Tonight in Lausanne, Switzerland, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini was confronted by Ayelet Samerano, whose murdered son Yonatan was kidnapped to Gaza by an UNRWA worker on October 7th.
Lazzarini delivered the keynote address for the city of Lausanne’s National Day celebrations, and on the 300th day of the captivity of Yonatan’s body in Gaza.
The decision of Lausanne’s Socialist Party mayor Grégoire Junod to invite Lazzarini sparked outrage among many in Switzerland due to UNRWA’s ties to terror.
Impassioned appeals, letters and petitions were sent to Juno to rescind the divisive invitation, but to no avail. At least two Lausanne lawmakers, Jacques-André Haury and Fabrice Moscheni, announced they would not attend the annual celebration on account of the invitation to Lazzarini.
UNRWA is currently the object of at least six legal proceedings alleging that the agency promotes terrorism, in Canada, France and the US, as well as an ongoing internal UN investigation concerning 14 UNRWA employees accused of taking part in the October 7th massacre.
In 2018, Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis said that UNRWA “has become part of the problem. UNRWA supplies the ammunition to continue the conflict. By supporting UNRWA, we keep the conflict alive. It’s a perverse logic.”
In 2019, Switzerland temporarily suspended funding for UNRWA, joining Belgium, the Netherlands and New Zealand, in wake of an ethics report that implicated then commissioner-general Pierre Krahenbuhl in a corruption and abuse scandal.
Comment from Ayelet Samerano
“An UNRWA worker kidnapped my son. A social worker for a so-called humanitarian organization kidnapped my son,” said Samerano.
“Are there any other hostages being held by UN employees? Does the UN hold my son? Mr. Lazzarini, look me in the eyes and answer me now. Where is my son? Bring him back home,” pleaded Samerano.
“Yonatan was taken from us 300 days ago by Mr. Lazzarini’s employee. How can he be honored here today in Lausanne while my son’s body is still being held captive in Gaza?”
While she was crying out tonight, Samerano said that for a moment she caught Lazarrini’s glance, and that he was clearly disturbed to see her.
“I saw his eyes glare at me, as if to say, I know her, did she come even here? And he had a sly smile.”
Comment from Hillel Neuer
“By inviting the head of the controversial UN agency for Palestinians, which was rebuked three times last year by majority votes of the Swiss Parliament’s National Council, Lausanne mayor Grégoire Junod is dangerously dividing the population, and doing so on a joyous occasion that is meant to unite all of us,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of United Nations Watch, an independent non-governmental organization based in Geneva, which is mandated to hold the UN to account.
“The head of an agency that was twice defunded by Switzerland in the last five years, and which has been accused by our own foreign minister of perversely perpetuating the conflict, is not an appropriate honoree on Swiss National Day,” said Neuer.
“We have repeatedly asked Mr. Lazzarini to meet, yet he has always refused. The police told me that he refused to see me in Lausanne, even as we have alarming new evidence about terror ties implicating his senior staff,” said Neuer.
It is important to me to protest against them anywhere in the world
So that the whole world will understand who they are
I feel I have to fight for my son
