters at Columbia University about the “Morality of Intifada.”

The parody X account “Rabbi Linda Goldstein,” known for using progressive anti-Israel talking points to mock them, emailed an invitation to Francesca Albanese, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian territories.

“On behalf of the Gaza solidarity encampment at Columbia University, we wish to invite Special Rapporteur Albanese to deliver a keynote address at her convenience to the thousands of students gathered at the camp,” Goldstein wrote. “Many anti-Zionist Jews like myself have taken a leading role, and we would be honored to have you. I look forward to hearing from you.”

Email correspondences shared with The Daily Wire indicate that Albanese was willing to participate. Albanese’s research assistant, Eleonora De Martin, responded to the inquiry, asking for more details on the topic and the length. “In full solidarity with what you are doing, Ms Albanese would like to know some more details on her intervention,” De Martin replied.

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Her assistant maintained interest, even after being told it was a speech defending “intifada.”

“[W]e want to hear about the ‘Morality of the Intifada,’ which Zionists have co-opted and turned into a dirty word,” Goldstein wrote. “There is also a small honorarium available.”

De Martin responded days later, asking if Albanese could speak on May 7. “If I understood correctly, you would like Ms Albanese to deliver a keynote speech of around 15/20 minutes to the students,” De Martin said. Regarding the honorarium, De Martin said Albanese could not accept only officially but asked for it to be transferred to the “fellowship of her volunteer.”

“Moreover, concerning the honorarium, she cannot take honorarium for anything she does in her official capacity,” De Martin wrote. “However, she kindly asks for this honorarium to be transferred to the Fellowship of her volunteer which supports her mandate work. Could you please provide some detail on the sum of the honorarium? The research institute will then send you the invoice for payment.”

Naturally, Albanese’s team is in damage control, claiming they never agreed to “Rabbi Linda”‘s request, even though there was definite interest there:

Sara Troian, another research assistant for Albanese, told the Daily Wire that the special rapporteur “never agreed to Linda Goldstein’s request,” even though emails show her team asked for a Zoom link. She added that she wanted the honorarium to be sent to her university to fund her work.

“Regarding the honorarium, there seems to be some confusion: it was me proposing that it would be sent to my University for the purpose to fund my fellowship,” Troian wrote. “The Erasmus University of Rotterdam, which hosts me as a Research Fellow, collects funds from individual donors with the only purpose of accompanying the Special Rapporteur in her country-missions. My work of support to the Special Rapporteur’s mandate is fully voluntary and I do not get paid for it.”

De Martin stopped replying after Goldstein asked if the honorarium could be donated to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) instead.

“Is it okay if it’s donated to UNRWA in her honor instead?” Goldstein wrote. “Since I was displaced from Gaza as Chief Rabbi after October 7 it’s near and dear to us.” 

Troin said Albanese’s team did not respond to the last message because they realized Goldstein “was not a reliable account.”

“We simply did not respond because of the nature of the request and because we had expressly been told by the Special Rapporteur, when we had the chance to fully brief her, that a) she would not receive any donation for any cause; and b) she would not speak at student rallies unless requested by Special Rapporteurs who are engaging with students,” Troin wrote. “The reason why there has been no further correspondence is because we blocked Linda Goldstein’s account following the discovery that it was not a reliable account.”

This is not the great defense Troin might think it is. She is basically saying that they ended correspondence with “Rabbi Linda” only after discovering it was a fake account, and not from the outset when “Rabbi Linda” asked her to deliver a speech on the ‘Morality of the Intifada.’

Not that this is surprising. We already know Albanese finds the intifada to be moral, not to mention even worse things:

Albanese said during the 2014 conflict between Israel and Hamas that the “Jewish lobby” was in control of the United States. She has also sympathized with terror organizations, dismissed Israeli security concerns, compared Israelis to Nazis, accused the Jewish state of potential war crimes, said Israel controlled the BBC, and claimed that the Jewish state started wars out of greed.

Israel has criticized Albanese after she and other UN-mandated rights experts said in November that Palestinians in war-battered Gaza were “at grave risk of genocide.” In a statement on October 14, she accused Israel of aiming to ethnically cleanse Gaza, while not mentioning the Hamas attack on Israel.

Albanese was banned from Israel in February after she denied that the October 7 massacre was motivated by a hatred of Jews and claimed it was “in response to Israel’s oppression.”

No word yet from Albanese herself, who probably feels like hiding out…in a Hamas tunnel.