Hillel Neuer appeared on i24News with Laura Cellier to discuss UNRWA’s repeated promotion of terrorism and the need for criminal prosecution of UNRWA staff engaging in crimes against humanity.
Laura Cellier, i24News: United Nations has filed a document in a U.S. Court arguing that UNRWA employees who took part in the October 7 massacre should be immune from prosecution. According to Israeli media, the filing also has the support of the U.S. Department of Justice. Israel has provided evidence that UNRWA workers committed such atrocities as murder, hostage taking and even kidnapping the bodies of the dead and wounded. Well with us now, Hillel Neuer is the Executive Director of UN Watch. Great to have you with us, Hillel, and I mean Hillel, as you well know, UNRWA workers are credibly accused of taking part in crimes against humanity. How strong is the U.N.’s argument that they deserve immunity?
Hillel Neuer: Look, on September 26 UNRWA announced that they had terminated the contracts of a dozen employees who were accused of being involved in the massacre, and they promised that they would hold them accountable, including, quote, through “criminal prosecution.” So, UNRWA promised that those who are involved in the massacre would be held accountable, including through criminal prosecution. Now the current proceeding, the legal proceeding that’s been referred to in the immunity argument that’s been made to my understanding, it’s not specifically about those who took part in the massacre.
Rather, it’s the lawsuit that sues UNRWA and its senior officials like Lazzarini and his predecessor for being complicit, for enabling Hamas to do all that it has done in the past 10 years to build up the terrorist infrastructure, to put terror tunnels underneath UNRWA headquarters in Gaza, and that they knew, or reasonably should have known, should have reasonably foreseen, what they would have done. So to my understanding, the lawsuit that’s being referred to is a lawsuit that that does not target the individuals who took part in the massacre, but rather the leaders of UNRWA and UNRWA itself. And it’s to that lawsuit that UNRWA has invoked immunity.
To my knowledge, there has been yet no criminal prosecution of the individuals involved, and indeed UNRWA themselves promised they would hold them accountable to criminal prosecutions. So, now that UNRWA has fired a dozen, and they again fired nine of those dozen when the U.N. Oversight Investigations Division confirmed that there was compelling evidence against at least nine and about nine others, UNRWA hasn’t done anything to present these individuals for prosecution. And what we’d like to see from UNRWA is, present them. Will they present them to Israel? Will they hand these individuals over to them? Will they hand them over to the United States? The United States does have criminal charges against six or seven Hamas leaders. I think UNRWA has to answer that question.
Laura Cellier, i24News: Well, what about the U.S. Department of Justice? Then, why is it supporting UNRWA’s defense?
Hillel Neuer: Well, there is a legal technical aspect here that has to be acknowledged. Like it or not, the United Nations enjoys immunity from legal proceedings-this is going back to the U.N. Charter from 1945. The U.N. agencies and officials who are performing their functions do have immunity, and so the U.S. State Department is sort of fulfilling their technical role of passing on the U.N.’s claim of immunity in this particular lawsuit, and you could say that the State Department is doing a technical function of what they would do, kind of in all cases.
But there is something odd, of course, in that the U.S. Department of Justice, just about two weeks ago, announced criminal charges against six or seven Hamas leaders. One of them is Ali Baraka in Lebanon. He’s one of the Hamas leaders of Lebanon, and he’s named by the Department of Justice for engaging in these crimes against humanity. One of his close colleagues is Fathi al-Sharif who was the head of the UNRWA teachers’ union. He’s principal of an UNRWA of an UNRWA school in Lebanon, and he’s head of the UNRWA teachers’ union. And it appears, from all indications, that he is heavily involved in supporting Hamas terrorism and to be a Hamas official.
So should the U.S. government be, on the one hand, dropping criminal charges against Hamas leaders who are very close with UNRWA teachers’ union’s leaders, and at the same time, invoking immunity? Certainly, there seems to be a disconnect. And again, UNRWA should take the lead and say that anyone involved in terrorism, certainly anyone directly involved in terrorism, should enjoy no immunity and that UNRWA will not invoke immunity to let them be prosecuted in a court of law. And if they’re found not guilty, fine. But if they’re found guilty, UNRWA shouldn’t step in and shield these accused terrorists.
Laura Cellier, i24News: And despite these stunning allegations and the extensive proof that there is, most of the countries who suspended their funding to UNRWA have now restored it. The U.S. says it is also going to restore funding to UNRWA. Do you think the organization is just going to continue as it as it has done in the past? Will it ever face justice for its participation in October 7?
Hillel Neuer: Look, many of the foreign ministries around the world are gaslighting us. There is clear, compelling, and voluminous evidence that UNRWA staff and teachers have for well over a decade been actively promoting terrorism, glorifying Adolf Hitler, inciting their students and other Palestinians to commit terrorism, and that UNRWA leaders are involved in terrorism. Again, I mentioned Fathi al-Sharif, head of the UNRWA teachers’ union, and according to Lebanese media he’s a Hamas terrorist official.
Suheil al-Hindi, leader of the UNRWA teachers’ union in Gaza up until a few years ago, is an elected member of the Hamas Politburo with Yahya Sinwar, and was a major figure in the massacre of October 7th. UNRWA is paying his pension. UNRWA never fired him, even when they knew the evidence. Instead, they gave him a slap on the wrist with a suspension for just a couple of months. So, UNRWA is sending the wrong message. And sadly, the foreign ministries know all of this. We’ve published this. We’ve sent it to them. I’ve testified in Congress four times. The European Parliament. The Dutch parliament. The Swiss parliament. All the foreign ministries know it. They say that UNRWA has promised to remedy its policies, to change, to reform. It’s a complete lie. The fact, for example, that they won’t fire Fathi al-Sharif, head of their UNRWA teachers’ union in Lebanon, is proof that UNRWA has not reformed at all.
And the State Department announced that they want to restore funding. Of course, there’s a law that prevents them from doing though doing so until March 2025. Let’s recall that just two weeks ago, the Swiss Parliament Lower House voted 99 to 88 to and, I quote, “immediately suspend funding for UNRWA.” That’s an incredible sign. We’d like to see other governments adopt that kind of moral policy. For example, the Dutch is headed by a coalition, Geert Wilders, who says he’s against UNRWA. We’d like to see the Netherlands cut all financing to an agency deeply invested in promoting terrorism.
Laura Cellier, i24News: All right, we’ll have to wait and see over the next few months, won’t we? But Hillel Neuer at UN Watch, we appreciate it. Thank you very much.
Hillel Neuer: Thank you.
