IRISH TECH BILLIONAIRE brothers John and Patrick Collison have been urged to intervene on US sanctions imposed through their payments company Stripe against a high level United Nations diplomat working with Palestinians.

Fianna Fáil MEP Barry Andrews has made a direct appeal to the Collisons on social media to lift US sanctions on Stripe impacting Francesca Albanese, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Albanese, a long-time critic of Israel’s campaign in Gaza that has killed thousands, had recommended sanctions and an arms embargo on Israel and penalties for companies enabling its human rights violations in Palestine.

Andrews shared a Politico article published today that detailed how basic functions of Albanese’s life have been disrupted, with banks having frozen the Italian’s accounts and health insurance payments suddenly ceasing.

This is because transactions are made though intermediaries such as Stripe, which are headquartered in the US as well as Ireland.

“As a hugely successful Irish owned company,” Andrews wrote on X, “Stripe makes everyone in Ireland proud.

“I understand as a dual headquartered company, in Dublin and San Francisco, you must follow sanctions imposed by Trump in the US.”

But Andrews asked if the Collisons could “facilitate basic personal payment functionality” on Stripe for Albanese outside the US.

The Dublin MEP added that is “simply doing her job, standing for international humanitarian law” through her work for the UN.

✍️ Dear @collision, @patrickc,

As a hugely successful Irish owned company, @Stripe makes everyone in Ireland proud 🇮🇪.

I understand as a dual headquartered company, in Dublin and San Francisco, you must follow sanctions imposed by #Trump in the US 🇺🇸.

However would you be… pic.twitter.com/ZXvxGFNB0h

— Barry Andrews MEP (@BarryAndrewsMEP) March 31, 2026

It is unclear if the company would be able to so without contravening US law itself. Stripe did not respond to a request for comment.

Last year, when announcing the sanctions, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the US was imposing sanctions on Albanese for what he described as “illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt action against US and Israeli officials, companies, and executives”.

At the time, Albanese said that the sanctions were “calculated to weaken my mission” in Palestine.

In a joint letter last month to the European Commission querying the sanctions, a number of European Parliament party groups accused the EU’s leaders of having “turned a blind eye” to sanctions against Albanese and prosecutors of the International Criminal Court.

In response, the European Commission said that “extra-territorial application of sanctions is illegal and incompatible with international law”, meaning that should stop EU citizens getting unfairly hit by the US sanctions.