PARIS: Over a hundred top figures from the world of entertainment signed an open letter Saturday in support of UN Palestinian human rights expert Francesca Albanese, who faces calls to resign over comments about the war in Gaza.&nbsp;France and Germany have called for Albanese to step down over remarks last weekend in which she referred to a &quot;common enemy of humanity&quot; after criticizing &quot;most of the world&quot; and the media for enabling Israel&#39;s &quot;genocide&quot; in Gaza.&nbsp;Critics and Israel have accused the UN Special Rapporteur of referring to Israel as a &quot;common enemy&quot;, while Albanese has denounced this as a &quot;manipulation&quot; and &quot;completely false&quot;.&nbsp;In a letter organised by the Artists for Palestine group and shared with AFP, over 100 cultural figures backed her, including actors Mark Ruffalo and Javier Bardem, Nobel-winning author Annie Ernaux and British musician Annie Lennox.&nbsp;The signatories &quot;offer our full support to Francesca Albanese, a defender of human rights and therefore also of the Palestinian people&#39;s right to exist,&quot; the letter says.&nbsp;&quot;There are infinitely more of us, in every corner of the Earth, who want force no longer to be the law. Who knows what the word &#39;law&#39; truly means,&quot; it concludes.&nbsp;Published in French on the website of Artists for Palestine, it also reproduces the full remarks by Albanese who was speaking via videoconference at a forum last Saturday organised by the Al Jazeera TV network.&nbsp;Other celebrities to offer support for her include actresses Rosa Salazar and Asia Argento, Oscar-nominated film directors Yorgos Lanthimos and Kaouther Ben Hania, Latin music star Residente, and photographer Nan Goldin.&nbsp;A group of French MPs sent a letter to French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot on Tuesday denouncing Albanese&#39;s remarks as &quot;antisemitic&quot;.&nbsp;Barrot called for her to step down a day later, saying that France &quot;unreservedly condemns the outrageous and reprehensible remarks&quot;.&nbsp;German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul on Thursday said her position was &quot;untenable&quot;.&nbsp;&#39;Shame of our time&#39;Albanese is one of the most outspoken critics of Israel&#39;s more-than-two-year bombardment of Gaza, which has resulted in the deaths of over 70,000 people and the destruction of most of the territory&#39;s infrastructure. She has called it &quot;the shame of our time&quot; and says she always asks prime ministers, presidents and foreign ministers the same question: &quot;How do you sleep? When will you act?&quot; The Italian-born legal expert, who began her unpaid role in 2022, was targeted with sanctions by the Trump administration in July last year over what it called her &quot;biased and malicious&quot; work.&nbsp;&nbsp;UN special rapporteurs like Albanese are independent experts who are appointed by the UN rights council, but do not speak on behalf of the United Nations.&nbsp;UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres distanced himself from Albanese on Thursday when his spokesman said &quot;we don&rsquo;t agree with much of what she says.&quot; &quot;We wouldn&rsquo;t use the language that she&rsquo;s using in describing the situation,&quot; his spokesman Stephane Dujarric added.&nbsp;The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas&#39;s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people. On that day, militants abducted 251 people into Gaza.

United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese looks on at the end of a press conference on the human rights situation in Gaza in Geneva on September 15, 2025. (Photo: AFP/File)

Europe

In a letter organised by the Artists for Palestine group and shared with AFP, over a 100 cultural figures back her, including actors Mark Ruffalo and Javier Bardem, Nobel-winning author Annie Ernaux and British musician Annie Lennox.

Top entertainment figures back under-fire UN Palestinians expert 

Web Desk

ISLAMABAD: American actress and humanitarian Angelina Jolie expressed deep concern over the state of free expression in the United States, saying she no longer &quot;recognizes&quot; her country.&nbsp;Her remarks came during the presentation of her latest film at Spain&rsquo;s San Sebasti&aacute;n Film Festival on Sunday.&nbsp;&ldquo;I love my country, but I don&rsquo;t at this time recognize my country,&rdquo; Jolie said, when asked whether she feared for freedom of speech in the US.&nbsp;She emphasized the importance of safeguarding personal freedoms, adding, &ldquo;Anything, anywhere, that divides or limits personal expression and freedoms is very dangerous.&rdquo;&nbsp;Though Jolie did not reference any specific incident, her comments followed widespread controversy over Disney-owned ABC&#39;s decision to pull Jimmy Kimmel&rsquo;s late-night show from its schedule indefinitely.&nbsp;The move came after Kimmel criticized President Donald Trump and commented on the recent killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, remarks that reportedly led Nexstar Media to preempt broadcasts of the show.&nbsp;The decision sparked backlash from across Hollywood. Celebrities including Mark Ruffalo, Pedro Pascal, Olivia Rodrigo, and Tatiana Maslany denounced what they described as a growing crackdown on critical voices in media.&nbsp;Ruffalo accused the government of suppressing free speech, while Pascal urged the public to actively defend democratic values.&nbsp;Jolie, who has headlined major Disney films such as Maleficent and Eternals, appeared careful not to single out any one incident, instead drawing attention to a broader cultural shift that, in her view, threatens individual liberties.&nbsp;&ldquo;These are very, very heavy times we are living in together,&rdquo; she said.&nbsp;Promoting &ldquo;Couture&rdquo; at San Sebasti&aacute;nJolie was in San Sebasti&aacute;n to promote Couture, directed by French filmmaker Alice Winocour. The film, which is in competition for the festival&rsquo;s top prize, the Golden Shell, follows Maxine Walker, an American film director facing divorce and a life-altering illness during Paris Fashion Week.&nbsp;Jolie said she found the role deeply personal, having undergone a double mastectomy and preventive surgery to remove her ovaries and fallopian tubes after discovering she carries the BRCA1 gene, the same mutation that led to the deaths of her mother and grandmother.&nbsp;Visibly emotional, she shared that her late mother was often on her mind during filming.

Angelia Jolie at  73rd San Sebastian Film Festival

Entertainment

Film & TV

The Eternals star said she no longer "recognizes" America, voicing concern over free speech at Spain’s San Sebastián Film Festival, while promoting her new film Couture. Her remarks follow growing censorship fears in US media.

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Top entertainment figures back under-fire UN Palestinians expert

Angelina Jolie says she ‘no longer recognizes’ America amid free speech concerns