UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer appeared on Sky News Australia with Chris Kenny to discuss Hillel Fuld’s ban from Australia, Francesca Albanese’s history of antisemitism, and Albanese’s funding from pro-Hamas groups to visit Australia.
Chris Kenny, Sky News: Let’s get back to Israel, Greta Thunberg, the United Nations, and Australia. I want to catch up again with Hillel Neuer, who heads up United Nations Watch. Hillel, good to catch up with you again.
There’s so much to talk about on this topic, but I wanted to start with your namesake, Hillel Fuld, the tech commentator and blogger-an American-Israeli commentator banned from Australia just in the last few days. He was going to speak here at a charity event, as you know. Are you surprised that Australia has dubbed him divisive and Islamophobic?
Hillel Neuer: Well, I find it particularly surprising because when I was last in Australia just over a week ago-I was there to uncover the fact that Australian organizations were involved in funding the trip to Australia a year and a half ago of an open supporter of Hamas terrorism named Francesca Albanese, who has been famously condemned for antisemitism by France, Germany, Canada, the United States, the Netherlands, and many organizations-and that person was embraced by the Australian government.
She was met by members of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) in Canberra, and she was funded by groups in Australia that openly support Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of Hamas terrorism. By contrast, my namesake, gentleman Hillel Fuld, who is a well-known speaker on technology, was invited to speak at a fundraiser for Israel’s emergency medical service, Magen David Adom, which runs an ambulance service with Arab and Israeli medics that save Arabs and Jews alike. And he was turned down.
So I’m seeing a contrast. If you support Hamas terrorism, you get the red carpet. You get meetings in Canberra. You get to speak in the Australian Press Club. You go on ABC TV. But if you’re a tech speaker coming to speak for a group that promotes humanitarianism, that’s part of the International Red Cross movement, supports peace, you get absurdly banned from Australia. Something’s wrong in your country.
Chris Kenny, Sky News: It is a worry. I should point out straight away that Francesca Albanese, I think, would dispute the fact that she supports Hamas terrorists. Certainly, some of the groups she deals with openly support Yahya Sinwar and the likes, as you say. But I do want to stick with that, seeing as you’ve gone there, because I know you’ve looked a lot-
Hillel Neuer: In November 2022, she spoke at a conference organized by some of the leaders of Hamas, and she said, “You have the right to resist.” So that’s on the record. I’ll just put it there.
Chris Kenny, Sky News: Yeah, sure, right. But she would say she’s talking about Palestinian people having the right to resist. I just want to clarify that she would contest that. But I want to go to her status. And as you say, she was recently in Australia. She says that the United Nations paid for that trip. But yes, some of these organizations did invite her to speak to them and the like. I noticed that last night, our ABC uses her as a supposedly objective commentator on these issues. Here she is last night on the ABC:
Francesca Albanese (recorded statement): Israel has absolutely no authority to intercept and stop a boat like this, which carried humanitarian aid and everything else-humanity-to the people of Gaza.
Chris Kenny, Sky News: She gets a free rein. She has that lofty backing of the United Nations, but she says things that are completely untrue. Have a look at this from her latest Vanity Fair article where she says: “There is a genocide going on in Palestine. And when I said it last year, no one was saying it yet. Now, no one denies it.” Now, surely, the world is full of people who deny the absurdity of a genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza.
Hillel Neuer: Well, of course. Look, Francesca Albanese has been accusing Israel of genocide not just the past year or since October 7th-when Israel was attacked in a vicious massacre where 1,200 Israelis were killed in one day-she’s been accusing Israel of genocide for well over a decade. Let’s keep in mind, she is someone who has repeatedly said that the Holocaust is comparable to what the Palestinians have suffered since 1948, and she said there’s been an ongoing genocide since then. So this is someone who’s completely against Israel’s very existence.
She famously wrote an open letter on Facebook in 2014 where she said-and I quote-“America is subjugated by the Jewish lobby.” So, America subjugated by the Jewish lobby. That is sort of 1930s Berlin-style antisemitism, and that’s why she’s the first UN expert in history to have ever been condemned by France, or Germany, or Canada for antisemitism. So there’s a reason why she was disinvited from the Dutch Parliament, disinvited to speak in the U.S. Congress. So she’s a notorious figure.
And if we were living in a normal world, Chris, this person would be completely shunned. But we’re in a very strange world. Things have gone upside down. And those who basically-you know, she openly says that armed attacks against Israel are, quote-unquote, “resistance.” She says wild things every day.
And I’ll just note that when she came to Australia-according to DFAT, in a Freedom of Information request-there were internal documents say that she was not on an official UN trip. So if the UN paid for it, well, another UN agency found that external groups funded it. And again, the Australian Friends of Palestine, they said that they sponsored her trip.
Chris Kenny, Sky News: So yeah, let’s see the receipts. So I agree with you, it’s shocking the way that she gets to say all this stuff while being portrayed by the media and others as some sort of honest broker. She was even hosted by the Australian Human Rights Commission when she was here, and she is not a voice of objectivity on this issue. In fact, she’s very, very divisive. And thanks for bringing that to our attention, Hillel. I appreciate it.
