UN Watch was quoted by media outlets around the world in July 2026 on numerous topics, including our recent report exposing UNESCO for misidentifying Hamas terrorists as journalists in Gaza.
Appeared on CBN, July 16, 2026:
Key Quote:
UNRWA exists only to perpetuate war, grievance, and terrorism. They’re not there for solutions. They’re there to make war. UNRWA has to be dismantled if we want peace with Israel and Palestinians…They would commandeer the trucks. They would sell it on the market. So this is something we knew and now even the UN is acknowledging it.
Appeared on The Brendan O’Neill Show, July 30, 2026:
Key Quote:
You asked about the role that UNRWA plays. I’ll just mention two cases that are emblematic, one in Gaza, one in Lebanon. In Lebanon, there was the head of the teachers’ union of UNRWA named Fathi Sharif. He was a teacher for some 30 years, school principal of about a thousand students outside of Tyre, Lebanon, for UNRWA. And he was also the commander of Hamas in Lebanon. So I’ll say that again: an UNRWA teacher, school principal, head of 2,000 teachers in the union of UNRWA, and he was the commander of Hamas. How do we know it? Hamas said so.
Featured in The Australian, “Bondi Survivor Addresses UN,” July 2, 2026:
Bondi survivor Arsen Ostrovsky has urged international action on violent antisemitism and its antecedents in an address to the United Nations just days after speaking before the royal commission. Mr Ostrovsky flew from Sydney to Geneva hours after describing to the royal commission the tirade of online conspiracy he faced after surviving Australia’s worst ever terror attack. Overnight he appeared at the United Nations Human Rights Council as a delegate for the human rights group UN Watch.
Quoted in Fox News, “US Urges Donors to Abandon UNRWA Funding as UN Defends Agency’s Mission,” July 8, 2026:
The funding dispute comes as UN Watch is demanding that Guterres waive any immunity enjoyed by Lazzarini, whose term has ended, so national authorities can investigate allegations that he ignored repeated warnings about Hamas infiltration. In a June 30 letter, the Geneva-based watchdog claimed that it had provided Lazzarini and his administration with evidence involving teachers, school principals, union leaders and other employees who allegedly supported or were affiliated with Hamas and other terrorist groups. It argued that the claims create grounds for an independent criminal investigation. Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, told Fox News Digital that his organization told Lazzarini “that there are supporters of terrorism — in some cases, actual members of Hamas — working as teachers, working as school principals,” Neuer said, “Not one bad apple, not a few rotten apples, but the problem of support for terrorism … was systematic.”
Quoted in the Washington Examiner, “Bipartisan House Members Introduce Bill to Dismantle UN Agency That Supports Palestinian Refugee Relief,” July 17, 2026:
Among UNRWA’s biggest critics has been UN Watch, a non-governmental organization dedicated to monitoring the failures of the United Nations. The bill introduced on Tuesday advocates the same path that Hillel Neuer, the executive director of UN Watch, has laid out to dismantle the agency while finding proper substitutes for the humanitarian needs it covers. “We’ve been the lead organization monitoring UNRWA in the past 10 years, and we’ve concluded, based on hundreds of pages of in-depth reports, that the agency is beyond reform,” he told the Washington Examiner. “For about eight, nine years, we were calling for major reform. We asked them not to hire teachers who glorify Adolf Hitler on a regular basis, not to hire teachers and employees who openly promote Hamas terrorist attacks on a regular basis on their social media, and presumably in the classrooms as well,” Neuer said. “And the response from UNRWA was denial. They attacked us. They defamed us. Everything but addressing the issue.”
Quoted in Andalou Agency, “UN General Assembly Renews Volker Türk’s Term as Rights Chief,” July 24, 2026:
In social media posts, the pro-Israeli UN Watch group criticized Turk for condemning Israel “58 times” during his tenure, while condemning the US “more times than he condemned China, North Korea, Cuba, Saudi Arabia and Qatar combined.” The group noted that Turk condemned US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran in February, claiming he described Iran’s response as “retaliatory,” which it said lent legitimacy to Iran’s attacks.
Quoted in Fox News, “Waltz Slams France After Stunning Social Media Attack on US After UN Vote,” July 27, 2026:
UN Watch, a Geneva-based watchdog, published a 2024 analysis of public statements initiated by Türk or his office between Oct. 17, 2022, and Oct. 31, 2024. The organization concluded that Türk criticized the United States more frequently than China, North Korea, Cuba, Saudi Arabia and Qatar combined. It also said it found no self-initiated criticism during that period concerning abuses by Cuba, North Korea, Algeria, Eritrea, Mauritania, Lebanon or Qatar. UN Watch’s methodology excluded statements required by the Human Rights Council, comments in mandated reports, broad updates to the council and other remarks that were not initiated at Türk’s discretion. Its findings therefore do not encompass every country reference, report or action by Türk’s office. UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer called the renewal “rushed and unprecedented” and said it was “unseemly” for French President Emmanuel Macron’s government to attack the United States while celebrating Türk’s reappointment.
Featured in Il Foglio, “Yazidi Woman ISIS Sold to Hamas and Freed by Israel Speaks at the UN,” July 3, 2026:
On October 1, 2024, Fawzia was rescued by the Israeli army in Gaza. Today, she is in Germany, where she is slowly rebuilding her life thanks to European hospitality. On June 26, Fawzia Sido spoke at the 62nd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council at the invitation of Hillel Neuer’s UN Watch. “I come forward today not to provide numbers and statistics that will end up buried in reports and forgotten, but as a human being who has endured what no one on this planet has ever experienced.”
Featured in Haaretz, “Inside the German Pro-Israel Lobby’s Campaign to Defund UNRWA,” July 7, 2026:
According to the report, WELT relied heavily on material produced by organizations such as UN Watch and IMPACT-se in its coverage of UNRWA. In 2021, WELT political editor Frederik Schindler published an opinion column calling for Germany to freeze funding to UNRWA, drawing extensively on IMPACT-se’s findings. Following October 7, the report says, the newspaper increasingly amplified Israeli allegations that Hamas had infiltrated UNRWA and that some of its employees had participated in the attacks.
Featured in the Jerusalem Post, “‘I Am Proof of Hamas’s Violence’: Ex-Hostage Ilana Gritzewsky Tells ‘Post’ of Sexual Abuse in Gaza,” July 5, 2026:
In a speech facilitated by UN Watch, Gritzewsky last month confronted UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women Reem Alsalem for choosing to remain in “silence and denial” when she, along with countless other Israelis, were brutalized.
Quoted in Israel Hayom, “UNESCO Mourned ‘Gazan Journalists’ Exposed as Hamas, Islamic Jihad Terrorists,” July 8, 2026:
UN Watch published a new report in Geneva, Switzerland, on Wednesday, titled “UNESCO’s Misclassification of Terror Operatives as Journalists in Gaza,” documenting repeated cases in which UNESCO publicly identified Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives as journalists killed in Gaza, despite later acknowledgments by the terrorist organizations themselves that the individuals were members of their military wings…”Press freedom depends on truth,” Neuer concluded. “UNESCO’s mission is to protect journalism, not whitewash the identities of terrorist operatives. The organization now has a duty to correct the records, investigate how these failures occurred and restore trust in its work.”
Quoted in Ynet News, “UN Watch: UNESCO Honored Gaza ‘Journalists’ Later Identified as Terrorists,” July 8, 2026:
UN Watch said the report is based on UNESCO statements, IDF disclosures and publications by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad themselves. The organization is urging UNESCO to retract what it called false classifications, open an independent investigation and revise its procedures for verifying journalist deaths in conflict zones. “When a UN agency publicly memorializes terrorist operatives as journalists, and fails to correct the record even after Hamas itself admits they were fighters, it undermines the credibility of the United Nations and harms the integrity of real journalists who risk their lives reporting from conflict zones,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch.
Quoted in FDD, “U.S. Must Oppose Outgoing UN Secretary General’s Efforts To Renew Human Rights Commissioner,” July 24, 2026:
However, as the Geneva-based monitoring organization UN Watch pointed out, Turk issued 58 statements condemning Israel’s response in the two years that followed the atrocities, a number that dwarfed his public interventions on other human rights crises. Over time, moreover, Turk’s rhetoric towards Israel notably hardened.
Quoted in JNS, “Israel: Guterres Cements ‘Infamous Legacy’ With Second Term for UN Rights Chief,” July 27, 2026:
Hillel Neuer, executive director of U.N. Watch, a human rights NGO, told JNS: “The U.N.’s rubber-stamp renewal of Volker Turk for an unprecedented second four-year term was a quiet, last-minute maneuver by Secretary-General Guterres, pushed through with minimal scrutiny, no open call for candidates, and no public debate.” “No independent human rights figures endorsed him; on the contrary. That China and so many other human rights abusers backed the extension is the clearest verdict on his record: he never spoke out with the courage the job demands,” he said.
Featured in the Jerusalem Post, “Why I Went to Geneva: The Human Rights System at a Crossroads,” July 2, 2026:
I was there, at the invitation of UN Watch, to deliver a speech to the Human Rights Council and bring forward the findings of the Civil Commission’s historical archive and landmark report, “Silenced No More,” documenting the sexual atrocities committed by Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist organizations during the October 7 attacks and the ongoing abuse endured by hostages in captivity.
Quoted in JNS, “UN Piles New Anti-Israel Lies Atop a Mountain of Slander and Corruption,” July 14, 2026:
In short, a rebuttal of the recent COI report by UN Watch reveals that the COI “constructs an entire narrative of intentional killing through stacked assumptions rather than verified facts, transforming uncorroborated allegations into definitive findings of criminal conduct.”…Recent investigations by parties such as UN Watch have found that numerous UNRWA staff members participated in the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Featured in The Algemeiner, “On His Way Out, UNRWA Chief Faces Calls for Criminal Probe Into Hamas Infiltration,” July 2, 2026:
UN Watch, a prominent watchdog organization critical of the United Nations, has called on Secretary-General António Guterres to waive the legal immunity of outgoing UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini, arguing that the longtime UN official should face criminal investigation over allegations that he enabled an agency increasingly infiltrated by Hamas.
Featured in JNS, “‘Shocking Conflict of Interest’ That Tlaleng Mofokeng Advising UN While Running to Be Johannesburg Mayor, Expert Says,” July 27, 2026:
Tlaleng Mofokeng, who has been reprimanded by the United Nations for abusive criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is displaying a “shocking conflict of interest” by remaining a U.N. special rapporteur while running to become mayor of Johannesburg, South Africa, according to Hillel Neuer, executive director of the U.N. Watch. Mofokeng has told Netanyahu to “F*** off” on social media and called Neuer “evil scum” and “white man,” and the Health Professions Council of South Africa said in October that she was guilty of misconduct for “using abusive and inappropriate language on social media and for bringing the medical profession into disrepute,” according to Neuer.
Featured in Enlace Judio, “UN Watch Calls for Criminal Investigation of Outgoing UNRWA Director,” July 5, 2026:
UN Watch maintains that, despite repeated warnings, Lazzarini continued to oversee the payment of salaries to thousands of UNRWA employees in Gaza , many of whom were later shown to have links to Hamas and other terrorist organizations, while continuing to manage facilities that provide terrorist groups with access to students, infrastructure, and institutional legitimacy. The letter states that these facts are reasonable grounds to investigate whether Lazzarini knowingly facilitated or provided material support and assistance to individuals and entities involved in terrorism, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. UN Watch called on Guterres to publicly waive, without delay, any applicable immunity and to guarantee the full cooperation of the United Nations in a criminal investigation.
Featured in Israel Netz, “Report: UNESCO Declared Terrorists to Be Journalists,” July 15, 2026:
UN Watch accuses UNESCO of falsely classifying slain terrorists as journalists. According to the organization, the United Nations cultural agency persisted with these incorrect identifications even after terrorist groups like Hamas admitted that the individuals in question were active members of their military wing.
Quoted in JNS, “A Tsunami of Lies,” July 23, 2026:
Pointing out that Mamdani could be denaturalized and deported, the head of UN Watch, Hillel Neuer, has said that the U.S. Department of Justice should investigate evidence that before becoming an American citizen in 2018 he “knowingly provided funds or services to Hamas or another terrorist group—and concealed this from immigration authorities.”
Featured in J Wire, “Bondi Survivor Warns UN: Unchecked Antisemitism Leads to Violence,” July 2, 2026:
Speaking on behalf of UN Watch and AIJAC, Ostrovsky said he had travelled from Sydney not to seek sympathy but to warn the international community about the consequences of failing to confront antisemitism. He was attending a Chanukah celebration at Bondi Beach with his family on December 14, 2025, when gunmen opened fire on the crowd. Fifteen people, including a 10-year-old girl, were killed and more than 40 were injured. Ostrovsky was shot in the head as he ran towards his family.
Quoted in the South African Jewish Report, “UN Health Rapporteur Returns to a Legal Fight,” July 2, 2026:
But her farewell was overshadowed by a stinging intervention from accountability organisation UN Watch. Addressing the UNHRC, its executive director, Hillel Neuer, accused Mofokeng of having “praised Hamas, promoted prostitution in Teen Vogue, and called [former] British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ‘filthy’”. His remarks followed the release of UN Watch’s latest report, “From Watchdogs to Ideologues”, which argues that a growing number of UN Special Rapporteurs have abandoned impartiality in favour of political activism.
Featured in Contado Estrelas, “Nicaragua as a Warning: When Communism Comes to Power, Democracy Disappears,” July 21, 2026:
In fact, as Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, reminded us today, Nicaragua currently chairs the committee that oversees the work of all UN-accredited human rights NGOs. For those who don’t understand what this means, let me simply say that the UN has entrusted a dictatorship with overseeing the work of organizations dedicated to protecting human rights. It is utterly grotesque.
Featured in Porta da Estrela, “US Urges Donors to Drop UNRWA Funding as UN Defends Agency’s Mission,” July 8, 2026:
The funding dispute comes as UN Watch is calling on Guterres to waive any immunity enjoyed by Lazzarini, whose mandate has expired, so that national authorities can investigate allegations that he ignored repeated warnings about Hamas infiltration .
Featured in JNS, “Student Testimonial: Policy Summit Tops Classroom Test Any Day of the Week,” July 7, 2026:
There were policy forums on a wide range of topics, but I found international legal issues—United Nations, International Criminal Court, International Court of Justice—of particular interest. One panelist, Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, detailed his findings on the corruption of the United Nations and its affiliated organizations, and how, in regard to Israel, procedure is disregarded.
Featured in the South African Jewish Report, “Complaint Filed at UN Over EFF Mayoral Candidate,” July 30, 2026:
The international nongovernmental organisation UN Watch has filed a formal complaint with United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres over Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng’s acceptance of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) candidacy for the mayorship of Johannesburg. UN Watch describes this as a “grave violation and serious misconduct” by Mofokeng, who is still the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health.“A UN expert cannot claim to be independent while standing on a political stage, addressing a party leader as ‘Commander-in-Chief’ and accepting ‘deployment’ as that party’s candidate for one of Africa’s most important mayoralties,” said UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer in an official statement. “This is an open-and-shut conflict of interest that strikes at the credibility of the entire UN human rights system.”
Quoted in the Daily Signal, “‘Cannot Go to Terrorists’: House Ends Taxpayer-Funded Aid to Nigeria Over Christian Genocide,” July 16, 2026:
UN Watch noted that in northwestern Nigeria, armed Islamic criminal groups have taken control of rural areas in states, including Zamfara, Katsina, and Sokoto, carrying out mass kidnappings and extortion in what authorities describe as banditry.
Featured in J Wire, “New Zealand Abstains on UN Rights Chief Reappointment,” July 26, 2026:
In December 2024, Geneva-based NGO UN Watch published a report alleging that Türk had disproportionately focused criticism on Israel while failing to speak out consistently against serious human rights abuses committed by a number of authoritarian regimes. The report analysed official discretionary statements issued during his first two years in office and argued that his public record reflected significant selectivity.
Quoted in the South African Jewish Report, “SAFI Demands Government Condemns Hamas,” July 16, 2026:
Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, said the statement was “an important and overdue admission by the UN”. He told the SA Jewish Report, “Hamas is not only terrorising Israelis. It is also terrorising Palestinians and the humanitarian workers delivering aid.”
Featured in Sene News, “UN: Macky Sall’s Controversial Record at the Heart of a UN Watch Report,” July 22, 2026:
A few months before the selection of the tenth Secretary-General of the United Nations, the non-governmental organization UN Watch published a critical analysis of the six candidates in the running. While all are the subject of harsh criticism, the time former Senegalese President Macky Sall held in power raises particular questions about his relationship with fundamental freedoms.
Quoted in Hromadske, “France Says ‘World No Longer Listens to US’ After Controversial UN Vote,” July 26, 2026:
Turk is known as an outspoken critic of Russia’s war against Ukraine and Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip. At the same time, Human Rights Watch and UN Watch have criticized him for being “selective” and “ignoring” rights abuses in China, Cuba, North Korea, Eritrea, Algeria, Qatar, etc.
Quoted in Hidabroot, “Report Claims Seven Gaza ‘Journalists’ Cited by UNESCO Were Terror Operatives,” July 9, 2026:
UNESCO is now being called upon to retract its misclassification of the operatives as journalists and to launch an independent investigation into the matter. Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch, stated: “When a UN agency publicly memorializes terror operatives as journalists — and fails to correct the record even after Hamas itself acknowledges they were its members — it undermines the credibility of the United Nations and damages the integrity of real journalists who risk their lives reporting from conflict zones.”
Featured in Neokohn, “Shame: UNESCO mourned Palestinian terrorists as ‘Gaza journalists,'” July 9, 2026:
UN Watch, a non-governmental organization that monitors the activities of the UN, published its new report in Geneva titled “UNESCO’s Misclassification: The Representation of Terrorist Activists as Journalists in Gaza.” The organization documents recurring cases where UNESCO publicly identified Palestinian terrorists , Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad activists, as “journalists killed in Gaza,” despite these organizations later admitting that the individuals involved were members of their military wings, Israel Hayom reports.
Featured in Israel Today, “UN Caught Labeling Terrorists as Journalists,” July 9, 2026:
According to research released by UN Watch, UNESCO repeatedly identified members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad as “journalists” after they were killed during the war—despite later evidence confirming their involvement in terrorist organizations.
Quoted in Israel 365 News, “Hamas Terrorists Storm UN Food Warehouse and Assault Aid Workers as Ceasefire Obligations Go Unmet,” July 15, 2026:
UN Watch’s Hillel Neuer called those firings “a drop in the ocean,” estimating that roughly 1,500 Hamas members remain on the UN payroll, drawing salaries funded in large part by American and other Western donors. UNRWA leadership has previously acknowledged that Hamas members are on staff and has stated it does not regard that as a violation.
Quoted in O Antagonista, “Crusoe: UN Watch Wants to Revoke Immunity of Former Agency Head for Palestinians,” July 10, 202:
Hillel Neuer, director of UN Watch, stated that Lazzarini and senior UNRWA officials maintained links with the terrorist group Hamas. “For years, we repeatedly warned Mr. Lazzarini that Hamas had infiltrated deep within UNRWA. We provided detailed evidence identifying teachers, school principals, union leaders, and other officials linked to Hamas. We documented repeated meetings between senior UNRWA officials—including Mr. Lazzarini himself—and leaders of Hamas and other terrorist organizations. Even so, he continued to assure governments that UNRWA’s neutrality mechanisms were effective, while overseeing an agency whose personnel, facilities, and resources were being exploited by terrorist groups.”
Featured in Audiatur Online, “The dubious ‘human rights experts’ of the UN,” July 5, 2026:
What many of these UN special rapporteurs do could hardly be more reprehensible: Almost all of them harbor what UN Watch calls a “systemic anti-Western ideological bias,” many explicitly refrain from criticizing the world’s most authoritarian states, and they are obsessed with demonizing Israel. Many of them have been bought off by the world’s most authoritarian states.
Featured in JForum, “Regarding the UN’s human rights ‘experts’?,” July 5, 2026:
Lord Alton of Liverpool, chairman of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights, challenged the British government on the report’s damning findings concerning the 13 UN Special Rapporteurs and on its support for UN Watch’s calls to hold them accountable and prohibit all external funding to them.
