Mother of Israeli murder victim says UN official Francesca Albanese mocked her at Berlin event

The 22-year-old German fashion student and model Carolin Bohl was murdered by Hamas terrorists in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Her mother, Sonja Bohl-Dencker, said in an interview that she was mocked by UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese after attending a film premiere in Berlin in March, where Albanese was the guest of honor.

"I have never been in a room where I felt so much hatred,” Bohl-Dencker recalled during an interview with the German newspaper Die Welt. "Everywhere keffiyehs, terrible slogans and sheer hatred against everything connected with Israel.”

She added that she was shocked both by the remarks made at the event and the reactions of attendees, and said she felt there was a lack of empathy for her daughter and other victims of the Oct. 7 attack.

Bohl-Dencker also noted the presence of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish demonstrators outside the event who claimed, “Israel murdered more than two million Palestinians in Gaza” and that there was no evidence of the Oct. 7 massacre in southern Israel.

Albanese later replied to a social media post citing Bohl-Dencker’s traumatic experience with the remark “change medication.”

Bohl-Dencker later responded, “I don’t care what she says about me. She defames many people, and I am only one of them. I care about what she spreads..."

Albanese, who serves as the United Nations Special Rapporteur for human rights in the Palestinian territories, has a history of extreme anti-Israel and anti-Jewish statements. In February, at an Al Jazeera event in Qatar, Albanese demonized Israel as a “common enemy” of humanity.

Israel, Jewish organizations and a growing number of nations have called for Albanese’s resignation due to her antisemitic stance and unprofessional conduct. The French government, which currently has a strained relationship with Jerusalem, also condemned Albanese and demanded her resignation.

“She presents herself as a UN independent expert, yet she is neither an expert nor independent – she is a political activist who stirs up hate speech and undermines the cause of the Palestinian people that she claims to defend,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said of Albanese in February.

The UN official has also accused Israel of “genocide” in the Gaza Strip and denied that the Hamas attack was driven by antisemitism.

The World Jewish Congress condemned Albanese in October 2024 over her repeated comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany, stating: “The constant statements made by [Albanese] comparing Israel to Nazi Germany are not only deeply offensive, but a gross distortion of history.”

In April, the United States condemned Albanese for her "virulent antisemitism."