USM Pulls Event After Discovering Speaker Listed on US Sanctions Registry.
The University of Southern Maine has canceled an agreement to host the “Consequence of Palestine” conference after discovering that one of its featured speakers, Francesca Albanese, is under U.S. government sanctions.
The event, scheduled for February 28 in Hannaford Hall, was organized by the university’s criminology and sociology department in partnership with local pro-Palestinian advocacy groups. However, the university rescinded its hosting agreement after confirming that Albanese appears on the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control list of specially designated nationals, a designation that legally restricts American institutions from engaging in financial or contractual transactions with listed individuals.
In a formal statement, university officials said the decision was based strictly on compliance with federal law. Institutions and individuals in the United States are prohibited from conducting business with sanctioned persons, making it legally impossible for the event to proceed under its original terms.
Albanese has faced sustained criticism over statements widely described by opponents as hostile toward Israel. She has previously accused Israel of genocide, compared Israeli leadership to Nazi Germany, and characterized Hamas’s October 7 attack — in which more than 1,200 Israelis were murdered and 250 hostages abducted — as requiring “context.” European Union foreign ministers recently condemned remarks she made at a conference in which she criticized global support for Israel.
She has denied certain allegations regarding her statements, including accusations that she labeled Israel “the common enemy of humanity.” Past social media posts referencing a so-called “Jewish lobby” controlling U.S. policy also drew accusations of antisemitism, which she rejected as mischaracterizations.
The sanctions imposed in July under the administration of Donald Trump followed letters Albanese sent to American companies alleging involvement in human rights violations connected to Gaza and Judea and Samaria.
The cancellation has reignited debate over academic freedom, legal compliance, and the boundaries between political advocacy and federal sanctions enforcement on American campuses.
