United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has announced that he is imposing sanctions on Francesca Albanese; the United Nations Human Rights’ Council Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian territory.

The Italian citizen and academic is essentially an independent expert that the Geneva-based council has appointed.

Rubio says Albanese’s campaign of political and economic warfare against the US and Israel would no longer be tolerated; and that the US would always stand by its partners in their right to self-defence.

Last week, Albanese, who refers to Israeli war in Gaza as a genocide, called for explanations from countries including Italy, France and Greece for allowing a plane carrying Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to fly over their airspace en route to the US, arguing that they might have flouted their Rome Statute obligations to arrest the ICC indicted leader.

She also released a report earlier this month detailing corporations she argues aids Israel in its war in Gaza, urging the International Criminal Court to investigate and prosecute corporate executives and entities.

In a post on social media platform X late on Wednesday, Albanese wrote that she stood “firmly and convincingly on the side of justice, as I have always done,” without directly mentioning the U.S. sanctions.

In a text message to Al Jazeera, she was quoted as dismissing the US move as “mafia style intimidation techniques.”

Albanese has called on states at the UN Human Rights Council to impose an arms embargo and cut off trade and financial ties with Israel while accusing the US ally of waging a “genocidal campaign” in Gaza.

-Additional reporting by Reuters