The following speech was delivered by UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer
at the U.N. Human Rights Council debate held on March 11, 2019
Mr. President, let me be the first to state for the record that everything we just heard from the world’s worst dictatorships, and their apologists, is unfounded, unreal and untrue.
For example, the accusation that Israeli soldiers are war criminals for defending their citizens from massive attacks on the Gaza border, organized by the Hamas terrorist group, is absurd. The claim that these are civilian protests, and peaceful in nature, is deceitful and dishonest.
The truth is that 70,000 Israelis live within a few kilometers of these attacks, including three communities which reside right on the border. The truth is that these so-called “protests” include attempts by terrorists to infiltrate into these Israeli communities, and involve shootings, grenades, firebombs, and improvised explosive devices. The truth is that mines and booby-traps have been placed on the border, to be detonated on IDF patrols. Now, for the UN to call these “peaceful protests” is nothing but an insult to every genuinely peaceful human rights activist around the world.
Now it was said here by the Palestinian representative that “anyone who aspires to preserve this Council, should remain in the Council, and work in it; those who do not wish to respect the values, should leave.” I ask: Is it his position that Council members such as Saudi Arabia, which is now torturing women’s rights activists, as we just heard; and China, which is now holding a reported one million Muslims in “re-education camps,” are the one upholding human rights?
The ignominious @UN_HRC accused Israeli soldiers of “crimes against humanity.” @HillelNeuer then took the floor to tell the truth.
Sign our petition and join us March 18th in Geneva to spread more truth, and demand equal treatment for Israel at the UN: https://t.co/XUUKIqEUxC pic.twitter.com/S5QUep8PbC— UN Watch (@UNWatch) March 13, 2019
