UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer was interviewed on the Fox News Rundown podcast with Eben Brown to discuss what to expect from the upcoming U.N. General Assembly, U.S. sanctions on U.N. officials, Israel’s strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar, and the ongoing controversy over UNRWA.

Eben Brown:
Later this month, heads of state will gather in New York City for the United Nations General Assembly. President Trump will address the body. Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu might. This year’s General Assembly comes at a precarious time in world events. President Trump is back in office. Russia is still making war on Ukraine, and Israel is still fighting to retrieve hostages taken by Hamas terrorists. It also comes at a time when the U.S. is challenging the effectiveness of certain U.N.-sponsored organizations, especially ones supposedly dedicated to world health and, of course, the Palestinians. The Trump administration has intensely cut back U.S. funding of many of these groups, and has even begun targeting individuals within the UN’s umbrella, it says are working against American interests — namely Francesca Albanese, the U.N.’s lead on Palestinian issues, who is often accused of bias and even spreading outright falsehoods. She is now under U.S. sanctions.

Hillel Neuer:  
Clearly, the U.S. is taking a strong stand — I would say, tougher than ever before.

Eben Brown:
Hillel Neuer is the Executive Director of UN Watch. Our conversation took place mere moments after news broke Tuesday of Israel’s strike on Hamas leaders residing in the Qatari capital of Doha.

Hillel Neuer:  
The U.S., for the first time in history, has sanctioned a purported U.N. official. I say “purported” because Francesca Albanese has the title of the U.N. Rapporteur on Palestine, but in fact, her supposed renewal that was meant to take place in April was never lawfully carried out. UN Watch has shown in our reports how the basic procedure of the United Nations Human Rights Council was flagrantly violated. The United States made objections. The Netherlands publicly announced their objection. Hungary and Argentina sent in letters. We submitted a 56-page dossier. All of that was legally required to be addressed by the Council, and they never did so. So, the only way a renewal can take place is if there are no objections — and there were, and the Council ignored those objections. So in fact, her renewal never took place lawfully. She has no immunity. That’s why there was nothing stopping Secretary Rubio from sanctioning this Hamas supporter. She is de facto a spokesperson for Hamas, and that’s why yesterday in U.S. federal court in Colorado, Christian Friends of Israel filed a lawsuit against her for defamation and libel for the things that she said about them because they dare to support Israel. So bravo to Secretary Rubio for banning that Hamas supporter from entering America. And look, let’s be honest, what’s going to happen in New York in the week of September 22nd — it’s primarily a “catwalk for dictators,” and those are the words of world chess champion Garry Kasparov, former world chess champion, Russian dissident. So the U.N. General Assembly is a catwalk for dictators. And he’s right. We’re going to see on the catwalk — you know, Erdogan of Turkey is a dictator. We’re going to see Qatar — dictatorship, the president of Iran — dictatorship, the former terrorist from Syria. I mean, the list goes on and on. And they love the U.N. They love the U.N. They see it as a counterbalance to America. They see it as, you know, a way of tying up Gulliver and using the language and images of international law and credibility when in fact, they’re a club of dictatorships.

Eben Brown:
At the top of this club is a person who has the title of Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres. Most Americans don’t pay too much attention, I think, to the inner-workings of the UN, or even some of the outer-workings of the UN, certainly not its bureaucracy or its governance. But this is a person who was, I think decidedly, has taken sides in the Israel-Hamas conflict. I still don’t think, to this day, he ever actually condemned the October 7th attacks. I could be wrong about that.

Hillel Neuer:
No, I think he did, but then he quickly added — you know, this was like two weeks after the massacre, mass rape, massacre of families — Guterres did condemn the attacks, but then he said, however, he said, you know, “Nothing happens in a vacuum.” “These attacks did not happen in a vacuum.” He said: “These attacks did not happen in a vacuum.” And then he went on to enumerate numerous alleged grievances by the Palestinians over decades against Israel. In effect, he justified the attacks one grievance after another, saying, “Well, things didn’t happen in a vacuum,” you know, as if terrorism could ever be justified, and we’re supposed to believe — rightfully — that terrorism can never be justified. No matter what you think, what injustice you perceive, you can’t slaughter innocents. But Guterres was quick to say, “I condemn the attacks, but they didn’t happen in a vacuum,” when he could have said — and of course, he’s partly right in the fact that nothing happens in a vacuum. Nothing we do in our lives happens in a vacuum. But had he been more to the point, he would have said, “Nothing happens in a vacuum. Where do these terrorists come from? What schools do they go to?” Well, they went to UN schools. 90% of Gazans, according to the UNRWA, the infamous UN agency for Palestinians — their legal advisor, Johann Soufi, said on French TV last year that 90% of Gazans are graduates of UNRWA. Well, that means roughly 90% of the terrorists who massacred families and committed horrific acts were UNRWA alumni. That’s Mr. Guterres. He’s been in office for many years, so he should take responsibility. It’s not by accident that they invaded Israel because they were taught from a young age, “Your home is not in Gaza, your home is in Tel Aviv, and it belongs to you, and you should dismantle it violently.” And that’s what they did.

Eben Brown:
This has been, I think again, another year in which things have changed dramatically for the U.N., and a lot of that comes from the fact that the U.S. — especially with the Trump administration coming back to power, or the new Trump administration in power — had kind of squished those purse strings yet again, like they did the first time. That begins to affect what the U.N. can and can’t do, because they need money. And I think everyone knows the biggest funder of the U.N. has been the U.S., specifically the U.S. taxpayer. So they want to still continue these missions, but they have to face the fact that they are potentially running out of money, or certainly don’t have the cash flow they used to have, and the fact that at least one person has been put under sanctions, in this case, Albanese, they must realize that the Trump administration could do this further.

Hillel Neuer:
Yes, that’s right. Look, the U.S. cuts in donations to the U.N. are very substantial already. I’m based in Geneva, Switzerland, where there are maybe 25,000 U.N. and related staff from all kinds of U.N.-affiliated agencies, like the International Labor Organization, World Health Organization, and the Office of the U.N. Human Rights Commissioner. You know, many of these agencies are facing substantial cuts, and hundreds of jobs have been cut. And so it’s real. It’s real. And you know, decades ago, about some 25 years ago, John Bolton had said, “If U.N. headquarters were leveled today, it wouldn’t make a world of difference.” And so the question is, you know, when hundreds of these jobs are cut, what difference is it making to things that really count? And look, the U.N. has the potential to do good. There are hungry people in the world. We do need agencies to feed them when there are emergencies. But tragically, much of the U.N. has been hijacked by radical politics. And again, Gaza is a classic case — not the only one — but it’s a classic case, because there, you know, you could have real aid agencies actually helping people and giving food and settling refugees. Instead, Guterres gave the order: “Only UNRWA can deal with it,” and UNRWA is not a neutral agency whose mission is to give out food. Their mission is to tell Palestinians that “You suffered an injustice and you have the right to return and dismantle Israel.” If it were not the case, then there would be a dozen other U.N. agencies that could be giving out the food: UNHCR, UNDP, World Health Organization. Those are the agencies that do so all around the world. So the reality is that much of the U.N. is hijacked by radical politics. Again, I appeared just this morning before the United Nations Human Rights Council — “Human Rights Council,” let’s put that in scare quotes — because the members include Cuba, a police state that arrests teenagers for demanding democracy; Qatar, that has, you know, a million enslaved laborers; China, a regular member of the Human Rights Council, which has a million Muslims in camps, locks up anyone who dares to protest within moments; and, you know, Vietnam, which is a dictatorship that supports torture, is a member. China, Cuba, Qatar, Vietnam — these are the regular members of the Human Rights Council. More than half are full-on dictatorships. That’s the reality. And I think it’s high time that the U.S. and other democracies ought to speak out and say, “No more.”

Eben Brown:
Our guest is Hillel Neuer of UN Watch. We’re discussing the upcoming United Nations General Assembly later this month on the Fox News Rundown Evening Edition. Please like, subscribe, share with your friends. We’ll have more straight ahead. You mentioned, you’ve been talking here a lot about UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine. Earlier today, just really shortly before we began our conversation, explosions were heard in Doha, Qatar, and the Israelis are now taking responsibility for that, saying they targeted those top chief Hamas Politburo members that have been living really in opulence in Doha, commanding the Hamas forces in Gaza from a very, very safe distance, where you know they themselves are not getting any blood on them. They might have been taken out by this strike. We’ll know more later. But you posted a photograph to your Twitter account, to your X account, that’s very pertinent here. Can you tell me about that photo?

Hillel Neuer:  
Sure. You know, several days ago, Iranian media and Hamas media published a photo of a beautiful, opulent room in Doha, Qatar, where there was a meeting between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. So this is the Foreign Minister of the Islamic regime in Iran, which is responsible for terrorism and assassinations across the free world. You know, in New York City, just a few months ago, I attended — I was in federal court to witness the trial of three criminal assassins who tried to kill my friend, Masih Alinejad. She’s an Iranian-born journalist, a hero who speaks out against the abuses against women in Iran and has millions of followers. She’s the most courageous person that I know, and she now lives in Brooklyn, and Iran hired a criminal gang, some Central Asian gang — that Iran is very clever: they don’t necessarily send Iranian assassins. They’ll hire criminal gangs in local countries. So they send criminals to assassinate her in Brooklyn, and a guy with a submachine gun was caught — an AK-47 — outside her home in Brooklyn, ready to assassinate her. And this was about a year or so after they tried to kidnap her, take her to Venezuela and then to Iran.

So the Iranian regime, Foreign Minister Araghchi, is sitting there in Qatar with his Iranian delegation, and opposite him is the Hamas delegation. These are the Hamas leaders that are still alive as of a few days ago, and one of them, one of the senior Hamas leaders, is a gentleman named Suhail Al-Hindi. And Suhail Al-Hindi is known to me because I’ve been monitoring his actions as a long-time, three-decades-long UNRWA school teacher. I’m going to say that again: a school teacher paid by the U.N. with our money, U.S. taxpayers were giving some $300 million a year to UNRWA to employ Suhail Al-Hindi as a school teacher, as a principal. Eventually, he was a school principal and was eventually head of the entire staff union in Gaza — 13,000 employees. And he is also a Hamas terror chief. A Hamas terror chief. So you say it and you don’t believe it, UNRWA school teacher, principal, head of the UNRWA staff union, again, an agency that we’ve been paying for up until about two years ago, was a Hamas terror chief, and is one of the people who was part of the Hamas delegation last week, and time will tell whether he was part of the Hamas group that according to reports, was assassinated in a bomb blast in Qatar today.

Eben Brown:
What does an organization like yours do during the UN General Assembly? Are you running around, pounding on doors, knocking on — and trying to get attention to certain people? I mean, I imagine this is a big deal for an agency such as yours.

Hillel Neuer:
Yes, it is a big deal. The truth is that, because we are not a member state, we have status at the UN, which we obtained, you know, decades ago, thanks to U.S. help at the time, in 2002. We have status as an observer at the U.N., or what’s called an NGO, a non-governmental organization. And as such, we can enter U.N. premises, and, you know, meet with delegations and so forth, but not during that week. So actually, that week, it’s sort of all bets are off, and they only let country delegations attend the U.N. meeting. So I don’t have access to the U.N. during that time. I do hope to be in New York for part of the week. I do hope to be there as a commentator, to help explain to the world what’s going on, and whether it’s dictatorships who gather to try to attack America and Israel or the democracies. Let’s not forget we have something unprecedented: major democracies, European countries, France, the U.K., also my native Canada, I’m ashamed to say, and Australia have announced that they intend to recognize a Palestinian state, and that they intend to do so as part of a summit that will take place on Monday, September 22nd. And that’ll be a day before President Trump addresses the opening of the UN on the 23rd. But the day before, Macron with Saudi Arabia, but really led by Emmanuel Macron, the President of France, has been pushing to declare a state, even as they acknowledge that there is no state.Okay, Ramallah has a Palestinian Authority, local government that basically governs several cities. They take out the garbage and do a few more things. These are governments that continue to support terrorism. The PA, as we know in America, has a “pay-to-slay” program — those who commit terrorism, just like yesterday, Palestinian terrorists gunned down a rabbi and other innocent civilians at a bus stop in Jerusalem. Those families will get money for the rest of their lives. You get rewarded if you kill Jews. That’s the Palestinian Authority. And then much of so-called Palestine is run by Hamas. Gaza, up until recently, was entirely run by Hamas. Now Israel controls part of the territory, so there is no democratic Palestine. You know, Abbas is in the 20th or 21st year of his four-year term. He hasn’t held elections in over 15 years.

Eben Brown:
Hillel Neuer, you are with UN Watch. Thank you so much for being with us on the Fox News Rundown Evening Edition.

Hillel Neuer:
Thank you for having me.

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UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer joined Fox Business with Cheryl Casone to discuss the latest developments in the Middle East and the upcoming session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

Cheryl Casone, Fox Business: Joining me now is UN Watch Executive Director, Hillel Neuer. Hillel, your reaction to all of the breaking news out of the Middle East this morning?

Hillel Neuer: Well, first, the condolences to the families of the six who were murdered in a horrific terrorist attack in Jerusalem, where Palestinian terrorists opened fire on innocent civilians, including the rabbi and others who were going to study in a Jewish Rabbinical College. They had the holy books in their hands as they were slaughtered by machine guns. The attack this morning — six dead, six seriously injured — underscores what is happening, that the Islamic Republic of Iran has terror proxies, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad operating from Gaza and Judea and Samaria, the West Bank, that have as their mission to murder innocent civilians. That is what terrorists do.

The Houthis, as you indicated, they have sent a drone a thousand miles away. You know, Yemen is a place where people are starving. They don’t have food in Yemen, and the Houthis are spending their resources to send a drone, as you can see on the camera, firing at an airport a thousand miles away — a civilian airport in southern Israel. And the Houthis are a terrorist group, armed, funded, trained by Iran, and their slogan is, “Death to Israel, Death to America, Damn the Jews, Allahu Akbar, Allah is great.” So they’re as jihadist, antisemitic, and anti-American as they get. That’s the Houthis. Amazingly, Israel was able to target several of their leaders just about a week ago in an extraordinary attack, and it shows that the long arm of Israel can reach a thousand miles away, whether it’s Iran or whether it’s the Houthis. And now it’s Hamas’s turn to answer the president. President Trump should be commended. He is trying to release the hostages, end the war, and all of this can happen with those two things. If Hamas today releases the hostages, lays down their arms, the war is over. That’s what we need to see.

Cheryl Casone: But unfortunately, though, if you listen to the back channeling that’s coming out of Hamas, they want the Israelis to leave Gaza, and the Israelis have made it clear they are not doing that. And all of this is unfolding as the 80th annual United Nations General Assembly actually kicks off tomorrow. That’s happening right here in New York, the first day of high-level general debate begins on the 23rd. Countries like the U.K., France, Canada, Belgium, Australia, New Zealand, Malta — they’re all expected to recognize a Palestinian state. U.K. leaders have suggested they may not recognize Palestine if Israel and Hamas reach a ceasefire. And Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussing options for a U.N.-endorsed Gaza reconstruction plan. Hillel, what are you expecting? And in particular, what do you make of this, our allies backing a Palestinian state? Doesn’t that fly in the face of what the United States is trying to accomplish here?

Hillel Neuer: Well, it does. And let’s recall that the U.N. General Assembly that’s about to open in New York City — the main event, as you said, will be the 23rd when the president and other heads of state will arrive — in many cases, it’s a catwalk for dictators. We’re going to have the dictator of Turkey, the dictator of Qatar, the dictatorship from Iran, from Syria. So it’s a catwalk for dictators. And what we don’t need is our democracies making things worse.

As you indicated, President Trump, his envoy Steve Witkoff, Secretary of State Rubio are working very hard to get the hostages released to end the war. What Britain and France and the others are threatening to do only rewards Hamas. It encourages them to be rejectionists. It does not encourage them to release the hostages. It tells them you get a prize if you invade a neighboring country, break a ceasefire, massacre 1,200 people, commit mass rape, you get the reward that France, the U.K., Canada and other democracies say, we will recognize Palestine as a state. Well, this is before, you know, the Palestinian Authority hasn’t dismantled Hamas. They haven’t stopped paying payments to the terrorists. You know, the Palestinian Authority, which is supposedly the moderate in this picture, they’re the ones who do ‘pay to slay’ — they make payments to the families of terrorists. If you commit murder against Israelis — like what happened this morning in Jerusalem, and if the terrorist gets captured and put in prison — then the families get a pension for life. You get rewarded for terrorism.

So the democracies should not be undermining President Trump’s efforts to bring peace and end the war. Instead, what they’re doing is they’re rewarding Hamas. They’re saying you get a prize. And under international law, this is completely bogus. You know, in first-year international law, you learn that to be a state, you need defined territory, effective government, and they have none of these attributes.

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For the first time ever, Germany, Austria and Bulgaria changed their votes and opposed the annual resolution that renews the mandate of the 25-nation “Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People,” one of the UN’s most notorious anti-Israel bodies.

Likewise, Iceland and Uruguay moved from voting Yes last year to Abstain. Others who rightly opposed the resolution as they did in 2019 include Australia, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Colombia, Honduras, Hungary, and the United States.

Similarly, Switzerland and Slovenia for the first time ever voted No to the annual resolution that renews the mandate of the UN’s Division for Palestinian Rights, which employs 15 full-time staffers, at a cost to taxpayers of millions of dollars, to organize anti-Israel events worldwide. Regrettably, France did not oppose the resolution, and once again abstained.

(Click here to see full voting sheets from last week.)

Other nations who opposed the mandate of the UN’s 15-member Palestinian division as they did in 2019 include Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, and the United States.

On all votes targeting Israel last week, Uruguay moved from Yes to Abstain. This followed an outcry in that country after UN Watch exposed Uruguay’s support in September for an absurd resolution, at the UN’s Economic and Social Council, that singled out Israel alone for violating women’s rights.

As a result, Uruguayan Foreign Minister Francisco Bustillo apologized for that vote—and he fired the ministry’s director-general for political affairs. Now, it seems, Uruguay is also changing its votes on many of the anti-Israel resolutions at the UN General Assembly.

CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT UN WATCH’S CAMPAIGN

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Following are the adopted resolutions that target Israel, with full votes, excerpts and analysis:

“Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People” [A/75/L.32]: Adopted by a vote of 91 – 17 – 54
Excerpt: “Noting with deep regret the passage of 52 years since the onset of the Israeli occupation and over 70 years since the adoption of resolution 181 (II) on 29 November 1947 and the Nakba without tangible progress towards a peaceful solution…”

Analysis: Biased committee is one of the veteran pillars of the UN’s anti-Israel infrastructure. It is the only GA human rights committee devoted to a single cause. Its reports systematically turn a blind eye to Palestinian terrorism against Israeli civilians. Committee’s mandate concerns Israeli actions only and is inherently prejudiced and one-sided.

“Division for Palestinian Rights of the Secretariat” [A/75/L.33]: Adopted by a vote of 84 – 25 – 53
Excerpt: “Requests the Division, in particular, to continue to monitor developments relevant to the question of Palestine, to organize international meetings and activities in support of the Committee’s mandate … to liaise and cooperate with civil society and parliamentarians, including through the Working Group of the Committee, to develop and expand the ‘Question of Palestine’ website…”

Analysis: The DPR serves the biased special committee and is dedicated to spreading anti-Israel propaganda the world over. Its 15-member staff is grossly disproportionate to the UN’s other four divisions which cover enormous geographical regions. The DPR’s work is counter-productive to the peace process and seeks to coordinate international boycotts against Israel instead of seeking bridges for peace. Excludes from its events any NGO that declines to swear fealty to its hardline politics.

“Peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine” [A/75.L.34]: Adopted by a vote of 145 – 7 – 9
Excerpt: “Reaffirming the illegality of Israeli settlement activities and all other unilateral measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the City of Jerusalem and of the Occupied Palestinian Territory as a whole, including the wall and its associated regime, and demanding their immediate cessation…”

Analysis: Blames Israel only for lack of peace. Text is redundant to several other resolutions and serves no effect other than demonization. References to terror fail to name its perpetrators, whereas Israel is named and blamed throughout.

“Special information program on the question of Palestine of the Department of Public Information of the Secretariat” [A/75/L.35]: Adopted by a vote of 142 – 8 – 11
Excerpt: “Recalling the advisory opinion rendered on 9 July 2004 by the International Court of Justice on the legal consequences of the construction of a wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory…”

Analysis: The program is one more example of how the neutral UN secretariat is forcibly co-opted by the anti-Israeli forces at the UN. The program eschews a balanced approach by overtly choosing the Palestinian over Israeli narrative, ignoring terrorism against Israeli men, women and children, and other daily realities of Israeli life. Resources devoted to anti-Israel propaganda are taken away from other worthy causes.

“The Syrian Golan” [A/75/L.29]: Adopted by a vote of 88 – 9 – 62
Excerpt: “Deeply concerned that Israel has not withdrawn from the Syrian Golan, which has been under occupation since 1967…”

Analysis: This resolution is redundant to the resolution already adopted this year entitled “The occupied Syrian Golan”. the text is oblivious to genocidal massacres taking place now in Syria and its security implications for Israel and the civilians of the Golan Heights. Ignores Syria’s history of shelling Israeli communities, its leader’s calls for a “war of annihilation” against Israel, and Syria’s 1967 aggression that led to its loss of the territory.

The post U.N. Targets Israel in 5 Resolutions, Rest of the World 0 appeared first on UN Watch.

The resolution which renews the mandate of the 25-nation “Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People” refers to the “Nakba” (catastrophe) of Israel’s founding.

Created in the aftermath of the 1975 “Zionism is racism” resolution, the committee and its supporting staff division are vestiges of a discredited policy that has seen the world body largely aligned against Israel. Read more about the two entities below.

“These UN bodies, costing millions of dollars annually, serve to perpetuate antagonism, not to resolve disputes,” said UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer.

“Today the General Assembly will adopt resolutions about the Palestinians that fail to say a word about terrorism and other gross human rights abuses committed by the Palestinian Authority, Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Nor do they even attempt to promote democracy, accountability and the rule of law to actually help Palestinians living in the areas ruled by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas,” said Neuer.

Adoption of the resolutions comes one day after the UN held its annual international Palestinian solidarity day, featuring an anti-Israel exhibit.

Today's U.N. General Assembly resolutions:
🇰🇵 North Korea 0
🇿🇼 Zimbabwe 0
🇻🇪 Venezuela 0
🇲🇲 Myanmar 0
🇵🇰 Pakistan 0
🏴‍☠️ Hamas 0
🇩🇿 Algeria 0
🇷🇺 Russia 0
🇫🇷 France 0
🇹🇷 Turkey 0
🇨🇳 China 0
🇮🇱 Israel 5
🇱🇾 Libya 0
🇨🇺 Cuba 0
🇸🇾 Syria 0
🇮🇶 Iraq 0
🇮🇷 Iran 0

👉 https://t.co/ehLsFe2EHm

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) December 2, 2020

The late U.S. Ambassador Richard Schifter, the State Department’s former top human rights official who recently passed away at age 97, had repeatedly called for the dismantling of the UN’s two Palestinian entities, advocating that EU countries lead the charge to vote against the renewal of their mandates.

In 2019, Brazil and the Czech Republic for the first time joined the list of countries voting against the renewal of the Palestinian committee.

Moreover, last year many more European countries for the first time voted against renewing the mandate of the UN’s Palestinian division, including the Czech Republic, Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, Austria, Bulgaria, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Romania, and Slovakia. Brazil also voted against the resolution.

To urge EU countries to vote against the renewal of mandates for the CEIRPP and DPR, UN Watch has launched a global petition campaign.

TODAY’S 5 RESOLUTIONS TARGETING ISRAEL

Below is the list of five resolutions that will be adopted today that target Israel, with excerpts and analysis.

1. “Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People” 

Excerpt: “Noting with deep regret the passage of 52 years since the onset of the Israeli occupation and over 70 years since the adoption of resolution 181 (II) on 29 November 1947 and the Nakba without tangible progress towards a peaceful solution…”

Analysis: Biased committee is one of the veteran pillars of the UN’s anti-Israel infrastructure. It is the only GA human rights committee devoted to a single cause. Its reports systematically turn a blind eye to Palestinian terrorism against Israeli civilians. Committee’s mandate concerns Israeli actions only and is inherently prejudiced and one-sided.

2. “Division for Palestinian Rights of the Secretariat”

Excerpt: “Requests the Division, in particular, to continue to monitor developments relevant to the question of Palestine, to organize international meetings and activities in support of the Committee’s mandate … to liaise and cooperate with civil society and parliamentarians, including through the Working Group of the Committee, to develop and expand the ‘Question of Palestine’ website…”

Analysis: The DPR serves the biased special committee and is dedicated to spreading anti-Israel propaganda the world over. Its 15-member staff is grossly disproportionate to the UN’s other four divisions which cover enormous geographical regions. The DPR’s work is counter-productive to the peace process and seeks to coordinate international boycotts against Israel instead of seeking bridges for peace. Excludes from its events any NGO that declines to swear fealty to its hardline politics.

3. “Peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine”

Excerpt: “Reaffirming the illegality of Israeli settlement activities and all other unilateral measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the City of Jerusalem and of the Occupied Palestinian Territory as a whole, including the wall and its associated regime, and demanding their immediate cessation…”

Analysis: Blames Israel only for lack of peace. Text is redundant to several other resolutions and serves no effect other than demonization. References to terror fail to name its perpetrators, whereas Israel is named and blamed throughout.

4. “Special information program on the question of Palestine of the Department of Public Information of the Secretariat”

Excerpt: “Recalling the advisory opinion rendered on 9 July 2004 by the International Court of Justice on the legal consequences of the construction of a wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory…”

Analysis: The program is one more example of how the neutral UN secretariat is forcibly co-opted by the anti-Israeli forces at the UN. The program eschews a balanced approach by overtly choosing the Palestinian over Israeli narrative, ignoring terrorism against Israeli men, women and children, and other daily realities of Israeli life. Resources devoted to anti-Israel propaganda are taken away from other worthy causes.

5.  “The Syrian Golan”

Excerpt: “Deeply concerned that Israel has not withdrawn from the Syrian Golan, which has been under occupation since 1967…”

Analysis: This resolution is redundant to the resolution already adopted this year entitled “The occupied Syrian Golan”. the text is oblivious to genocidal massacres taking place now in Syria and its security implications for Israel and the civilians of the Golan Heights. Ignores Syria’s history of shelling Israeli communities, its leader’s calls for a “war of annihilation” against Israel, and Syria’s 1967 aggression that led to its loss of the territory.

See full list of UNGA Israel resolutions here

Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP)

The CEIRPP is composed of 25 UN member states, including Belarus, Cuba, Pakistan, Turkey and Venezuela. In addition, Syria, Libya, Iraq and China participate as observers.

It is one of the veteran pillars of the UN’s anti-Israel infrastructure, aimed at undermining, discrediting and demonizing Israel.

The secretariat for the CEIRPP, the staff that helps to organize and implement its work, is the DPR that is described below.

The Committee convenes at UN headquarters in New York multiple times a year and holds international conferences attended by NGOs, parliamentarians, academics, UN officials and media.

It plans training sessions for Palestinian officials, as well as seminars and workshops, that promote the Palestinian narrative of victimhood and UN prejudice against Israel.

The CEIRPP has also created a powerful network of more than 1,000 anti-Israeli NGOs from around the world, granting them special status with the Committee. These include the Palestine Childrens Relief Fund and Churches for Middle East Peace. The UN committee also publishes reports that turn a blind eye to Palestinian terrorism against Israeli civilians.

Division for the Palestinian Rights (DPR)

The DPR is part of the UN Secretariat that helps the CEIRPP fulfill its mandate and gives the Palestinians an entire UN department of staff that no other people or sovereign state has. Its staff of approximately 15 employees is grossly disproportionate to the UN’s other four divisions which cover enormous geographical regions.

The DPR works together with CEIRPP to organize an annual International Day of Solidarity for the Palestinian People, and maintains UN web-based information systems devoted to the Palestinian side of the conflict.

The DPR’s work is counter-productive to the peace process and seeks to coordinate international boycotts against Israel instead of seeking bridges for peace. Even more, it excludes from its events any NGO that declines to swear fealty to its hardline politics.

The post UN to Target Israel With Five One-Sided Resolutions, Renewing UN’s Palestine Committee & Staff Division appeared first on UN Watch.

In the current 74th session of the UN General Assembly (2019-2020), all EU member states voted for one resolution each to criticize (1) Iran, (2) Syria, (3) North Korea, (4) Myanmar, and (5) the U.S., for its embargo on Cuba, and two resolutions on Crimea. See second table at bottom, showing these seven resolution texts and votes.

By contrast, EU states voted for 13 out of 17 resolutions singling out Israel. Yet these same EU states failed to introduce a single UNGA resolution on the human rights situation in China, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Belarus, Cuba, Turkey, Pakistan, Vietnam, Algeria, or on 175 other countries.
Below are the resolutions on Israel that have been adopted in the 74th Session (2019-2020) of the UN General Assembly.

We note that the chart below lists 18 resolutions on Israel. This includes the resolution titled Assistance to the Palestinian People, which is more balanced than the others, is adopted by consensus, and, therefore, is deemed non-condemnatory.

RESOLUTIONS SINGLING OUT ISRAEL

Compare UN resolutions on Israel vs. the rest of the world from the previous year here.

The post 2019-2020 UN General Assembly Resolutions Singling Out Israel – Texts, Votes, Analysis appeared first on UN Watch.

Total of 2018 Condemnations adopted at UN General Assembly:
🇮🇱 Israel 21
🇮🇷 Iran 1
🇸🇾 Syria 1
🇰🇵 North Korea 1
🇷🇺 Russia 1
🇲🇲 Myanmar 1
🇺🇸 US 1
🇩🇿 Algeria 0
🇨🇳 China 0
🏴‍☠️ Hamas 0
🇮🇶 Iraq 0
🇵🇰 Pakistan 0
🇶🇦 Qatar 0
🇸🇦 Saudi 0
🇸🇴 Somalia 0
🇹🇷 Turkey 0
🇻🇪 Venezuela 0
🇿🇼 Zimbabwe 0

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) December 26, 2018

Author and editor Sohrab Ahmari:
https://twitter.com/SohrabAhmari/status/1078098131395452929
Also going viral was UN Watch’s tweet on the UNHRC membership, which prompted this La Vanguardia op-ed by Spanish human rights activist Pilar Rahola:

Mi artículo sobre la bonita @UN "El comité de defensa de los derechos humanos de la @UN, donde están Arabia Saudita, Qatar, Paquistán, Venezuela…, no es un comité de defensa de las ­víctimas. Es un blanqueador de sus ­verdugos."@HillelNeuer @UNWatch https://t.co/mEK0mhnGpz

— 🟦 Pilar Rahola (@RaholaOficial) December 29, 2018

World chess champion, dissident and author Garry Kasparov:

This organization is convincing advertisement for a League of Democracies. Otherwise no standards & the worst violators and dictatorships abusing the system. https://t.co/OdUV7OwrZn

— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) December 26, 2018

Editor Bobby Ghosh:

The United Nations has long since discredited itself on human rights. The Council is a boondoggle for UN bureaucrats, and a fig leaf for authoritarian regimes.
Time to shut it down. https://t.co/un0ShYA6if

— Bobby Ghosh (@ghoshworld) December 26, 2018

UN Watch’s report on the UNGA’s November votes was covered in Bild, Europe’s highest circulation newspaper:

.@BILD Hillel Neuer erklärte: „Die Farce bei der Generalversammlung unterstreicht eine einfache Tatsache: Die automatische Mehrheit der Vereinten Nationen hat kein Interesse daran, den Palästinensern wirklich zu helfen oder die Menschenrechte zu schützen.“ https://t.co/jAvQxb6fnA

— UN Watch (@UNWatch) November 28, 2018

The post UN General Assembly shames itself again with 21 resolutions on Israel, six on rest of world appeared first on UN Watch.

Condemnations to be adopted today & over next month at UN General Assembly:
🇮🇱 Israel 20
🇮🇷 Iran 1
🇸🇾 Syria 1
🇰🇵 NKorea 1
🇷🇺 Crimea 1
🇲🇲 Myanmar 1
🇺🇸 US 1
🇩🇿 Algeria 0
🇨🇳 China 0
🇮🇶 Iraq 0
🇵🇰 Pakistan 0
🇶🇦 Qatar 0
🇸🇦 Saudi 0
🇸🇴 Somalia 0
🇹🇷 Turkey 0
🇻🇪 Venezuela 0
🇿🇼 Zimbabwe 0

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) November 16, 2018

“One of tomorrow’s resolutions — drafted and co-sponsored by Syria — falsely condemns Israel for ‘repressive measures’ against Syrian citizens in the Golan Heights. It’s obscene,” said Neuer.
The resolution, drafted originally by Syria, condemns Israel for holding on to the Golan Heights, and demands Israel hand the land and its people to Syria.
“It’s astonishing,” said Neuer. “After the Syrian regime has killed half a million of its own people, how can the UN call for more people to be handed over to Assad’s rule? The timing of tomorrow’s text is morally galling, and logically absurd.”
“Tomorrow’s resolutions claim to care about Palestinians, yet the UN is oblivious to the dozens of Palestinians who have been slaughtered, maimed and expelled by Assad’s forces, and more than 3,000 victims killed since 2011.”
“Tomorrow’s farce at the General Assembly underscores a simple fact: the UN’s automatic majority has no interest in truly helping Palestinians, nor in protecting anyone’s human rights; the goal of these ritual, one-sided condemnations is to scapegoat Israel,” said Neuer.
“The UN’s disproportionate assault against the Jewish state undermines the institutional credibility of what is supposed to be an impartial international body. Politicization and selectivity harm its founding mission, eroding the UN Charter’s promise of equal treatment to all nations large and small,” Neuer added.
Click here to see the virtually identical 20 UN General Assembly resolutions targeting Israel in 2017, as well an additional one last year on the U.S. embassy move to Jerusalem.
 

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GENEVA, Nov. 30, 2017 – The U.N. General Assembly today condemned Israel in six Arab-sponsored resolutions, voting 151 to 6, with 9 abstentions, to adopt a text on Jerusalem which called Temple Mount by its Islamic name only, and voting 105-6-58 to condemn Israel’s presence on the Golan Heights, with the UK breaking for the first time from the EU’s common position to join the U.S. and Canada in opposing the Syrian-sponsored resolution. Click here for list of 6 resolutions.

The British delegate voted No, he told the assembly, because “resolutions which undermine the credibility of UN bodies risk hardening positions on both sides, and do little to advance peace or mutual understanding,” he said. “It is unnecessary, and disproportionate.”

“The Syrian regime’s intent is to use this additional resolution to deflect attention from its own criminal actions and indiscriminate slaughter of its own citizens. The duty of the General Assembly is to draw attention to international humanitarian law violations, wherever they occur. This resolution risks discrediting that vital responsibility,” added the UK delegate.

UN Watch Analysis & Comment

The resolutions adopted today “made no mention of Hamas stabbings, shootings or vehicular attacks against Israelis,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based monitoring group UN Watch. 

While some called the resolutions balanced because some refer to “provocations, incitement and violence” by “all sides,” in fact Israel is repeatedly condemned and singled out expressly, while no such accountability or condemnation is applied to the Palestinian Authority, Hamas or Islamic Jihad.

By contrast, in this year’s session there will be a total of 6 condemnatory resolutions for the rest of the world combined — with one each on Syria, North Korea, Iran, Crimea, Myanmar, as well as one on criticizing the U.S. embargo on Cuba.

“The U.N. assault on Israel today with this torrent of one-sided resolutions is surreal,” said Neuer.

“Today’s resolution on Jerusalem refers to the Temple Mount exclusively by its Islamic name, Haram al-Sharif. At a time when even  UNESCO no longer tolerates this terminology, the General Assembly should not be engaged in the denial of Jewish and Christian heritage.”

“While there will be a total of 20 resolutions against Israel this session, not a single U.N. General Assembly resolution is planned today or this year for gross human rights abusers such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Venezuela, China, Cuba, Pakistan or Zimbabwe.”

“At a time when Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his state-controlled media incite to the continued stabbing and shooting of Israeli Jews, the U.N.’s response is to reflexively condemn Israel in six separate resolutions, each of them one-sided, each of them utterly silent on Palestinian abuses.”

Golan Resolution is ‘Absurd’

“Today’s Golan resolution, the second on the area this session, absurdly demands that Israel give over the heights and its 20,000 Druze residents to the control of the genocidal Assad regime.”

“It’s astonishing,” said Neuer. “After the Syrian regime has killed its own people by the hundreds of thousands over six years, how can the U.N. call for more people to be subject to Assad’s rule? The timing of today’s text is morally galling, and logically absurd.”

“Today’s resolutions claim to care about Palestinians, yet the U.N. is oblivious to the dozens of Palestinians who have been slaughtered, maimed and expelled by Assad’s forces, and more than 3,000 victims killed since 2011.”

“Today’s farce at the General Assembly underscores a simple fact: the U.N.’s automatic majority has no interest in truly helping Palestinians, nor in protecting anyone’s human rights; the goal of these ritual, one-sided condemnations remains the scapegoating of Israel,” said Neuer.

“The U.N.’s disproportionate assault against the Jewish state undermines the institutional credibility of what is supposed to be an impartial international body. Politicization and selectivity harm its founding mission, eroding the U.N. Charter promise of equal treatment to all nations large and small,” Neuer added.

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