UN Watch
A prominent Washington think tank was pressured by UNRWA’s chief US lobbyist into disinviting the best-known critic of the controversial agency from an upcoming panel debate about allegations of UNRWA bias.
Barbara Slavin, a Fellow at the Stimson Center had invited UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer, a Geneva-based international lawyer who has documented widespread support for terrorism among UNRWA’s staff, and had then confirmed his participation and provided details for the program of the event, to be held at the Stimson Center in Washington, DC, on Monday, May 20th. The other panelists are all UNRWA supporters: William R. Deere, UNRWA’s Washington director, former Jordanian official Merissa Khurma, now with the Wilson Center, and Andrew Hyde, a former State Department official now with the Stimson Center.
Suddenly, however, Slavin emailed Neuer, under the subject line of “change of plans,” to summarily disinvite him, without providing any explanation. “We have decided to go with someone here in DC,” Slavin wrote. (See correspondence below)
As it happens, Neuer is in DC, having arrived in Washington to testify at today’s Congressional hearing into UNRWA support for terrorism. He recently testified about UNRWA before the European Parliament and the Swiss Parliament.
Only after Neuer complained to Brian Finlay, CEO of the Stimson Center, did Slavin confirm that it was William Deere, UNRWA’s Washington lobbyist, who had pressured the Stimson Center into cancelling Neuer’s appearance. “You are correct that he said he would not take part in an event with you,” Slavin wrote Neuer on Monday. “Apparently, you have some history that I was not aware of.”
But Neuer said that he has never met Deere, and has no “history” with him.
“It is shameful that UNRWA, which already received $121 million in US funding this year, and more than $1 billion in the prior three years, refuses to debate with one of the only groups that has held the agency accountable to its own stated principles.”
“This is the first time in my life that I have been disinvited from an event where I was a confirmed speaker. The Stimson Center’s cancellation of my appearance is not only dishonorable, but contrary to the high ethical standards and values of integrity stated by their organization,” said Neuer.
“UNRWA lobbyist William Deere threatened not to appear unless I was cancelled. The ethical and honorable thing for the Stimson Center to do would have been to inform him that he can withdraw if he so wishes, but not to go along and cancel a speaker whom, they had invited and confirmed.”
“I wrote last week to Brian Finlay, CEO of the Stimson Center, to clarify whether Ms. Slavin’s conduct is consistent with the Stimson Center’s ethical standards, and his brief reply to me was non-responsive.”
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