JNS International Policy Conference, reaffirming UN Watch’s mission to confront antisemitism, defend human rights, and bring truth and accountability to the United Nations.
Full Remarks:
Friends, thank you for the very warm reception here in Jerusalem. I’m coming here from the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, where, when I walk into the room, I get an altogether very different kind of reception. So I’m glad to make the adjustment.
I was supposed to be here on stage today with Ambassador Danny Danon, Israel’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, but he was unable to attend because he had to participate in an important meeting at the United Nations. You may have seen the video of a clash that occurred during a meeting on sexual violence in conflict. Ambassador Danon was calling out the latest disgraceful report by the UN Secretary-General, in which Israel was placed on the same blacklist as the Hamas terrorist organization and falsely accused of systematic sexual violence through the IDF.
As he spoke, he was suddenly interrupted by one of the Secretary-General’s representatives, Vanessa Frazier, the former Ambassador of Malta who now serves as the Special Representative on Children and Armed Conflict. The exchange went viral online. One of the debates afterward was whether she had the right to interrupt him.
A website called Security Council Procedure claimed that she did. Of course, that was false. A UN staff member has no right to interrupt a member state. I responded on Twitter to this account, which is supposed to be an expert source on UN procedure. I said that, from personal experience, I have been condemned personally hundreds of times at the United Nations, and I have never had the right to intervene. Only a member state can interrupt on a point of order.
Soon afterward, the account deleted all of its tweets on the issue. Why do I mention this? Because it is indicative of a broader problem. The Secretary-General’s representative broke clear procedure in order to interrupt the State of Israel-something they would never do to any other state. They would never interrupt China, Qatar, Russia, Pakistan, or Venezuela. Yet when it comes to Israel, they do.
You know, António Guterres is the same man who, just two weeks after October 7, came before the United Nations and said, “Yes, I condemn the attacks of October 7.” But he also said it was important to note that the attacks “did not happen in a vacuum.” He then went on to enumerate numerous alleged Palestinian grievances against Israel.
Effectively, António Guterres was justifying the attacks of October 7. But, not everything he said was wrong. When he said the attacks did not happen in a vacuum, that was true. Nothing any of us did today happened in a vacuum. Everything is influenced by our surroundings, our culture, and the people around us.
But if Mr. Guterres had even a smidgen of self-reflection, he might have asked who educated the Hamas terrorists who invaded Israel on October 7 and committed atrocities. Who taught them?
According to former UNRWA legal advisor Johann Soufi, 90 percent of those in Gaza attended UNRWA schools. UNRWA schools did not happen in a vacuum. You’re right, Mr. Guterres-the attacks did not happen in a vacuum. The perpetrators of those atrocities were graduates of your education system, graduates of your schools.
Let me share a few words about our battles against terrorism and antisemitism at the United Nations.
I mentioned UNRWA. It was recently reported that UNRWA finally fired 70 staff members over terror links. They said they were not acknowledging wrongdoing, but let me say a word about what we have been exposing over the past decade, and especially over the past few years.
UNRWA has been funded by all the Western countries-the EU countries, Canada, Australia, and others. We have been funding UNRWA with billions and billions of dollars. Yet after seven decades, they have not resettled a single Palestinian. Quite the opposite.
To quote former Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis, it is a “perverse logic. We are perpetuating the conflict.”
UNRWA has a pathological purpose: to keep Palestinians in a state of dependency, grievance, and war against Israel, teaching them that their mission is to dismantle Israel through the so-called “right of return.” Those who invaded Israel on October 7 believed they were exercising that right, exactly as they had been taught in UNRWA schools.
UNRWA tells European taxpayers that it teaches UN values, human rights, and human dignity. But who are the teachers?
Last year, in our report Teachers of Terror, which you can find on our website, we exposed the fact that the head of the teachers’ union in Gaza, Suhail al-Hindi-a teacher for 30 years, a school principal, and the head of 8,000 UNRWA teachers funded by Western taxpayers-was a member of the Hamas politburo. He still is. You can see photographs of him with Yahya Sinwar.
So the head of the teachers’ union, a teacher and school principal, was on the Hamas politburo that planned the October 7 attacks.
Go to Lebanon. A year and a half ago, Fathi al-Sharif, head of the UNRWA teachers’ union there, was killed in an IDF strike. He had spent 30 years as a teacher and school principal in UNRWA schools funded by Western donors. On the day he was killed, Hamas announced that Israel had killed one of its leaders.
I’m not telling you that he was a Hamas leader. Hamas said it. Hamas said Fathi al-Sharif, the head of the UNRWA teachers’ union in Lebanon, was the head of Hamas in Lebanon. They released videos showing him with Ismail Haniyeh and accompanied by Hamas bodyguards.
When the Secretary-General’s spokesman was asked how it was possible that the head of a UNRWA teachers’ union was also the head of Hamas, he replied that when an underground militant group operates underground, it is difficult to know.
How could they know? In the report we released-more than 100 pages long-we answered that question. They could have known because he announced it every day. On his public Facebook page, open for the entire world to see, Fathi al-Sharif regularly posted support for Hamas, photographs with terrorists, images from Hamas funerals, and celebrations of terrorist attacks.
Everybody knew.
Philippe Lazzarini is about to retire as head of UNRWA, and we will demand his indictment for complicity in war crimes, terrorism, and crimes against humanity. He cannot claim he did not know. He knew, and we have the receipts.
I am happy to say that the United States government has now defunded UNRWA. The United States used to provide $400 million a year. Today, that figure is zero. Sweden has also ended funding worth tens of millions of dollars.
But the battle continues. France, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and other European countries are still funding an agency that, in the words of Secretary Rubio, is “an arm of Hamas.” If we want peace in this region, if we want deradicalization, it begins and ends with UNRWA.
Let me now say a word about the UN Human Rights Council, which is meeting as we speak.
Today, Reem Alsalem of Jordan, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women-and also one of the most prominent deniers of violence against Israeli women-is presenting her latest report. Among other things, it accuses Israel of genocide. I hope someone confronts her. We’ll see what happens. Stay tuned.
But let me say a word about the other rapporteurs before I conclude.
UN rapporteurs are supposed to be the crown jewels of the UN system: independent human rights experts. A week or two ago, we released a report titled From Watchdogs to Ideologues, documenting how UN rapporteurs have politicized and subverted the human rights system.
We found that George Katrougalos, the UN expert on a democratic and equitable international order, received $100,000 from the Chinese Communist Party. This is documented in UN records that we uncovered.
In the same year, he attended a propaganda event in Greece promoting a book by Xi Jinping and praised Xi’s vision. While receiving funding from China, he never criticizes China. Instead, he attacks Israel daily and accuses it of genocide.
Another rapporteur is Ben Saul, professor of law at the University of Sydney and the UN Special Rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights. He received $150,000 from the Chinese Communist regime.
Despite China’s detention of more than a million Uyghurs under the banner of counterterrorism, he has never spoken out against it. Instead, while receiving Chinese funding, he repeatedly condemns Israel. He accuses American leaders of criminal conduct and calls for their arrest.
Then there is Alena Douhan, the UN Special Rapporteur on sanctions. She received $1.3 million from China, Russia, and Qatar while producing reports that praised China, Russia, Qatar, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Syria, and Iran-regimes she portrayed as victims of sanctions.
Finally, I will mention one rapporteur you all know well: Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian territories.
She has said that America is controlled by the Jewish lobby. After October 7, she defended Hamas by insisting there was a “context.” Every few minutes on social media, she echoes some of the worst blood libels against Israel and serves as one of the leading promoters of the genocide libel.
We are fighting back.
We exposed her hateful remarks. She is now the first UN rapporteur in history to be condemned by France, Germany, Canada, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Argentina, Hungary, the United States, Latvia, Estonia, and many other countries.
Every condemnation matters.
We led a campaign that gathered 120,000 signatures urging Secretary Rubio to take action. When the UN failed to act, Secretary Rubio announced that, for the first time in history, the United States would sanction a UN official.
On July 9, Francesca Albanese became the first UN rapporteur ever sanctioned by the United States.
No more lectures at Harvard, Princeton, Georgetown, or Columbia. She is barred from entering the United States. She cannot use American financial systems. She cannot receive payments through them.
In her own words, the sanctions have been “devastating.” Good. Very good. It sends a message of deterrence.
After she was sanctioned, her husband, who works for the World Bank and has echoed her incitement, was demoted from his position. Shortly afterward, Navi Pillay, head of the Commission of Inquiry against Israel, resigned. We heard that she was concerned about the possibility of sanctions affecting her ability to enter the United States.
Friends, we face a steep uphill battle. Whether it is UNRWA or the UN rapporteurs, we are not going to give up.
We are going to keep fighting the haters.
The United Nations was founded on genuine principles of human rights. We are going to uphold those principles.
I want to conclude by recalling what the Lubavitcher Rebbe told Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations in the 1980s. He said:
“You are entering a house of darkness. Your mission is to light a candle of truth.”
That is exactly what we are going to do. And we are not going to give up.
Thank you very much.
“You're right, Secretary General António Guterres. The attacks of October 7th ‘did not happen in a vacuum.’ The U.N. taught the Hamas terrorists that committed atrocities. They were graduates of your UNRWA schools.”
- Hillel Neuer at the 2026 @JNS_org International Policy Summit pic.twitter.com/orOzI7Ptmz
- UN Watch (@UNWatch) June 24, 2026
