Following is the speech delivered by UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer on July 7, 2021 before the United Nations Human Rights Council, in its debate under Agenda Item 7 on the “Human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories.”
QATAR: We strongly condemn the systematic violations committed against the Palestinian people. This is ethnic cleansing, oppression…
NORTH KOREA: A war crime and a crime against humanity deserving strong international condemnation…
SYRIA: Serious human rights violations, racist settler colonialism…
IRAN: A military Apartheid system… War criminals…
TURKEY: A systematic campaign of ethnic, religious and cultural cleansing…
UNHRC CHAIR: I give the floor to United Nations Watch.
UN WATCH’S HILLEL NEUER: Madam President,
Here in the UN, we just heard repeated and false accusations against Israel. But in reality, on the ground in Bethlehem, Hebron and Ramallah, thousands of Palestinians are actually demonstrating against the Palestinian Authority.
They’re protesting the June 24th arrest of Nizar Banat, an outspoken critic of President Abbas. More than two dozen PA security officers raided his home, at 3:30 am. They severely beat Banat with metal clubs and rifle butts, in front of his wife and young children, before taking him away. Three hours later, he was pronounced dead.
When Palestinians protested, PA forces attacked them with batons, tear gas and stun grenades. PA officers singled out female demonstrators and female reporters, who were sexually harassed.
Madam President, why is the PA acting with impunity?
Is it because those who claim to care about Palestinians, about human rights and international law, never show the slightest interest when Israel cannot be blamed?
We have to ask: Would Nizar Banat still be alive if this Council’s Special Rapporteur on Palestine, Michael Lynk, had issued just one press release on the autocratic PA, instead of 75 on democratic Israel?
Would Nizar Banat still be alive if this Council had adopted just one resolution holding the PA to account, instead of 95 resolutions on Israel?
Would Nizar Banat still be alive if social media stars like Ilhan Omar and AOC, who claim to be fighting for justice, would have spoken out just once about the systematic abuses of the PA, such as the arrest of 752 people, in one year alone, for social media posts critical of Abbas’ rule?
I thank you.
WATCH: Executive Director @HillelNeuer fires back during the UNHRC debate targeting Israel by calling out the Palestinian Authority's brutal repression.
"Would Abbas critic Nizar Banat still be alive if the UN and this Council had held the Palestinian Authority to account?" pic.twitter.com/cNbYGh3tMK
— UN Watch (@UNWatch) July 23, 2021
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UN Watch Report Exposes How Palestine Rapporteur Michael Lynk Ignores Palestinian Abuses
The above statement was delivered during the UNHRC’s Interactive Dialogue with Michael Lynk, the council’s ”Special Rapporteur on Palestine.”
UN Watch also released a report, published by the UN as an official document of the 47th Session, documenting how human rights violations committed by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas are systematically ignored by Mr. Lynk.
