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Testimony delivered before the United Nations Human Rights Council by UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer, 28 March 2024
Mr. President, the Vienna Declaration protects the right to life.
There is a mantra we hear from UNRWA and its supporters: that UNRWA does “lifesaving” work. Is this true?
Well, we know at least 14 UNRWA employees took part in the Hamas atrocities of October 7th.
Now, UNRWA defenders like Senator Chris van Hollen, AOC and Ken Roth, say, “Well it’s just a few bad apples.”
Is this true?
Well, we know that 450 UNRWA employees are Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives. We know 3,000 UNRWA teachers were part of a Telegram chat group that celebrated the atrocities of October 7th.
And Mr. President, it’s much worse. In Sept. 2011, Suhail al-Hindi, chair of the UNRWA staff union in Gaza and principal of an UNRWA boys school, was suspended for his role with Hamas. He is a member of the Hamas politburo with Yahya Sinwar.
What was the response? Did UNRWA staff express outrage that one of their peers, a school principal, was part of a terrorist group that openly aims to slaughter all Jews?
No, Mr. President, the exact opposite: the entire UNRWA staff in Gaza, 8,000 teachers and school principals, went on strike for months to support this Hamas terrorist leader.
Their strike for Hamas shut down 243 schools, and abandoned 220,000 students. And so UNRWA reinstated him. This happens all the time.
Last year, when we exposed UNRWA teacher Riyad Nimr for glorifying a massacre of Jewish worshippers in a synagogue, the entire UNRWA teachers union inLebanon in Lebanon went on strike and parades to support him.
Mr. President, is complicity with Hamas terrorism ‘life-saving work’?”
