Hillel Neuer record a podcast episode with O Antagonista, a leading Brazilian independent investigative journalism platform with millions of followers across social media, to discuss the failures of the UN Human Rights Council and the rise of antisemitism. See selection below.
O Antagonista: In any country that the Human Rights Council is doing a good job protecting human rights?
Hillel Neuer: From time to time, if the United States, the European countries, Canada, and Australia mobilize, and if there isn’t sufficient resistance from the dictatorships, then on rare occasions, they can take action. But most of the world’s worst abusers get a free pass.
There has been zero resolutions, zero commissions of inquiry, zero monitors, or special rapporteurs appointed on China. Pakistan has never been addressed. Egypt has thousands of political prisoners and has never been addressed. Cuba is a police state where young protesters were thrown into prison and there may be hundreds of political prisoners. Yet, zero resolutions. The majority of countries of worst abusers are never addressed.
O Antagonista: After October 7th, 2023, we witnessed a rise of antisemitism around the world. How can we do something in a country so that antisemitism doesn’t come back like what happened before the Holocaust?
Hillel Neuer: We need to recognize that antisemitism is not only a problem that hurts Jews, but also hurts the rest of society. A society that begins scapegoating the Jews-things do not go well. You know, we saw it with Germany. What began with antisemitism destroyed the country. We’ve seen it with other regimes over time.
It’s a madness-a pathology-that turns the country away from looking at its own problems. It’s a way of saying, “We’re not going to look at our problems. We’re going to find a traditional scapegoat.” That doesn’t end well for anybody.
