Israeli Actress Sues UN Rapporteur for Defamation Over Nazi Comparison

Israeli actress and model Sher Givati has filed a massive defamation lawsuit of half a million shekels against Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, following a social media post that compared Givati's remarks to Nazi arguments justifying the murder of children during the Holocaust.

The controversy stems from a 16-minute interview Givati gave to i24NEWS. A 23-second clip from the interview was shared on X by the account GBC_Press, lacking crucial context. In the clip, Givati discusses radicalization, saying: "I feel sorry for every child in the world who cries, I feel sorry, but I also understand that this child, if we do not act, will grow up to be a terrorist."

Albanese shared the clip with her hundreds of thousands of followers, writing: "The children will grow up. This was the argument given by senior Nazi officials during the Nuremberg trials to justify why they killed children during the Holocaust."

Givati's lawsuit claims the post generated over 2.3 million views, causing severe reputational damage, professional harm, and a barrage of online harassment and direct threats. The legal filing argues that Albanese's post falsely framed Givati as supporting the killing of children and stripped her comments of their original context regarding education and counter-extremism.

The suit also addresses the question of diplomatic immunity, with Givati's legal team arguing that Albanese's social media post on her personal account falls outside her official UN duties and does not grant her immunity from Israeli legal proceedings.