SHARE: YouTube
The ICJ’s new advisory opinion which whitewashes UNRWA relied heavily on the so-called independent Colonna Report - but that was a sham review process in which UNRWA insiders admitted it was rigged from the start. Hillel Neuer joins i24 News to discuss the latest developments.
Full Transcript:
Benita Levin, i24 News: It’s a pleasure to welcome Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of United Nations Watch, joining us from Jerusalem.
So, the ICJ is dismissing Israel’s argument that UNRWA is not neutral. Your organization conducted a report - 200 pages or so - exposing how UNRWA knowingly employs Hamas terror chiefs to run their schools and their staff. So Hillel, both can’t be true. Your response to this advisory opinion?
Hillel Neuer: Look, if the ICJ says they can’t find evidence that UNRWA lacks impartiality and neutrality, it means they weren’t looking. Because, as you indicated, we just released a report - 200 pages of evidence - showing that the head of UNRWA’s staff union, 13,000 staff in Gaza, was Suhail al-Hindi.
He’s in the picture right there, meeting the Iranian foreign minister. This guy was the head of 13,000 UNRWA staff and sitting on the Hamas Politburo. He’s one of the Hamas terror chiefs - and he wasn’t hiding it. The pictures that you’re seeing are all public pictures, posted in many cases by the UNRWA teachers and union leaders themselves, whether in Gaza or in Lebanon.
The head of the UNRWA teachers union in Lebanon, Fathi Sharif, was the head of Hamas in Lebanon. It’s astonishing to say this, but the Hamas terror chief in Lebanon was the head of the UNRWA teachers union - and they knew it. These people weren’t hiding it.
For at least 10 years, on Facebook, our report - available at UNWatch.org - shows how they openly posted, boasted, and were very proud of the fact that they were members and leaders of Hamas.
And it’s not just two people. We have a network map coming out next which will show 500 UNRWA staff members and their links to terrorism - whether as members of terrorist groups, Hamas terror chiefs, and the like, or calling to murder Jews. So the notion that there’s no evidence is, frankly, just absurd.
Benita Levin, i24 News: Well, then why is the Court not satisfied with this evidence, and how does it get away with ignoring what you’ve just shown on the screen as we’re speaking right now?
Hillel Neuer: Well, they shouldn’t get away with it. Sadly, there are many in the world who want to endorse a false narrative that UNRWA is just a few bad apples - but the opposite is true.
Indeed, the ICJ opinion today says that when UNRWA was faced with criticism and problems, they immediately took action. For example, says the ICJ, they appointed a commission headed by Catherine Colonna, the former French foreign minister.
But this Colonna report was a travesty. The authors of the report, before it was even issued, said the whole point of the report was to allow donor states to “save face and climb down a ladder.” In other words, the whole point of the so-called independent review by Catherine Colonna was a sham - designed, orchestrated, and tailored to produce a false conclusion that everything is fine at UNRWA.
They even repeat - the ICJ repeats - the absurd claim by the Colonna report that UNRWA has more mechanisms for neutrality than any other organization.
And to me - when I spoke in the Dutch Parliament, actually in The Hague - I said that, you know, they may have many mechanisms, but Stalin, in his Soviet Constitution of the 1930s, had many provisions in the Constitution that spoke of freedom and liberty and so forth. But in reality, he was murdering millions of people.
So UNRWA may have mechanisms for neutrality, but the truth is that they have thousands who either belong to Hamas or are supporting Hamas. And as I said, leaders of UNRWA are Hamas terror chiefs. Two of them we named - Suhail al-Hindi in Gaza and Fathi Sharif in Lebanon. The proof is compelling, and the ICJ should not be able to get away with this.
Benita Levin, i24 News: Just some of the reaction coming through - we saw Lindsey Graham posting that, when it comes to Israel, the ICJ is a joke and should be treated as such.
That said, how damaging is this for Israel, especially in the court of public opinion? And what realistically can you do now when you hear this kind of finding coming out of a court of this so-called standing?
Hillel Neuer: Well, look, the think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies yesterday warned that an information operation - an information op - was going to be coming out by UNRWA and Hamas with this opinion today.
The goal of UNRWA is to insinuate themselves back into the structures in Gaza, because Israel was able to shut out UNRWA to a large degree. They’re not involved in giving out the aid, they haven’t been very active at all, and now they’re trying to come back to run the schools.
And I think it’s very important that the Trump administration understand that their peace plan - Article One - calls for de-radicalization. Article One: you cannot de-radicalize Gaza if you allow UNRWA, which is infested with Hamas terror chiefs, to take over the schools again. That will just guarantee more war and more hate.
Benita Levin, i24 News: Difficult to comprehend how one manages to de-radicalize if this is the case and it is ongoing as we speak. Always appreciate your insights.
Hillel Neuer, Executive Director at United Nations Watch, live from Jerusalem - thank you so much.
Hillel Neuer: Thank you.
