UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer joined Sky News Australia with Sharri Markson to discuss the UN’s selective outrage and double standards — exposing how the General Assembly has passed 174 resolutions condemning Israel, yet none addressing the ongoing massacres in Sudan or Nigeria.
Interview Transcript:
Sharri Markson, Sky News: Last night on the show, I spoke about how the international community has been outraged by a fake genocide in Israel while ignoring real atrocities and massacres of up to 100,000 Nigerian Christians and an estimated 150,000 Sudanese. Yet, no global protests, no student encampments, no obsessive coverage in the media, let alone the United Nations.
I’m joined now by the Executive Director of UN Watch, Hillel Neuer. Hillel, thank you very much for joining us. What can you tell us about how many times the United Nations has condemned the massacres in Nigeria and Sudan compared with its criticism of Israel?
Hillel Neuer: Well, if you look at the General Assembly, which is the parliament of the United Nations, there has been zero resolutions on Sudan, zero resolutions on Nigeria. There’s only a handful of countries in the world that the General Assembly addresses. In the past 10 years, we did a count.
In the past 10 years, there were 10 resolutions on Iran. There were 10 resolutions on North Korea. Since 2015, there were 12 resolutions on Syria and 174 resolutions condemning Israel. So, Shari, the answer is for the General Assembly, zero on Sudan, zero on Nigeria, 174 condemning Israel.
Sharri Markson, Sky News: That is just, I mean, I was going to say unbelievable, but it’s not. We know what a discredited body the UN is. But more broadly speaking, Hillel, why do you think we’re seeing this grotesque hypocrisy and just the disregard for Nigerian Christians and then the actions of Islamic terrorists in Sudan and Nigeria?
Hillel Neuer: Well, look, the truth is that the UN speaks in broad, noble, humanitarian language. They claim to be motivated by the highest ideals of international peace and human rights. But the sad reality, the tragic reality, is that at the UN most decisions are governed by cynical political deals and interests.
The exception shows the rules. So in most cases, there’s zero. The UN General Assembly has adopted zero resolutions on China, one and a half billion people, zero resolutions on Cuba, zero on Zimbabwe. So, sadly, what’s happening in Sudan and Nigeria barely gets the attention of these bodies.
Of course, there are some UN officials who are speaking out on Sudan. Some have spoken out, but the General Assembly hasn’t held any emergency session. But Israel is the convenient scapegoat. It’s a small Jewish state and it has 56 Islamic states who like to condemn Israel.
So if you’re at the UN and you’re doing nothing on masses being slaughtered in Sudan, as we saw last week, 2,000 were killed in 48 hours. If you’re doing nothing on that and nothing on what’s happening to Christians in Nigeria, the numbers show that thousands have been killed in the past several years in Nigeria, sometimes 35 Christians a day according to some numbers, 19,000 churches have been destroyed, according to a US congressman who investigated the issue and the General Assembly is doing nothing.
So Israel is the scapegoat. To show that you care, you just pick on the small Jewish state.
Sharri Markson, Sky News: Look, you’ve been raising these sort of issues of bias and injustice at the UN for a long time now. What do you think needs to happen? Should it just be disbanded or can it be reformed?
Hillel Neuer: I think it’s very hard to reform the UN. The powers that exist now are not going away. I think the United States now has an opportunity to ask legitimate questions. The UN is going to stay, fine. Maybe it can be a world forum where leaders can meet and discuss, but maybe it shouldn’t have the power to adopt any resolutions, maybe we take that away. Very little good has come from that power.
I think President Trump may well ask, do we need to keep it in New York? Maybe the UN should move, they have an office in Nairobi, Kenya. Maybe the General Assembly and the rest of the UN Secretary General should move to Nairobi. We’ll see how many diplomats and delegations will race, as they do now, to visit New York each year to go on a shopping spree. Let’s see if they race each year to go to the General Assembly, If it meets every year in Kenya instead of Manhattan.
Sharri Markson, Sky News: Such an important point and I thought it was really quite courageous when Trump spoke at the UN General Assembly recently, he didn’t hold back. He criticized the body, not just for the auto queue and the escalators failing, but he said to them he had solved or at least resolved eight or so wars and they hadn’t done a thing. They played no role in the peace deal that he just struck in the Middle East. So it’s extraordinary.
Hillel Neuer, thank you very much for your incredible work.
