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Israel Under Fire – Anatomy of a UN Crime against Humanity

 
Filed under: International Law
Publication: Israel Under Fire

Israel Under Fire – Anatomy of a UN Crime against Humanity
UN Secretariat Headquarters (UN Photo/Manuel Elias)

Executive Summary

War for Palestinian Arabs and Arab and Islamic states that reject coexistence with Jews and the Jewish state has long had two phases. The first is the physical annihilation of Jews. The second is commandeering the United Nations to deny the Jewish state the right to defend itself and to enable repeats of the first phase until their goal is accomplished. The UN is the central vehicle for hijacking and perverting international “law” and the principles of universal “human rights” in the service of warfare and antisemitism.

This scheme did not emerge for the first time after October 7, 2023. The overall endeavor to eradicate the Jewish state and reverse the General Assembly vote to approve its creation on November 29, 1947, has been in operation for 75 years. At the same time, the post–October 7 onslaught is different in speed, intensity, and reach. We are witnessing the frightening and predictable pathogenesis of phase 2. For more than half a century, the United Nations and its international appendages have become engorged with a terrible—and lethal—combination of antisemitism, wealth, and global influence. Today, we bear witness to the perversion of law and human rights in the cause of the destruction of Jews and the Jewish state.

Events of October 7 and thereafter make the inextricable links between the United Nations and fatal antisemitism painfully clear.  Physical proof shows that UN facilities were connected to Palestinian terrorist infrastructure and that UN employees were physically engaged in atrocity crimes. The UN moved immediately to deny Israel the right to defend itself. It excused, justified, and blamed the Jewish victims. It obstructed and prevented condemnation. It fostered indifference. It pushed discrimination. It denied the crimes. It refused to call out the events as antisemitism. It subverted legal principles to promote more terror and to create impediments to the release of the hostages. It redirected humanity’s moral compass. It equated a lawless terror organization with a democratic society governed by the rule of law. It flipped the script between victim and perpetrator, attacked and attacker, right and wrong. It removed Israeli suffering from the scales of justice. It harnessed the velocity of the Palestinian attacks to mount a legal and political onslaught at breakneck speed.

It made no difference what Israel did afterward, short of self-immolation.

So here we are. Jews are still in captivity, tortured, raped, and starved. BDS is on steroids. The criminalization of Jewish self-defense and Jewish self-determination is underway.

We are witnessing a United Nations crime against humanity.

* * *

Table of Contents

  1. Deny Israel Its Legal Right of Self-Defense
    1. The Record of the UN Security Council
    2. The Record of Other UN Actors
  2. Excuse, Justify, Blame the Victim
  3. Replicate Holocaust Denial with October 7 Denial
  4. Mount a “Not Antisemitism” Campaign
  5. Promote Violent Antisemitism and Call It “Law”
    1. Legal Fraud and Fraudsters
    2. The Anatomy of the “Anatomy of a Genocide”
  6. Reinforce the Vicious Circle: Politics–Law–Politics
  7. Moral Equivalence
  8. Go on Offense
  9. Déjà Vu
  10. “It’s the Existence of Israel, Stupid”
  11. Indifference and Discrimination
    1. All Palestinian Atrocities
    2. Palestinian Sexual-Violence Atrocities
  12. The View from Hamas
  13. The UN’s Israel-Bashing Tactical Campaign
    1. Rely on Hamas for Statistics and Facts
    2. Rewrite the Rules of International Law for a Party of One—Israel
    3. Keep Israeli Suffering out of the Equation
    4. Flip the Script: Invert Victim and Perpetrator
      1. Inversion Fast and Furious
      2. The Non-Racist Racist
      3. Jews Are Nazis
  14. Conclusion

* * *

War for Palestinian Arabs, and Arab and Islamic states that reject coexistence with Jews and the Jewish state, has long had two phases. The first is the physical annihilation of Jews. The second is commandeering the United Nations to deny the Jewish state a right to defend itself and to enable repeats of the first phase until their goal is accomplished. The UN is the central vehicle for hijacking and perverting international “law” and the principles of universal “human rights” in the service of warfare and antisemitism.

This two-headed monstrosity did not emerge for the first time on October 8, 2023. The overall endeavor to eradicate the Jewish state and to reverse the General Assembly vote to approve its creation on November 29, 1947, had been in operation for 75 years. Hence, the current iteration of this genocidal war against the Jews follows a familiar path.

At the same time, the post–October 7 onslaught is different in speed, intensity, and reach. We are witnessing the frightening, and predictable, pathogenesis of phase 2. For more than half a century, the United Nations and its international appendages have been allowed to become engorged with a terrible—and lethal—combination of antisemitism, wealth, and global influence. Now we are forced to bear witness to the perversion of law and human rights in the cause of the destruction of Jews and the Jewish state. This is even more sinister given the widespread delusion that non-Jews will have immunity from the same nihilistic forces that today deny self-defense to Jews and the embodiment of Jewish self-determination, Israel.

Events of October 7 and thereafter make the inextricable links between the United Nations and fatal antisemitism painfully clear. There is physical proof that UN facilities were connected to Palestinian terrorist infrastructure, and that UN employees were physically engaged in atrocity crimes. And we know that immediately, while the massacre of Jews was still unfolding, UN actors, agencies, and institutional structures lined up to vilify the State of Israel.

Within hours, the situation on the ground was public and shocking. The bodies were still being counted. The barriers between Gaza and Israel were still open, Israel’s shoreline was still not secure. Terrorists within Israel were still being confronted. Israel was frantically attempting to rescue the hostages before they disappeared; all the while, Israel was under rocket fire and facing two other active fronts. The response from Israel in Gaza itself was still minimal. In these first few days, what did the United Nations do?

The United Nations moved immediately to deny Israel the right to defend itself. It excused, justified, and blamed the Jewish victims. It obstructed and prevented condemnation. It fostered indifference. It pushed discrimination. It denied the crimes. It refused to call out the events as antisemitism. It used legal principles to promote more terror and to create impediments to the release of the hostages. It confused humanity’s moral compass. It equated a lawless terror organization with a democratic society governed by the rule of law. It flipped the script between victim and perpetrator, attacked and attacker, right and wrong. It removed Israeli suffering from the scales of justice. It harnessed the velocity of the Palestinian attacks to mount a legal and political onslaught at breakneck speed.

Slowing the momentum of this hate and aggression in phase 2—lethal politics and faux law through the United Nations—necessitates knowing what hit us.

We are witnessing UN crimes against humanity.

The analysis below is a snapshot of the first six months since October 7, 2023.

1. Deny Israel Its Legal Right of Self-Defense

First and foremost, UN actors refused to acknowledge or support Israel’s right of self-defense. This fundamental right of every UN member state was never mentioned even once by the Security Council, the General Assembly, the Human Rights Council, the Secretary-General, or the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The calls for a “ceasefire” weren’t issued because of anything in Gaza; they were issued immediately lest Israel even try to exercise its right, and its duty, to defend its people. The United Nations came right behind the Palestinian terrorists of October 7 to thwart the Israelis who survived.

The record includes:

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, October 7, 20231

“I call for an immediate stop to the violence, and appeal to all sides and key countries in the region to de-escalate to avoid further bloodshed.”

President of the UN General Assembly Dennis Francis (from Trinidad and Tobago), October 7, 20232

“I urge all parties to refrain from further violence & to seek an immediate path to peace.”

The UN refugee agency only for Palestinians, UNRWA, October 8, 20233

“UNRWA supports calls to reach an immediate ceasefire and a halt to the violence everywhere.”

The unprecedented attack on Israel was only eight hours old, Israel had barely mustered its response, and Israel was already being told to stop doing anything “violent.” Telling Israel immediately to avoid further bloodshed was, in effect, advice to drop dead. The appeal to “all sides” from the United Nations’ top human rights official was moral bankruptcy, a grotesque equation between aggressor and defender, the rapist and the raped. From UNRWA, the alleged humanitarian agency, came a moral parallel between butchering Jewish civilians and preventing more of it. Israel supposedly should have instantaneously refrained from fighting back against the violence because to do so was violent. In short, from the UN came an immediate call for Israel to do nothing, and imagine peaceful coexistence with those in the midst of massacring its population. The UN told the bald-faced lie that international law says a country in these circumstances should restrain itself. Actual international law says Israel, like all countries, has a right and duty to defend itself, and to prevent further loss of Israeli lives.

a. The Record of the UN Security Council

The UN Security Council met on October 8, 2023, and did absolutely nothing.4

Contrary to the illusion of daylight between various Palestinian factions, from day one, the Palestinian Authority assumed the role of diplomatic representative of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and all the perpetrators of October 7. Palestinian UN representative Riyad Mansour went on offense in his familiar stomping grounds, convening a news conference in advance of the Security Council’s October 8 closed session.5

His finely honed strategy had four prongs.

  1. Prevent the Council from issuing a statement supporting Israel’s right of self-defense:

    “We know only too well that the messages about Israel’s right to defend itself will be interpreted by Israel as license to kill.”

  2. Switch perpetrator and victim:

    “Where is the international protection the Palestinian people is entitled to?…We are not subhuman. We will never accept a rhetoric that denigrates our humanity and reneges our rights.”

  3. Issue threats of violence:

    “If this is about vengeance, then many Palestinians will feel they have much to avenge.… Israel cannot wage a full-scale war on a nation, its people, its land, its holy sites, and expect peace in exchange.”

  4. Repeat the reference to 1948 and the creation of the Jewish state (for the sake of those who still don’t get it) as the original problem:

    “Israel has announced dozens of times that it had handled the Palestinian problem by war against our people or peace with others since 1948.”

The gambit worked before October 7, and at the United Nations nothing on October 7 made a difference to its continued success.

The Security Council, the UN body defined as the central agent for the “maintenance of international peace and security,” needed unanimity to issue a statement and could not muster it. Every one of the veto-holding members of the Council—the United States, the United Kingdom, France, China, and Russia—had citizens who were victims of Palestinian terrorist atrocities on October 7, both dead and missing or presumed kidnapped. Thirty-six UN member states had nationals murdered by Palestinian terrorists on October 7. And yet, the Council could not condemn Hamas and other Palestinian terrorists for the atrocities perpetrated against civilians or issue a statement in support of the UN member state of Israel’s right of self-defense.

Six months later, there have been three Security Council resolutions adopted after the United States refused to exercise its veto power.6 And yet, including those resolutions, the Security Council still has never condemned the October 7 attack, has never condemned Hamas for anything, and has never acknowledged or reaffirmed Israel’s UN Charter right of self-defense.

On the contrary, as late as March 2024, Russia and China vetoed, with the backing of Council member Algeria (on behalf of the “whole Arab world” in its words), a U.S. draft resolution that in the weakest possible manner would have condemned Hamas. The condemnation appeared only in the draft resolution’s preamble and the draft deliberately failed to label Hamas a terrorist organization.7

The Biden administration made speeches on the occasion of all three Security Council resolutions. It pointed out, for instance, that the resolutions “did not condemn Hamas or reaffirm the right of all Member States to protect their citizens from terrorist attacks.” And then the government of the United States folded. On March 25, 2024, the administration publicly noted that “edits were ignored, including our request to add a condemnation of Hamas.”8 It was an embarrassing study in contrasts. The administration was reduced to requesting that Hamas be condemned for the atrocities of October 7 and, unlike the Russians and the Chinese, didn’t have the fortitude to say no to resolutions that did not.

In fact, the three resolutions adopted by the Security Council that concern October 7 and its aftermath9 never even mention “October 7.” The only reference to October 7 coming from the Security Council is a press statement issued six months later. The statement came after the accidental killing of seven humanitarian aid workers by Israel (as opposed to the deliberate mass murder of over a thousand Jews).10 The Security Council called the death of the aid workers “horrific.”11 In none of its resolutions could the Council think of anything “horrific” about October 7 itself.

b. The Record of Other UN Actors and Denying Israel’s Right of Self-Defense

In addition to the Security Council, since October 7 not a single major UN body or agency has reaffirmed or acknowledged Israel’s UN Charter right of self-defense. That includes two General Assembly resolutions from “emergency sessions,” 13 other 2023 General Assembly resolutions critical of Israel or supporting ongoing UN anti-Israel operations, four UN Human Rights Council resolutions condemning Israel, and a resolution from the World Health Organization (WHO) also slammed Israel.

It also includes thousands of statements, interviews, press releases, news releases, media stakeouts, and tweets posted on official UN websites and Twitter accounts, issued by UN Secretary-General António Guterres; UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland; the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR); High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk; the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People; the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel (COI); UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in the Occupied Palestinian Territory Lynn Hastings;12 46 thematic UN Special Procedures; UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory Francesca Albanese; UNICEF; the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA); UNRWA; WHO; and UN Women. And it includes the hundreds of reports issued by UN Special Rapporteur Albanese, OHCHR, UNRWA, OCHA, WHO, and UN Women.

With the Biden administration capitulating on the stonewalling at the Security Council, joining and embracing the UN Human Rights Council, funding UNRWA, and adopting a general policy of full-throated support for a multilateralism that runs through the United Nations, UN attackers of Israel have been emboldened. They not only fail to acknowledge and reaffirm Israel’s UN Charter right of self-defense; they deny it outright.

Only two and a half weeks after October 7, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Israel (COI)— established by the UN Human Rights Council in 2021—held a news conference at the United Nations in New York, and member Chris Sidoti told reporters: “The State of Israel cannot claim to act under Article 51 when it is being attacked not by a state, but by a non-state actor.”13 Just a month after October 7, the head of that same Commission of Inquiry, Navi Pillay, said: “Article 51 of the Charter is not applicable in this case—when the threat originates from a territory over which Israel exercises control.”14 Exercises control? Except for the preparation and execution of mass murder from the territory, the launch of tens of thousands of rockets from the territory, the construction of 350–450 miles of terror tunnels and 5,700 tunnel shafts in the territory, and the hostages in the territory. And Israel totally evacuated Gaza in 2005.

In March 2024, the UN Human Rights Council formally adopted a resolution that declared: “Recalling that Israel, as the occupying Power, may not invoke the right to self-defense under Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations.”15

This is shocking even by UN standards.

In 2004, the United Nations’ World Court (the International Court of Justice or ICJ) commented on the subject in an “advisory opinion,” which is not legally binding. Known as “the Wall case,”16 the Court opined that Israel’s physical barrier—the barrier that put an end to the ongoing horrific phenomenon of Palestinian suicide bombing and saved countless Jewish and Arab lives—was illegal. The sole dissenter was American judge Thomas Buergenthal, who was a Holocaust survivor. Among other things, the Court said the “wall” was illegal because Israel had no UN Charter right of self-defense against a non-state actor or terrorist group. Article 51 of the Charter only recognized a right of self-defense, the Court said, against an armed attack by another state. Article 51 said no such thing. It actually says:

“Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security.”17

Not only did the Court insert words into the text that did not exist, but if taken seriously, this view would have dire consequences in a post-9/11 era for any country facing terrorist threats. Growing sophistication among terror organizations made this aspect of the “Wall” opinion highly controversial and widely ridiculed. Combating terrorist organizations as a legitimate exercise of self-defense, including those operating from defined territory largely under the organization’s control, is an imperative of survival, safety, security, and world peace.

The Human Rights Council purported to take the ICJ opinion to the next level, going from the ridiculous to the illegal. In effect, the Council’s resolution would amend the Charter unilaterally to add an exception clause to Article 51— “except for the state of the Jews.”

Every member of the UN Human Rights Council that is at the bottom of the scale of protecting human rights – “not free” according to Freedom House – with one exception,18 voted in favor of the resolution. That is a total of 12 of 13 “not free” states. Of the 18 Islamic states on the Council, 15 voted in favor.19 Israel didn’t stand a chance in this environment, a rogue’s gallery of Algeria, Burundi, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan, and company.20

Notwithstanding that its resolution was preposterously entitled “…the obligation to ensure accountability and justice,” the Human Rights Council refused to condemn Hamas for perpetrating the October 7 attacks.

On the contrary, the Council demanded an arms embargo against Israel – and not Hamas, so that Israelis are denied the means to defend themselves while Palestinian terrorists are equipped to kill.21 For her years of antisemitic hate speech and post-October 7 fanaticism, the Human Rights Council handed the resolution’s arms-embargo portfolio to Navi Pillay and her Commission of Inquiry. The job: to mount a global UN-sponsored arms embargo, enforced by means of criminal prosecution and legal warfare, against the State of Israel.22 Pillay herself had been pushing an arms embargo against Israel for years.23

According to the United Nations, nothing Israel did was legal. Pinpoint targeting of Hamas leaders was “extrajudicial killing.”24 Targeting terrorists in Gaza while they illegally used human shields to maximize casualties was “collective punishment.”25 Targeting key individuals who were in hiding outside Gaza,26 and were involved in the Hamas war machine and the fate of the Israeli hostages, was illegal because it was outside Gaza.27 Targeting those who planned and executed the crimes when inside Gaza, was illegal because it was inside Gaza and “occupied territory.”28

In short, on October 7, the United Nations launched a global campaign to deny Israel’s right of self-defense, to prevent the Jewish state from fighting back and rescuing Jewish hostages.29

2. Excuse, Justify, Blame the Victim

Why was the United Nations’ reaction from the start to deny Israel’s right of self-defense? Because the UN—the majority of its members, the staff from those states, and the operations those states and staff define—is anti-Israel. Processing the legal and moral consequences of violent Palestinian antisemitism does not compute. October 7 is simply an uncomfortable reminder that nothing Palestinians do to Jews will alter that standpoint. UN actors not only denied Israel a right to fight back, they weighed in on the side of Hamas to excuse and to justify its atrocities.

It was October 7. And the handpicked “expert” on the Israel–Palestinian Arab conflict of the UN Human Rights Council, Francesca Albanese, weighed in.

UN Special Rapporteur for the Situation of Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese, October 7, 202330

“Today’s violence must be put in context. Almost six decades of hostile military rule over an entire civilian population…are in themselves an aggression.”

It is a well-worn strategy of antisemites to blame the victims of antisemitism. Albanese, a former UNRWA employee,31 is a cheerleader for Hamas. Her UN job description32 gives her a global platform to serve as the political front for terrorists who are dedicated to killing Jews. That is her context.

On October 9, Israeli forces were still engaged in door-to-door fighting to retake control of Israeli territory. Rocket fire from Gaza directed at Israeli citizens and resulting casualties continued and there was shelling from Lebanon into Israel. The full horror of October 7 was becoming clearer as the unrecognizable bodies and body parts were being gathered. And from the United Nations’ top official came the following.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres, October 9, 202333

“This most recent violence does not come in a vacuum. The reality is that it grows out of a long-standing conflict, with a 56-year long occupation and no political end in sight. It’s time to end this vicious circle of bloodshed, hatred and polarization.”

Guterres also insisted that “Palestinians must see…their own state realized.” It is impossible to overstate the moral depravity of this statement—and the impact. Justification, sympathy, understanding—for the butchers. Reference to a “circle” as if there weren’t an unmistakable perpetrator. Provision of the political win desired by the terrorists, and visions of more power through statehood by which to do harm—therefore encouraging more terror. Half an hour after the Secretary-General’s statement, Hamas threatened to start executing the hostages unless its demands were met.34

Guterres had no compunction about repeating his vile language a two weeks later. Further fueling the flames of antisemitism from the top of the UN hierarchy, here he addressed the UN Security Council.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres, October 24, 202335

“It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum.…The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.…They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing.”

Attempts to blame the victims for October 7 have been characteristic of UN reactions across the system. Within 10 days of October 7, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a press release on behalf of another UN human rights “expert” appointed by the UN Human Rights Council.

UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health Tlaleng Mofokeng, October 27, 202336

“The latest escalation and display of aggression in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory must not be de-contextualized,” expert urged. “It represents a crushing moment of ongoing gross structural, systemic and sustained violence experienced by Palestinians every day since the occupation,” she said.… “The Palestinian people have been displaced for more than 75 years.”

Blaming the victims for the crimes of the rapists—when the victims are Jewish—was an extension of the big lie that has been peddled, festered, and mushroomed throughout the United Nations since 1948. Post–October 7 was business as usual, on steroids.

Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, Navi Pillay, October 25, 202337

“So the message is clear. We have all this verified evidence that the attack isn’t an isolated incident. It flows from all these violations, as well, on both sides.… The Secretary-General is quite right in saying that this attack is not just something that arose in isolation, but that we must look at the context. We must look at how desperate Palestinians are for some end to the conflict and the oppression under which they have to live daily.”

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, November 10, 202338

“[F]or the violence to end, the occupation needs to end.”

Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, Navi Pillay, November 10, 202339

“This latest surge of violence does not come out of a vacuum, and we see a direct link to the occupation and the denial of self-determination.”

UN Special Rapporteur for the Situation of Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese, and company— “UN experts,” November 16, 2023, issued an appeal to the “international community”:

“Address the underlying causes of the conflict by ending the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territory…end Israeli apartheid and occupation.”40

Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, Navi Pillay, February 2, 202441

“We were asked to identify the root causes of the conflict, and that’s what we did in our report to the General Assembly in October 2022…75 years of occupation…”

UN Special Rapporteur for the Situation of Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese, March 26, 202442

“Israel’s genocide on the Palestinians in Gaza is an escalatory stage of a longstanding settler colonial process of erasure. For over seven decades this process has suffocated the Palestinian people….”

October 7 teaches us that this big lie—namely, that the Jewish state embodies 75 years of “occupation” by foreign Jews of an indigenous Palestinian population—is not some sloppy lesson plan. It incentivizes monsters, mass murderers, and those who choose rape as a weapon of war. Those who spread and repeat that lie are guilty of aiding and abetting Palestinian genocide of Jews.

3. Replicate Holocaust Denial with October 7 Denial

Along with excuses and justifications and blaming the Jewish victims came immediate efforts by UN actors to question the veracity of the horrors that had befallen Israeli Jews. Video details of Hamas barbarism were publicly released by Palestinians themselves: A bloodied face of a Jewish woman surrounded by men shouting “This is nothing, we are just starting.” A Jewish kidnap victim pulled by the hair, hands tied behind her back and her pants covered in blood.43 Gang rape and murder.44 And yet, here are the two top human rights “experts” on the “Occupied Palestinian Territories” and “Violence against Women and Girls.”

UN Special Rapporteur for the Situation of Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese, October 11, 2023. Twitter.45

“Caution! Numerous claims are circulating, repeated by U.S. officials & amplified by mainstream media re Hamas’ crimes including beheadings/rape. ISR military did not confirm such claims. Divulging unverified information risks to escalate tensions & endanger lives in a volative [sic] context.”

UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and Girls Reem Alsalem, October 11, 2023. Twitter.46 Alsalem, a self-described “Jordanian-Palestinian,”47 doubled down on Albanese’s Tweet.

“I second this! I have been taken aback by how quickly misinformation and disinformation has spread (like wild fire) and how individuals and States have quickly repeated allegations and reports of serious crimes without applying the usual standards of discernment and credibility evaluation.”

Albanese and Alsalem didn’t merely fail to denounce Palestinian atrocities against women and girls. They are UN actors at the forefront of globally spreading the lie that these crimes hadn’t even occurred. Just like Holocaust deniers, Albanese and Alsalem have continued the cover-up for six months.

On March 5, 2024, Alsalem responded to a reporter who asked if she still believed Israeli women had not been raped on October 7. She answered that she had “not received any information” or seen any online digital material or films because “I’m not a technical expert on videos.”48

On March 27, 2024, Albanese used the same phrase in response to a reporter’s question about whether she had “any evidence” that Israeli women had been raped. She answered, “I have not received information” and that she did not have “any convincing evidence.”49

Just as Holocaust denial went hand in glove with Holocaust revisionism, October 7 denial has done the same. UN actors hit the airwaves immediately to revise the record of October 7. Racing for center stage on October 10 was Pillay’s Commission of Inquiry.

Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, Navi Pillay, October 10, 202350

“There is already clear evidence that war crimes may have been committed in the latest explosion of violence in Israel and Gaza…war crimes committed by all sides.”

Within 72 hours, Pillay was rewriting the invasion of a UN member state and slaughter of its civilians as a generic “explosion of violence in Israel and Gaza.”

Within 96 hours, the Secretary-General was telling this to the press.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres, October 11, 202351

“I have been closely following dramatic events in Israel and Gaza. I will never forget the images of the supercharged cycle of violence and horror.”

It is more accurately described as a supercharged cycle of UN misinformation, gaslighting, concealment, misrepresentation, diversion, inversion, deception, deflection, dishonesty, and fraud.

4. Mount a “Not Antisemitism” Campaign

As part of the UN pattern of denial, deceit, and indifference came the immediate lie that what had happened on October 7 was not antisemitism. And what took place after October 7 was “Islamophobia”—which was to be set off against any possible evidence of post–October 7 antisemitism.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, October 10, 202352

“The Human Rights Chief expressed deep concern at how hate speech and incitement to violence have surged since Saturday, fueling anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in the region and globally.”

And after Saturday, October 7?53

The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas)—bankrolled, weaponized, and trained by the Islamic Republic of Iran—has a Covenant that begins, “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it.” Hamas engaged in a slaughter of Jews and others in the Jewish state because they were in a Jewish state. The slaughter of Jews is unprecedented since the Holocaust. Yet within three days, the United Nations said the events were about “Islamophobia”—a distortion of reality and “whataboutism” at its worst.

The immediate spin that antisemitism surged after the massacres is an intentional UN method to avoid identifying the massacres themselves, and their widespread celebration by Palestinians and supporters—to this day—as antisemitism. Denying systemic, endemic Palestinian racism was necessary to avoid the reality that Palestinian attackers were genocidal and that antisemitism and the rejection of cohabitation with a Jewish state—not “occupation”—is the root cause of the conflict.

The denial of the fundamentally antisemitic character of October 7 is explained by the fight about defining antisemitism that had been playing out at the United Nations in the months leading up to October 7. UN actors and their partners had been waging a massive campaign to rebuff a definition of antisemitism that included discrimination against and the demonization of Israel. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and radical “human rights” impostors,54 together with the Palestinians, pushed hard on UN officials to exclude the unequal and unjust treatment of the Jewish state from any UN definition of antisemitism. As such, they rejected the “IHRA definition” of antisemitism,55 the only one to garner widespread support from dozens of countries and the major Jewish victims’ groups around the world.56 The October 7 antisemitism cover-up was the logical result. The truth of pathological Palestinian antisemitism was, and is, denied and ignored.

In October 2023, the whole world knew about the decapitated Jewish victims. They knew that Palestinians, dressed for combat and armed with knives, guns, and grenades, entered civilian homes and killed their Jewish prey. They heard the eyewitnesses and first responders: “They killed babies in front of their parents and then killed the parents. They killed parents and we found babies between the dogs and the [dead] family.”57

The world knew of the abduction of Jewish babies, families, the elderly, the disabled. They knew Jewish children had been shot under beds, Jewish women’s sexual organs had been used for target practice, the breasts of Jewish women had been cut off and used as balls, Jewish children had been tied up and burned alive, Jews had had their heads bashed in by being stomped on, Jews had cowered in outdoor bomb shelters while Palestinians hunted them down and tossed in grenades to blow them up. And they knew that this carnage had been conducted by Palestinian Arabs and Muslims one-on-one, at point-blank range.58 And all this was in addition to the voluminous and public record of written and oral proclamations by Palestinians of their anti-Jewish animus.

It was an orgy of hate laid bare by the killers and their supportive community themselves. From one Hamas terrorist speaking to his family during the killing came this recording:

TERRORIST: Hello dad. Dad I am inside Mefalsim. Open your WhatsApp right now, and see all the killed. Look at how many I killed with my own hands; your son killed Jews.

FATHER: Allahu Akhbar, Allahu Akhbar. May God protect you.

TERRORIST: This is inside Mefalsim, father. I am talking to you from the phone of a Jew, I killed her and her husband, I killed ten with my own hands.… Ten! Ten with my own bare hands. Their blood is on my hands, let me talk to Mom.

MOTHER: Oh, my son, may God protect you…I wish I was there with you.59

And yet, from the United Nations came the refusal to describe and decry the abominations of October 7 as antisemitism; as targeting Jews as Jews, along with others in Israel at the time.

To this day, the massive UN “human rights” apparatus—councils, committees, commissions, rapporteurs, agencies, bodies, envoys—all theoretically dedicated to identifying, ringing alarm bells, demanding accountability for racial and religious intolerance, has not identified October 7 as vile antisemitism. Yet, this reality is as painful as it is obvious.

Fully aware that October 7 threatened to derail the Palestinian big lie, UN “human rights experts” claimed October 7 was not antisemitism.

UN Special Rapporteur for the Situation of Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese, February 7, 2024, issued a direct attack on French president Macron and his reference to October 7 as the “greatest antisemitic massacre of our century.”60

“The victims of 7/10 were not killed because of their Judaism, but in response to Israel’s oppression.”61

UN Special Rapporteur for the Situation of Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese, February 10, 2024.62 Referring to “the Hamas crimes of 10/7,” Albanese also said:

“[E]xplaining these crimes as anti-Semitism obscures their true cause.”

UN Special Rapporteur for the Situation of Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese, February 15, 2024,63 in the form of a formal UN press release:

“I also felt compelled to challenge a persistent misinterpretation of the root causes of the October 7 attacks, particularly in Western countries: that the attacks were primarily motivated by anti-Semitism.… ‘56 years of suffocating occupation’ referred to by the Secretary-General is the very context that fuels the hatred and violence that endangers Israelis and Palestinians alike. This context is obscured by the framing of October 7 as primarily driven by anti-Semitism.”

Here is a purported human rights expert, appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, whose pronouncements are broadcast globally by the official website of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and who is bent on “framing” the beheading of Jews, the mutilation of Jewish women, the kidnapping of Jewish babies and wheelchair-bound Jews en masse as anything except antisemitism.

Nazi propagandists also “framed” the mass murder of Jews with a list of crimes that closely track Albanese’s drumbeat of accusations against Israelis: Jews are oppressors;64 responsible for the misery of non-Jews;65 alien, foreigners, usurpers;66 bloodthirsty;67 sexual deviants.68 Jews persecute non-Jews;69 conspire to gain power and control;70 prey on the vulnerable;71 spread disease;72 and wreak economic and social ruin.73

On occasion, Albanese has even forgotten to substitute “Israeli” for “Jew.”74 Her Nazi-like formula for demonizing and dehumanizing Jews is evident whatever her disguise.

It is no accident that the same Human Rights Council—which selected, publishes, and promotes Albanese, added one more abomination. The Council’s April 2024 “accountability” resolution denies Israel’s UN Charter right of self-defense, fails to condemn Hamas, and demands an arms embargo against the Jewish state. On top of all that, the resolution purports to exempt antisemites from accountability by defining their antisemitism away.75 Specifically, the Council claims that “criticism of violations of international law by Israel should not be conflated with antisemitism.”76

It was one of those “Methinks thou dost protest too much” moments. The same resolution negatively refers to Israel 59 times and Hamas zero times; charges Israel with violating international law but never Hamas; and reeks of double standards, discrimination, and xenophobia. It doesn’t mistakenly conflate with or get confused with antisemitism. It is antisemitism.

Here is Human Rights Council Rapporteur Francesca Albanese referring to the (accidental) death of World Central Kitchen workers on Twitter/X, April 2, 2024: “Knowing how Israel operates, my assessment is that Israeli forces intentionally killed #WCK workers so that donors would pull out & civilians in Gaza could continue to be starved quietly.”77

Her blood libel, utterly inconsistent with the facts,78 garnered two million views. This isn’t “criticism.” It’s global, UN-enabled hate speech.

5. Promote Violent Antisemitism and Call It “Law”

a. Legal Fraud and Fraudsters

UN actors now channel Nazis solutions as well as Nazi ideology. Albanese’s solutions to her Israel problem—boycotts, sanctions, legal emasculation, removal of the means of self-defense—culminate in physical destruction. She frames a Palestinian violent “right to resist” together with a pathological deceit.

UN Special Rapporteur for the Situation of Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese, March 28, 202479

“The Palestinians have resisted peacefully for decades, but if we take away or if we make peaceful resistance useless, ineffective, if we crush it, every opportunity, then we leave no other choice to this people to recourse [sic]80 to less peaceful means.”

Albanese is not the only UN actor and lawyer perverting the law and intent on “framing” violent antisemitism.

Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, Navi Pillay, October 30, 202381

“The point I’m making is when you have a whole population oppressed for so long with no remedies, no relief, they are actually forced to resort to armed struggle.”

Albanese and Pillay are extremists who are also both lawyers. The hate speech of these UN actors is both covered in a legal veneer and reaches the world’s highest international legal and judicial circles. In the UN’s universe of phony legal independence and impartiality, Pillay is currently a judge (ad hoc) of the ICJ82 on a case about genocide—at the same time that the same Court and judicial colleagues83 are considering the interpretation and application of the crime of genocide to Israel.

In the fall of 2023, South Africa decided to become the legal arm of Hamas as part of its close relations with the terrorist organization on multiple levels.84 South Africa launched a case against Israel at the ICJ on December 29, 2023, claiming that Israel was guilty of genocide. South Africa demanded that the Court act swiftly and order “provisional measures” to stop a “plausible” case, for which there was no need to prove actual genocide.85 In possibly the most shameful development in a court of law in modern history, South Africa alleged that what was actually Jewish genocide-prevention was genocide by Jews against the genocidaires (and their wards, the Palestinian civilians whom ironically the genocidaires were elected to protect). The UN Court refused to throw out the obscene accusation that Israel is guilty of genocide against Palestinians for defending itself against genocide by Palestinians. And in doing so, the Court relied on Albanese as a legitimate source.86 The UN Court didn’t shun her hate, it boosted her legitimacy.

b. The Anatomy of the “Anatomy of a Genocide”

The UN’s own cycle of violence then continued, as Albanese was emboldened to produce in March 2024 a UN report theatrically entitled “Anatomy of a Genocide.”87 Her report is conceived and written along the lines of the notorious Protocols of the Elders of Zion—a 1903 work of fiction pretending to be fact, a forgery that has had an instrumental role in fostering a century of pogroms, massacres, and deadly discrimination against Jews. Although Albanese casts her report as a legal document, infused with legal-sounding language and concepts, it’s a recounting of facts that didn’t happen and laws that do not exist.

She begins, first, by repeating Hamas casualty figures with no distinction between combatants and civilians and no concern about their veracity, and second, by making the astonishing announcement that her report does not examine the events of October 7.88

After situating her entire report in a vacuum with no context—given that it omits October 7—she proceeds to set out a “history” that denies the Jewish state’s right to exist. Including events of a day earlier is impossible, but certainty about events 75 years ago is not a problem.

Albanese claims that “the historical background against which the atrocities in Gaza are unfolding”89 are these:

  • Israel is an illegitimate “settler-colonial project in Palestine”;90 “erasing the Indigenous Arab presence has been an inevitable part of the forming of Israel as a ‘Jewish state’”91 She puts “Jewish state” in quotation marks, and simply abolishes Jewish self-determination.

  • Israel is genocidal by definition: “Israel’s actions have been driven by a genocidal logic integral to its settler-colonial project in Palestine, signaling a tragedy foretold.”92

  • Israel is a product of the world’s worst crime—a crime against humanity called ethnic cleansing: “Practices leading to the mass ethnic cleansing of Palestine’s non-Jewish population occurred in 1947–1949.”93

She then proceeds to use language casting Israeli Jews as the devil’s agents:

  • Israel’s actions in Gaza are the “equivalent of two nuclear bombs”;94 Israel “has caused death by starvation, including 10 children daily”;95 Israel’s “onslaught on Gaza”;96 “[t]he savagery of Israel’s latest assault”;97 “the total siege and near-constant carpet-bombing”;98 “decades of discourse dehumanizing Palestinians”;99 “the complete destruction of life-sustaining infrastructure”;100 “knowingly killing civilians en masse”;101 “‘safe areas’ were deliberately turned into areas of mass killing”;102 “evacuation orders and safe zones have been used as genocidal tools to achieve ethnic cleansing.”103

Her legal analysis is a legal sham:

  • In order to find genocidal intent, she quotes from Israeli president Isaac Herzog who said the events of October 7 were “a barbarism that has no place in the modern world.”104 (Herzog might well have been referring to such things as female genital mutilation, beheading, burning children alive, and filming atrocities for public viewing—but it’s hard to know since Albanese says events of October 7 are outside the scope of her report.) She then calls this statement by Herzog “racist rhetoric” because it means Palestinians have a “barbarian…character”105—which he didn’t say.

  • She claims that the law in the hands of the “Jewish state” is an instrument to commit genocide. For the “Jewish state,” the proportionality principle means: “Israel appears to represent itself as conducting a ‘proportionate genocide.’”106 To the diabolical “Jewish state,” the law against using human shields means “transforming everything and everyone into either a target or collateral damage, hence killable or destroyable.”107 Supposedly, Israel “has transformed an entire national group…into a destroyable target, revealing an eliminationist conduct of hostilities”;108 Israel uses law “in an attempt to legitimize genocidal violence”;109 “Israel…operates under a policy of condoning mass killing”;110 her gaslighting logic purports to find a “genocidal logic underpinning Israel’s military strategy.”111

Ignorance is bliss:

  • One of her many blood libels concerns events at Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital, which Israel proved was seized for military purposes by Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Albanese asserts she has no clue “whether or not Israel’s accusations of hospital shielding at Al Shifa were true”112 but claims it doesn’t matter for the application of the law in practice in any case—which is false.113

Projection is the golden ticket:

  • Albanese highlights this claim: “A key finding of this report is that Israel has strategically invoked the IHL [international humanitarian law] framework as ‘humanitarian camouflage’ to legitimize its genocidal violence in Gaza.”114 The truth is exactly the opposite. Hamas uses Palestinian civilians as “humanitarian camouflage,” uses humanitarian aid to camouflage the resupply of its terrorist infrastructure, and conceals casualties of combatants among civilians as humanitarian camouflage to confound the application of IHL. In other words, the architect of humanitarian camouflage—using “law” to mask genocidal intent—is the terrorist enabler herself, Francesca Albanese.

In the end, she makes it very plain what she has in mind—the extinction of the “Jewish state.”

  • She concludes by harking back to the illegitimacy of Israel’s creation in the first place—what she casts as a seven-decade-long Nakba/catastrophe that needs to be remedied, starting with eliminating Israel’s ability to defend itself. This is a call for erasing Israel as a remedy for Israel (allegedly) erasing Palestinians. In her words:

    “Israel’s genocide on the Palestinians in Gaza is an escalatory stage of a long- standing settler colonial process of erasure. For over seven decades this process has suffocated the Palestinian people as a group…seeking to displace it.… The ongoing Nakba must be stopped and remedied once and for all.”115

Albanese concludes her treatise with recommendations that would put Hamas, Hizbullah, the Houthis, and their Iranian sponsors on course to realize their genocidal ambitions. If her plan were implemented, they could complete the latest phase of their genocidal enterprise in the name of UN rules.

Bottom line: the UN has now published and is currently pushing a genocidal “Anatomy of a Genocide.” That’s a crime, not justice or law.

6. Reinforce the Vicious Circle: Politics–Law–Politics

The United Nations immediately labeled October 7 a “cycle of violence”116 hoping to conceal the unidirectional crime of Palestinian terrorists murdering Jews. But ironically, there is indeed a cycle of violence, one between UN politics and UN “law.”

When the United Nations’ World Court (ICJ) agreed to become a tool of Hamas’s continued aggression by refusing to shut down South African–Hamas lawfare under the Genocide Convention, it relied on a panoply of UN sources. It pointed to the UN Security Council, the UN General Assembly, OCHA, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, the Commissioner-General of UNRWA, more UN special rapporteurs and Working Groups, and the Secretary-General. The output, data, and conclusions of these UN sources were never questioned. There was no consideration of the people, their record, their biases. There was no acknowledgment of the political character of the agency or the agent. They were all just taken at their word.

The membership of the ICJ on the “Wall” advisory opinion,117 which purported to reduce dramatically Israel’s right of self-defense and is now serving as impetus for the Human Rights Council to follow suit in the context of October 7, included Egyptian judge Nabil Elaraby. Elaraby was a longtime representative of the Egyptian government at the United Nations (among other posts). He had a history of professional and personal statements against Israel directly related to the issues then before the Court. He used his ICJ “legal” perch to champion Palestinian terrorists; in his words: “Throughout the annals of history, occupation has always been met with armed resistance. Violence breeds violence.”118 Arguing in the “Wall” case against Israel on behalf of Jordan was its UN ambassador Zeid Ra’ad Zeid al-Hussein. Zeid would go on to another career in Israel-bashing as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The president of the ICJ at the time was Shi Jiuyong—from China, which has no rule of law and no independent judiciary.

Twenty years later, there is the spectacle of another advisory opinion crafted to elicit another “legal” condemnation of Israel by the ICJ. In 2022, the UN General Assembly asked the ICJ for an opinion about the “consequences” of what the General Assembly had already determined were a litany of specific Israeli violations of law; they couldn’t find any Palestinian violation of law.119 The presiding judge in this case, which was heard February 23–25, 2024, was ICJ President Nawaf Salam. He is from Lebanon, a country that does not recognize Israel’s right to exist. His name was on the ballot for Prime Minister of Lebanon in the two most recent elections.120 He was his country’s UN ambassador for 10 years up until 2017, served as President of the Security Council during his tenure, and as Vice President of the General Assembly.121 And in his spare time, he has tweeted such things as a meme that reads “unhappy birthday to you: 48 years of occupation.”122

This is how the UN’s highest court does “law.”

7. Moral Equivalence

October 7 has a sobering lesson: when it comes to Jewish victims, the United Nations can’t and won’t distinguish between those who butcher and rape and the butchered and raped, except to blame the latter for the actions of the former. Such moral blindness is cast as principled evenhandedness. Here’s a sampling of the “all parties” messaging:

President of the UN General Assembly Dennis Francis (from Trinidad and Tobago), October 7, 2023123

“I urge all parties to refrain from further violence & to seek an immediate path to peace.”

Chair of the Committee on Palestinian Rights, UN Ambassador of Senegal Cheikh Niang, October 7124

“I also join the Secretary-General’s call for restraint from all parties to avoid further loss of life.”

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, October 10, 2023125

“‘All parties must respect international humanitarian law.…’ Türk stressed that it is vitally important that everyone deprived of their liberty in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel is treated humanely.”

UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory Lynn Hastings, October 10, 2023126

“…all parties must comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law. All military and armed groups must abide by the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precaution when conducting their operations.”

Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, Navi Pillay, October 10, 2023127

“The Commission has been collecting and preserving evidence of war crimes committed by all sides since 7 October 2023, when Hamas launched a complex attack on Israel and Israeli forces responded with airstrikes in Gaza…underscores the urgency for the parties involved to cease all forms of violence…urges Israeli security forces and Palestinian armed groups to adhere strictly to international humanitarian law and international human rights law…. [T]he only path towards ending violence and achieving sustainable peace is through addressing the root causes of the conflict including through ending the illegal occupation.”

Hamas is openly dedicated to violating international law. Killing, enslaving, and mutilating, Jews (and willingly sacrificing fellow Palestinians for the cause) is its raison d’être. In the words of the Hamas Covenant: “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it”; “Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious.”128

Hence, appealing to Hamas, and the various Palestinian terrorist organizations, not to violate international law is perfidy. Manufacturing “equal” demands on “all military and armed groups” to do the right thing is to deceive the global audience into believing this is not a conflict between a democratic society and pathological genocidaires. UN actors didn’t call upon Osama bin Laden or the ISIS rapists of Yazidi women to take “precautions when conducting their operations.”

To pretend that Palestinian “armed groups” need a lecture on the laws of armed conflict is to cover up the fact that these groups are dedicated to the violation of the laws of armed conflict. Palestinian terrorists bragged about raping and deliberately targeting civilians. They don’t need a speech; they need to be militarily destroyed and politically rejected from civilized societies everywhere. So why the ruse? Because the demonization and bias against the State of Israel is the bread and butter of UN operations—dressed up as human rights and humanitarian concerns and international law.

The UN fiction of evenhandedness saw the UN’s top “human rights” authority figure, Volker Türk, immediately hamper the release of the hostages by analogizing the brutalized kidnap victims in Gaza with prisoners justifiably held in Israeli jails. In February, he was demanding the release of “thousands of Palestinians arbitrarily detained by Israel.”129

By mid-November, UN actors—led by Albanese—were doing everything in their power to deny Israel the means of self-defense disguised as equal treatment, and demanding that the “international community” “implement an arms embargo on all warring parties.”130 The “all” fooled a lot of people and sowed global confusion about right and wrong.

8. Go on Offense

Instead of recognizing and decrying October 7’s gut-wrenching antisemitism, and springing into action to defend its victims and to rescue the abducted still subject to the ravages of Palestinian xenophobia, the UN machine did exactly the opposite. It revved up a frenetic global drive to spread the lies of systemic Israeli racism, apartheid, and genocide.

These are two sides of the same coin. Jews are racists; Palestinians are not. The Jewish state (whose citizens include millions of non-Jews with more rights and freedoms than in any Arab state) is racist; a Judenrein “Palestine” is not. The self-determination of the Jewish people, Zionism, is criminal according to the 1975 UN General Assembly and the 2001 UN Durban World Conference; Palestinian nationalism is to be revered, notwithstanding that its foundations emanate from the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Amin al-Husseini. Al-Husseini, described as “Palestine’s national leader” and “the voice of the Palestinian people,”131 was a Nazi collaborator. While celebrating al-Husseini’s partnership with Hitler, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood said, “The Mufti is Palestine and Palestine is the Mufti”.132 Indeed.

From this perspective, UN actors went on offense. Albanese, the October 7 denier and revisionist, paralleled the tragedy of the Holocaust to the “tragedy” of the creation of Israel.

UN Special Rapporteur for the Situation of Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese, March 27, 2024133

“There is amnesia…around the birth of the state of Israel. Because it was the outcome, not just of one tragedy, but it’s connected to two tragedies, and one is very well-known and absorbed, which is the tragedy, the horror of the Holocaust. The other, what it meant for the native people of Palestine, the creation of the State of Israel, dispossession, forced displacement.”

By October 12, UN actors were accusing Israel of the worst atrocities known to humankind: “crimes against humanity” and “intentional starvation.”134 As Israelis refused to lie down and die, the UN ratcheted up its attacks: October 19, “risk of genocide,”135 October 25, “mowing down civilians,”136 November 6, November 20, “genocide,”137 December 7, “a war on healthcare workers,”138 December 23, “a war of extermination,”139 January 2, “induced disease,”140 February 1, “one of the bloodiest, most ruthless conflicts of our times,”141 March 6, “systematically target aid-seekers,” “a pattern of deliberately targeting civilians seeking healthcare,”142 April 18, “the systemic obliteration of education,”143 “the annihilation of the cultural sector in Gaza.”144

The demonization of Israelis by UN officials from the highest levels has been crazed. These are not a few isolated kooks. Their words are translated into multiple languages and disseminated globally, online, on social media, by video, press releases—and archived so that they are available permanently, to any legislature and any classroom, anytime anywhere.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has produced a steady stream of extremist vitriol:

“Gaza is becoming a graveyard for children.”145

“The situation in Gaza is a festering wound on our collective conscience that threatens the entire region.”146

“Israeli military operations have resulted in destruction and death in Gaza at a scale and speed without parallel since I became Secretary-General.”147

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, February 20, 2024148

“There appears to be no bounds to—no words to capture—the horrors that are unfolding before our eyes in Gaza.… This is carnage.”

UN Human Rights Council “experts” have been pouring out statements such as:

“Albeit through the glistening eyes, and burning flesh, thirst and starvation, we witness the collective indestructible human spirit.… [T]he Palestinian people…continue to be dehumanized, abused and suffer from oppression, displacement, massacre and erosion of dignity.”149

“Gazans now make up 80 per cent of all people facing famine or catastrophic hunger worldwide.”150 (Simultaneously, the UN’s own World Food Program was telling its audience: “Nearly 350 million people around the world are experiencing the most extreme forms of hunger right now. Of those, nearly 49 million people are on the brink of famine.”151)

(cont’d) “Not only is Israel killing and causing irreparable harm against Palestinian civilians with its indiscriminate bombardments, it is also knowingly and intentionally imposing a high rate of disease, prolonged malnutrition, dehydration, and starvation.”152

“Israel has been intentionally starving the Palestinian people in Gaza since 8 October.”153

“I am horrified by the depravity of killing civilians while they are at their most vulnerable and seeking basic assistance. These constitute atrocity crimes of the highest order.”154

“The flagrant and systematic slaughter of Palestinian civilians…”155

Navi Pillay, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and lead champion of the antisemitic UN Durban Declaration, understood full well that October 7 threatened her narrative. She went on the warpath together with Hamas; no libel was too bloody.

Independent Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, Navi Pillay, October 30, 2023156

“How can children ever be deemed to be a threat so much so that Israel has to defend itself against these babies and children?”

In mid-April 2024, just weeks after the Human Rights Council gave her the job of pushing an arms embargo against Israel, Pillay convened a briefing with UN member states that provided a clear view of her offensive strategy—how blood libels will serve as the foundation of her plan of attack. For instance, Pillay charged Israel with wantonly attacking health facilities.

Independent Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, Navi Pillay, April 16, 2024157

“Earlier this month, the Israeli Security Forces withdrew from a two-week long operation at the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City that left the medical complex in ruins.”

Pillay’s audience would have no idea that Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists had repeatedly weaponized Gaza health-care facilities, used them for military purposes, and were operating from inside al-Shifa Hospital. Nor would they have any idea that these terrorists were firing at Israeli troops from inside the emergency room and maternity ward, hurling explosive devices from the burn ward, and that others located around the hospital were firing mortars at Israeli forces and hitting the hospital. They would have no idea that Israeli troops had brought medical devices, medications, and medical supplies into the hospital.158 Instead, the head of a UN Commission of Inquiry gathered the world’s states to tell them it was Israel that had left the medical complex in ruins, and that she was sharing all her (false) “information” with the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court—and expected him to act on it soon.159 Which he has now done.

The blood-libel strategy is a lynchpin of the UN response to October 7. The actual facts have no impact either on the Palestinian terrorists on the front line or the UN libelers bringing up the rear. A stark example was the accusation by UN actors, including Albanese, that on October 17, 2023, Israel targeted the al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza160 and the sick civilians and health-care personnel therein. The claim echoed the same wild accusation of the “Health Ministry in Gaza”—what could be called the Hamas Ministry of Truth. Nine UN special rapporteurs— purported “human rights experts”—issued a press release expressing “outrage,” stating that “470 civilians” had been killed, calling it “an atrocity” and a “crime against humanity”; their headline, blasted around the world by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, demanded the “prevention of genocide.”161

It was a lie—exposed before the United Nations issued its global blood libel.162 The hospital had been hit by a Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket that was aimed for Israeli civilians and misfired. In addition, non-Palestinian sources put the number of dead as a fraction of the Hamas–UN number, indicated a nearby parking lot had been struck, and showed the hospital walls still intact.

UN “experts” on offense spread this lie a mere 11 days since Palestinian terrorists, with the active participation and support of Palestinian civilians163 and UN employees,164 had carried out the worst assault on the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Mutilated bodies remained unidentified. Jewish women and children and babies and old people held hostage—some inside Gaza hospitals—were being starved, murdered, and raped by Palestinians. And instead of uniting to end Hamas crimes, the United Nations was fabricating Israeli crimes.

To this day, the UN website still broadcasts the lie about al-Ahli Baptist Hospital with no retraction or admission of wrongdoing.165 The media success of the initial outburst and UN support for Hamas mendacity reinforced the strategy of “demonize fast and furiously and never apologize.”

The vociferousness of the UN attack on Israel, starting on October 7, was intended to prevent the full horror and the actual root cause of the Arab–Israeli conflict—antisemitism and the violent pathological denial of Jewish self-determination—from sinking in.

The plan worked.

9. Déjà Vu

The swiftness of the massive UN attack on Israel that started on October 7 was made possible by the massive UN attack on Israel that had been underway long before October 7. By October 7 the prep work had all been done, the campaign had been in full swing for years, the actors were all primed and ready to put it in overdrive.

Navi Pillay was already referring to Israel as guilty of the international crime of apartheid.166

The General Assembly was already engaged in yet another case (“advisory opinion”) at the ICJ. This one is intended to launch BDS on a global scale. The General Assembly’s referral of the case to the ICJ begins by declaring Israel guilty. It asks the Court: “What are the legal consequences arising from the ongoing violation by Israel of the right of the Palestinian people…?”167

The jackals at the International Criminal Court were already circling,168 in between a steady stream of meetings with Palestinian and UN officials.169

The Palestinian “refugee” agency, UNRWA, was churning out yet another generation of Palestinians bent on “return” and the end of the Jewish state,170 in between lending a hand to Hamas.171

UN actors were already blaming Israel for the absence of world peace.172

In other words, the tsunami of antisemitism that began on October 7 was caused by

a preexisting fault line, a rupture in civilization that had already occurred.

10. “It’s the Existence of Israel, Stupid”

On October 9, 2023, the UN Human Rights Council was in session and a Pakistani ambassador spoke on behalf of all 57 members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). He made it clear that in their view the existence of a Jewish state was the problem:

“This whole huge loss of lives and unabated violence is a sad reminder of more than seven decades of illegal foreign occupation, aggression and disrespect for the international law.”173

He ended his statement with an appeal: “to remember victims of decades of foreign occupation in the occupied Palestinian Territory. I request you all to stand for one minute to honor those victims.”174 The UN herd mentality worked and the representatives of Germany and France were among those who stood up.

The head of the Palestinian “refugee” agency, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazarini, has connected the dots between the Gaza conflict and the big lie peddled by a community that has spent more than seven decades refusing to coexist with a Jewish state. It’s the same community that has turned “refugeeism” into a permanent inheritable occupation for Palestinians.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazarini, December 13, 2023175

“The events in Gaza are taking place against a backdrop of 75 years of displacement. 75 years of failure to find a just and lasting solution to the plight of Palestine Refugees. During this time, they have been deprived of their basic human rights and their right to self-determination.”

Since the revelation of incontrovertible evidence of UNRWA’s collusion with Hamas in various forms,176 its representatives have had to rationalize their raison d’être—and have laid bare their anti-Israel agenda in the process.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazarini, March 4, 2024177

“Attacks against UNRWA seek to eliminate its role in protecting the rights of Palestine Refugees …75 years after their Nakba.”

“Nakba,” as previously noted, is Arabic for the catastrophe of the creation of a Jewish state.

Navi Pillay took a bow when the ICJ took up the General Assembly advisory-opinion request on “consequences” in February 2024,178 claiming the General Assembly had acted on her initiative. She was thrilled by the legal trappings now surrounding the quest to turn back the clock before 1948.

Independent Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, Navi Pillay, February 2, 2024179

“We were asked to identify the root causes of the conflict.… It’s now before the ICJ. And isn’t it incredible that it’s taken 75 years of occupation for a matter such as whether the occupation is lawful or not, is before the Court for the very first time.”

Francesca Albanese traffics in her own fake history. She ignores the aforementioned Nazi collaborator and Palestinian national leader, Grand Mufti Amin al-Husseini, and his attempts to expand Nazism to Palestine;180 instead, she claims antisemitism was only a European problem. She also skips over the 800,000 Jewish refugees from Middle East and North African Arab countries who bore the brunt of antisemitism throughout the Arab world.181

UN Special Rapporteur for the Situation of Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, April 1, 2024182

“Palestinians…have been asked to bear the brunt of something they didn’t cause 75 years ago. Antisemitism has been applied in Europe for centuries.…”

In UN terminology, Amin al-Husseini aided and abetted the mainstreaming of antisemitism and the normalization of genocide among masses of followers and listeners. Albanese and Pillay have taken a page from his playbook and modernized it for our age by treacherously labeling it “law” and “human rights.”

11. Indifference and Discrimination

a. All Palestinian Atrocities

On June 1, 2010, when the Human Rights Council happened to be in session, it carved out time to hold an “urgent debate” to condemn Israel for an event that had taken place the day before on May 31.183 A flotilla, originating in Turkey, attempted to violate the lawful Israeli sea blockade of Gaza, which had been instituted to prevent the creation of a lethal Iranian arms depot on Gaza’s Mediterranean coast. A violent attempt to murder the Israeli forces who had boarded one of the vessels in an effort to enforce the blockade ended in the death of nine flotilla participants. Twenty-four hours later, the Human Rights Council held the urgent session and on June 2 it adopted a resolution184 that “condemns” Israel; it announced that the Council: “Deeply deplores the loss of life of innocent civilians, expresses its deepest sympathy and condolences to the victims and their families”; and it created an “international fact-finding mission” on “the Israeli attacks” that spawned three more Council resolutions and four reports condemning Israel over the following two years.

On October 9, 2023, the Human Rights Council was also incidentally in session. In response to more than a thousand dead Jews, the Council held no urgent debate, issued no condemnation of Hamas, adopted no resolution deeply deploring the loss of Israeli lives or sending condolences to the victims of Palestinian terror. A UN fact-finding mission focused on Palestinian attacks didn’t happen, has never happened, and will never happen.185 Six months later, after another session in March 2024, the UN Human Rights Council adopted four resolutions condemning Israel and zero condemning Hamas and other Palestinian terrorists for their October 7 attacks.

In other words, in response to October 7 the UN Human Rights Council delivered exactly what Palestinian terrorists wanted and expected from the United Nations: talk of justifications, inversion of victim and perpetrator, and solidarity with their goals. All of which has been predictably interpreted as a sympathetic nod for more violence against Jews.

That was the United Nations’ top “human rights” body. What about its top “international peace and security” body?

On December 16, 2023, the Security Council issued a unanimous press statement186 that “condemned in the strongest terms the cowardly terrorist attack…”—that took place in Iran— “and resulted in the tragic loss of life of 11 Iranian police officers and inflicting [sic] critical injuries on eight others.” The incident had occurred the day before.

On March 22, 2024, the Security Council issued a unanimous press statement187 that “condemned in the strongest terms the heinous and cowardly terrorist attack at a concert hall…”—that took place in Russia—and “resulted in the grievous loss of dozens of lives and has left more than 100 injured.” The incident occurred on the same day.

On October 8, 2023, the Security Council met. At the time, the known death toll in Israel was 700, the injured were 2,100, Israel was fighting Palestinian terrorists on Israeli territory in multiple locations, and videos of atrocities at the Israeli music festival and elsewhere were public. The Council meeting ended without a word—and there has been no condemnation of the October 7 Palestinian terror attacks ever since.

b. Palestinian Sexual-Violence Atrocities

The UN response to the sexual violence perpetrated against Israeli women and girls is beyond shocking. It is a case study in modern antisemitism—the use and abuse of “rights” to do wrong.

The United Nations has a vast number of departments, officials, experts, committees, commissions, bodies, agencies, and resources dedicated to ferreting out the abuse of women and girls. Rape as a weapon of war, female genital mutilation, sexual slavery, and other sexual crimes are all identified, studied, and denounced from every conceivable aspect of this horrible pathology.

Then came mass atrocities—rape as a weapon of war, female genital mutilation, sexual torture, sexual slavery—against Jewish female victims by Palestinian males. And the United Nations responded by creating an exception clause for Jews to the organization’s gold standard of “universal” rights.

To the question, what did UN actors know and when did they know it, comes the undeniable answer that they knew on day one. They knew from the Palestinian perpetrators themselves who broadcast and boasted about their orgy of sexual violence against Jews. From October 7, videos of rape victims and gang rapes were globally available online. They knew from witnesses, first responders, medical personnel, those collecting, processing, and identifying bodies, family members, war correspondents, and investigative reporters. All were shaken to their core by the pure horror of what had happened and what was continuing to happen to the kidnapped. Also shaken by the news were vast numbers of the rest of humanity who, unlike Hamas, were aroused by the pain and suffering of Jewish women and girls.

And what did the United Nations and its enormous women’s rights apparatus do with this horrifying information? The UN Human Rights Council special rapporteurs most directly involved—on Israel and on violence against women, Francesca Albanese and Reem Alsalem— launched a campaign to cast doubt on whether it had ever happened.

Moreover, on the one hand, when these UN “experts” had stacks of solid evidence—including from the Palestinian perpetrators themselves—but the victims were Jewish, they came up with endless impediments to drawing conclusions. On the other hand, when the (alleged) victims were not Jewish, the absence of any evidence of Israeli crimes was no stumbling block to parroting immediately Hamas’s fantastical charges.

UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and Girls Reem Alsalem, November 20, 2023188

“Since 7 October, the assault on Palestinian women’s dignity and rights has taken on new and terrifying dimensions.… Israel’s continued assault on the reproductive rights of Palestinian women and their newborns has been relentless.”

That fiction, a blood libel, Alsalem was sure about. But when it came to Hamas’s mutilation of Jewish women’s bodies—recorded and made publicly available by the mutilators themselves—UN “expert” Alsalem had a different reaction.

UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and Girls Reem Alsalem, November 20, 2023189

“Reports of sexual violence must be verified, thoroughly investigated and those responsible must be held accountable.”

Also, at the forefront of attempting to spin Palestinian sexual violence against Jews was Commission of Inquiry chair Navi Pillay. After churning out multiple reports based on phony “hearings,” with select “witnesses,” and the deliberate trashing of millions of “submissions” deemed “pro-Israel,”190 she hastened to claim jurisdiction and slow down judgment. From October 10, Pillay tried to thrust herself and her bogus inquiry into the spotlight by appointing herself lead investigator so the world might await her edicts.191

The scheme played out across the UN system, with UN actors systematically downplaying Hamas’s sexual violence as “reports,” “accounts,” or “allegations.”192

In reality, for most of these UN actors, no amount of “verification” would do. The following is a list of UN players who—six months after October 7—had never acknowledged that the sexual violence against Israelis actually occurred (and not merely acknowledged that there have been “reports” or “accounts” or “allegations” of sexual violence), or condemned Hamas and other Palestinians for perpetrating this systematic sexual violence:

  • the Security Council

  • the General Assembly

  • the Human Rights Council

  • the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights193

  • the UN Commission on the Status of Women

  • the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)

  • the World Health Organization

  • 47 of 49 UN human rights “experts”/special rapporteurs194

It took UN Secretary-General António Guterres three and a half months to acknowledge and condemn Hamas’s sexual violence—on January 23, 2024.195 And in marked contrast to UN demands for more verification of Hamas’s sexual crimes from across the UN system, Guterres only did so while simultaneously repeating Hamas’s casualty figures in Gaza without question.196 Moreover, Guterres subsequently backtracked in his annual report on “Conflict-Related Sexual Violence.”197

What about the UN Secretariat’s lead women’s rights unit UN Women? Their home page proclaims: “We are the global champion for gender equality. UN Women is the UN organization delivering programmes, policies and standards that uphold women’s human rights and ensure that every woman and girl lives up to her full potential.”198 Their “about” section begins: “UN Women is the United Nations entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women.”199 The truth is an entirely different matter.

Executive Director of UN Women Sima Bahous (Jordanian) chimed in immediately on October 7. She labeled the massacre of Jews, before any Israeli military response, thus:

Executive Director of UN Women Sima Bahous, October 7, 2023200

An “escalation of hostilities in #Israel & the Occupied Palestinian Territory #OPT”

And she called for “immediate de-escalation.”

UN Women continued to equate Hamas barbarism targeting civilians and Israeli self-defense targeting combatants by condemning “the attacks on civilians in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories”201 and calling for a ceasefire within a week202 At the same time, UN Women issued multiple statements, tweets, and reports focusing only on Palestinians and ignoring Israeli victims,203 including launching on October 20, 2023, a “rapid assessment and humanitarian response in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”204

Then on November 24, 2023, UN Women posted this message on its Instagram page: “We condemn the brutal attacks by Hamas on October 7 and continue to call for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.”205 Except that message was then immediately deleted, 206 and a day later, UN Women produced an Instagram post that read: “We remain alarmed by the reports of gender-based violence on 7 October & call for rigorous investigation…”207 There was no more Hamas, and no condemnation of their actual gender-based violence.

This UN-made atrocity went on and on.

UN Women, December 1, 2023208

“We are alarmed by the numerous accounts of gender-based atrocities and sexual violence.… [W]e have called for all accounts of gender-based violence to be duly investigated.”

Executive Director of UN Women Sima Bahous, January 19, 2024209

“We have heard shocking accounts of unconscionable sexual violence during the attacks.…We unequivocally condemn all acts of sexual and gender-based violence wherever, whenever, and against whomever they are perpetrated.”

Finally, on March 4, 2024, five months after the attacks, came something different. One UN official, the “special representative of the Secretary-General on sexual violence in conflict,” Pramila Patten, issued a report210 following a mission to Israel in late January and early February. Patten’s nine-person team had held dozens of meetings and interviews of survivors, victims, and witnesses of Palestinian sex crimes, and of released hostages, first responders, and health providers; conducted on-site visits to a morgue and to multiple locations where the crimes were committed; and reviewed 5,000 photos and 50 hours of footage of the attacks that included an “independent online review” of online sources. In her report, Patten stated that “in Israel, the mission team benefitted from the full cooperation of the Government of Israel.”

Her report made findings about the hostages.

Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict Pramila Patten, March 4, 2024211

Patten found “clear and convincing information that some have been subjected to various forms of conflict-related sexual violence including rape and sexualized torture and sexualized cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.”

Her report made findings about women at the music festival and in multiple locations.

Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict Pramila Patten, March 4, 2024212

Patten found that “there are reasonable grounds to believe that multiple incidents of rape, including gang rape, occurred…” and “reasonable grounds to believe that sexual violence occurred….”

Incredibly, the immediate response from UN Women was merely to point to Patten’s generic Twitter account and say that she “finds reasonable grounds to believe sexual violence occurred.…” UN Women failed to accept her findings, name the victims, or identify the perpetrators.

UN Women, March 5, 2024213

“We condemn all acts of sexual violence [against nobody in particular] and call for [unknown] perpetrators to be brought to justice.”

Instead, to solve the great mystery, they called “for a further @OHCHR [Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights] investigation.”

One week later, UN Women made a statement. It was now five months after October 7.

Executive Director of UN Women Sima Bahous, March 11, 2024214

“We are witnessing a destruction and killing of civilians, UN personnel, humanitarians, and journalists at an unprecedented scale.… [T]he Special Representative for Sexual Violence in Conflict Ms. Pramila Patten’s report has horrific accounts of sexual violence against women and girls in the October 7 attack. There are also harrowing testimonies of sexual violence by Israeli forces against Palestinian women in detention, house raids, and checkpoints. All such acts and forms of violence against women and girls are condemned.”

This was the first time that Bahous, the United Nations’ top women’s rights official, obliquely condemned “such acts”—and without condemning Hamas for those acts. And still, she couldn’t do it without fabricating comparable crimes by Israelis against Palestinians.

The story of the UN response to Palestinian sexual-violence atrocities against Israeli women and girls, however, didn’t end there. Simultaneously with the Patten mission and report, UN “independent experts,” former UNRWA employee Albanese and Jordanian-Palestinian Alsalem, were conducting a counteroperation to undercut Patten, to cast doubt on findings of Palestinian sexual atrocities, and to divert attention by substituting fabricated Israeli sexual atrocities in the minds of the public.

In February 2024, Albanese and Alsalem, along with Dorothy Estrada-Tanck,215 chair-rapporteur of the Working Group on Discrimination against Women and Girls, produced a so-called “communication”216 that consisted of a series of allegations and requests for information on issues upon which its authors had already decided.217 The “communication” was sent to Israel in February 2024 and a response was requested within two months, which Israel provided in early April.218 The UN actors didn’t wait for the Israeli response before sending an explosive press release around the world, among other things charging Israel with sexual violence against Palestinians.219

The timing was no coincidence.

On February 6, 2024, Patten’s mission to Israel examining Hamas’s sexual violence was the subject of an Israeli press release.220 On February 7, 2024, the Albanese and Alsalem–led “communication” was issued alleging Israelis were guilty of sexual violence.

On February 14, 2024, Patten’s investigative team wrapped up its Israeli visit. On February 19, 2024, Albanese and Alsalem, and a few more Human Rights Council “experts,” issued their press release on supposed Israeli sexual-violence crimes.

On March 4, 2024, Patten issued her report221 finding “clear and convincing information” and “reasonable grounds to believe” horrific incidents of sexual violence and torture by Palestinians against Israelis had occurred.222 Meanwhile, Alsalem was making the rounds from CNN223 to the BBC224 with her sensational and totally unverified accusations of Israeli sex crimes.

Albanese and Alsalem were evidently bent on sidelining Patten’s report and making it impossible to refer to Palestinian sadists without (imaginary) Israeli doppelgängers. Their “communication”225 stands out as one of the most obviously contrived and offensive UN documents ever produced, revealing the sickness of the UN antisemitism machine. It is therefore spelled out in some detail.

Though these actors pass themselves off as serious investigative authority figures, the basics escape them. The “communication” begins: “…240 persons were reportedly taken hostage, including 19 women.”226 Actually, Hamas abducted 67 women.227

The content of their UN “communication” includes the following, what might be called body doubles from an alternate universe. They took Hamas atrocities and manufactured matching Israeli atrocities.228 The matches relate not only to sexual violence but also to kidnapping and other crimes, and illustrate how Israeli women and girls have been paying the price for the disturbing reality of indifference and discrimination against all Jews.

(1) UN “communication”: “The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) has reportedly carried out summary executions of Palestinian civilians.”

Actual Hamas atrocity: “[T]he bodies of at least two women were found inside a home, on the floor and naked, with gunshot wounds to their heads.”229

(2) UN “communication”: “[W]omen and children, including girls, have also been reportedly detained from the informal shelters and their homes.”

Actual Hamas atrocity: Women and children kidnapped from their homes include: “Channa Peri, 79, of Kibbutz Nirim—Kidnapped from her home; Hanna Katzir, 77, of Kibbutz Nir Oz—Kidnapped from her home; Raz Katz Asher, 4, of Kibbutz Nir Oz—Kidnapped from her home; Aviv Katz Asher, 2, of Kibbutz Nir Oz—Kidnapped from her home; Doron Katz Asher, 34, of Kibbutz Nir Oz—Kidnapped from her home with her young children; Ruth Munder, 78, of Kibbutz Nir Oz—Kidnapped from her home; Keren Munder, 54, Kfar Saba—Kidnapped from her parents’ home in Kibbutz Nir Oz; Adina Moshe, 72, of Kibbutz Nir Oz—Kidnapped from her home; Margalit Mozes, 78, of Kibbutz Nir Oz—Kidnapped from her home….”230

(3) UN “communication”: “Reportedly, one of the women that was detained is over 80 years old.”

Actual Hamas atrocity: “25 elderly civilians aged 80 and over were murdered.”231 The list of the kidnapped includes: “Yaffa Adar, 85, of Kibbutz Nir Oz;…Alma Avraham, 84, of Kibbutz Nahal Oz;…Ditza Heiman, 84, of Kibbutz Nir Oz.”232 “The invasion included severe war crimes, including the kidnapping of innocent elderly people, Holocaust survivors….”233

(4) UN “communication”: “[M]others are also detained with their infant children.”

Actual Hamas atrocity: “The invasion included severe war crimes, including the kidnapping of…mothers with their babies….”234

(5) UN “communication”: “An undetermined number of women and children, including girls, have gone missing, and are believed to have been forcibly taken by the IDF.”

Actual Hamas atrocity: “Not since the Holocaust, have we witnessed scenes of Jewish women and children…being herded into trucks and taken into captivity.”235

(6) UN “communication”: “[A] Palestinian female infant was reportedly taken by the IDF from her home in Gaza to Israel by an Israeli officer…in what appears to be a forced transfer of a child out of Gaza. The IDF has so far not returned the infant and her exact location is reportedly unknown.”236 The “infant” was in fact a dog, rescued by an IDF soldier.237

Actual Hamas atrocity: “I would like to raise the plight of the Bibas family, the two young children, ten-month-old baby.…Their whereabouts are unknown to us.”238 “Yarden, Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir Bibas were cruelly kidnapped on October 7th…Shiri was kidnapped along with Ariel, aged four, and Kfir, nine months old, at around ten in the morning, by terrorists using an ATV…we are making every effort to obtain more information about their fate.”239

(7) UN “communication: “There are serious concerns that some of the children may have been abducted and forcefully carried off and transferred to Israel or killed.”

Actual Hamas atrocity: “Over two hundred Israeli citizens were abducted and many are still being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, including small children.… Civilian fatalities…39 were children under the age of 18: 5 children aged 0–5 (including the fetus of a woman who was severely wounded and whose baby did not survive), 5 children aged 6–10, 29 children aged 11–18.”240 “List of 28 children forcefully abducted to the Gaza Strip…”241

(8) UN “communication”: “Palestinian women who have been detained have reportedly experienced…denial of food, water and visits by their lawyers or members of the International Committee of the Red Cross.”

Actual Hamas atrocity: “Babies, the elderly, women, men, are being held in brutal captivity by Hamas, without vital medication or visitation from the Red Cross.”242

(9) UN “communication”: “One of the detained women was reportedly placed in a truck with Palestinian men…and was stripped naked by the Israeli military in the place where she was detained.”

Actual Hamas atrocity: “We cannot forget…Shani Louk’s dead body thrown in the back of a pickup truck driven by terrorists.”243 “…a half-naked woman lying seemingly unconscious face-down in the back of a pickup truck in Gaza filled with armed men.”244

(10) UN “communication”: “Two female detainees were reportedly raped and sexually assaulted.”

Actual Hamas atrocity: “The mission team received clear and convincing information that sexual violence, including rape, sexualized torture, and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment occurred against some women and children during their time in captivity and has reasonable grounds to believe that this violence may be ongoing…female hostages were also subjected to other forms of sexual violence.”245

(11) UN “communication”: “One woman was also reportedly threatened to be raped in front of her father.”

Actual Hamas atrocity: “Hamas’s attack included violent acts of rape, accompanied by threats with weapons, and in some cases targeted towards injured women…. Often, the rape was perpetrated in front of an audience—partners, family, or friends—in a manner intended to increase the pain and humiliation of all present.”246

(12) UN “communication”: “Sick detainees have reportedly been prevented from accessing medicine and medical treatment.”

Actual Hamas atrocity: “[H]ostages: babies, children, the elderly, women, and men, the wounded and sick, are threatened by despicable Hamas terrorists, held in diabolical cruelty, in the dark, in tunnels, without medical treatment, in terrible suffering.”247 “As part of the @IDF activity in the Nasser hospital, boxes of medicine were found with the names and photos of Israeli hostages on them. The packages of medicine that were found were sealed and had not been transferred to the hostages.”248

(13) UN “communication”: “Female detainees were also reportedly threatened with rape and with burning their families alive.”

Actual Hamas atrocity: “Families were slaughtered in their beds…civilians were burnt alive….”249 “[A]t least 100 bodies had destructive burn damage.”250

(14) UN “communication”: “Five female detainees in one prison were collectively stripped naked and allegedly asked to perform degrading motions such as opening their legs.”

Actual Hamas atrocity: “[C]orpses with conspicuously spread legs were observed.”251

The level and detail of overlap between actual Hamas atrocities against Israelis and fictitious Israeli atrocities against Palestinians exposes this UN exercise as a very dangerous, incendiary, and provocative farce. To Albanese and Alsalem, October 7 was a PR problem they set out to solve. Due process, the UN code of conduct for rapporteurs, and the facts had nothing to do with it. With the Patten report in the pipeline, they issued a press release because “the wider public should be alerted”252 to Israelis (supposedly) engaged in kidnapping and disappearances,253 and raping and sexually abusing Palestinian women.254

If there was no proof, that was no problem. Alsalem was interviewed by an Israeli reporter and asked about the source of this “information” on Israeli crimes. Her response was a travesty:

UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and Girls Reem Alsalem, March 5, 2024, interview255

ALSALEM: This press release relates to reasonably credible information that has reached us regarding a number of violations that seem to have been committed.

REPORTER: What do you mean reasonably credible information?

ALSALEM: I cannot give you more details on how I got the information and from whom.

REPORTER: You got the information from the victims themselves or from family members?

ALSALEM: This is sensitive information. I’ve answered the question that I cannot for reasons of security.

Here is a “Jordanian-Palestinian” terrorist mouthpiece, passing herself off as an independent UN human rights expert, who would not give any insight into the sources of her incendiary accusations, which just happened to mirror the crimes of Palestinians against Jews.

When it comes to Israelis sexually abusing Palestinians, “seem to have been committed” and “reasonably credible” sources will suffice. When it comes to Palestinians sexually abusing Israelis, it’s a different story. Alsalem answered the same reporter when asked if Israeli women were raped on October 7.

UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and Girls Reem Alsalem, March 5, 2024, interview256

REPORTER: Do you still believe that Israeli women were not raped on that day, on 7th of October?

ALSALEM: The point is that I regret that until now I have not received any information. And that information is what I need in order to be able to do my work.

REPORTER: Hamas militants actually filmed all the brutal acts perpetrated on October 7th and the IDF also published a film that collected this evidence. Didn’t you see the film?

ALSALEM: We cannot rely on only digital material or material produced online or by the media. Just based on that I cannot at this stage say, you know, what exactly has happened. That said, I’m very open to looking at it.

REPORTER: You can’t say that Israeli women were raped on October 7th?

ALSALEM: It may have happened, indeed.

REPORTER: It may have happened? But you can actually see the footage.

ALSALEM: I have not received the film. I’m not a technical expert on videos, so I on my own will not be able to assess these videos. I will also need to seek technical expertise.

Another way of describing Alsalem’s behavior is willful blindness. If she refuses to see the evidence of Hamas atrocities, she can will them away—in contrast to the victims, their families, the witnesses, and the first responders, who will be bearing pain that no one will ever be able to will away. Of course, this isn’t the behavior of an expert, investigator, or analyst; it’s the behavior of an antisemitic polemicist.

Likewise, Albanese simply ignored Patten’s findings of “reasonable grounds to believe sexual violence occurred.” On March 27, 2024, in a press conference during the UN Human Rights Council session, Albanese was asked about the “raping of Israeli women” and whether she “received any evidence that it happened.” She responded: “What I was very disturbed by was the weaponization of anything that has happened on the 7th of October.” She continued, as recounted above, “Personally, I have not received information. I’ve read reports that have been written. I didn’t find any, any convincing evidence.”257

The closest historical analogue of Francesca Albanese is Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s propagandist and master of deception. Reacting to the worst assault on the Jewish people since the Holocaust, she charged Israel with wrongly making a big deal of it. She told her global audience that “anything” that happened on October 7—which would include using the genitals of Jews for target practice and shooting Jews in the head while being gang-raped—was “weaponized” by Jews.

At the same press conference, Albanese was also asked about reports that the “Israeli occupation army raped Palestinian women.… Do you have any evidence about this?” She responded: “We have also denounced it publicly because it was of serious concern among other crimes being committed against the Palestinians.”258

The inversion worked. Patten was sidelined. Hamas won.

In April 2024, UN Secretary-General Guterres released his report for the calendar year of 2023 on “Conflict-Related Sexual Violence.”259 In the narrative portion, the Secretary-General gave equal billing to accusations of sexual violence by Israelis alongside Patten’s report,260 and “recommended” Israel grant access to UN bodies like Pillay’s inquiry to conduct “fully-fledged investigation” of all “alleged” sexual violence.261 The centerpiece of the annual report is a specific list of states and non-state actors or terrorist organizations, a “[l]ist of parties credibly suspected of committing or being responsible for patterns of rape or other forms of sexual violence in situations of armed conflict on the agenda of the Security Council.” Guterres refused to put Hamas on the list, or any other Palestinian rapist or violent sexual degenerate.

By comparison, the Secretary-General’s list does include: “Da’esh” (ISIS) for sexual violence “against 11 girls, three of whom were abducted in 2014 and rescued in 2023. The remaining eight cases had occurred in previous years.” And it includes Myanmar for “United Nations verified cases of sexual violence against two girls and one boy.… Three women were abducted and later found dead with [signs of]…sexual violence.”262

There is no explanation other than #MeToo_Unless_Ur_A_Jew.

12. The View from Hamas

There is no accountability for killing Jews at the United Nations, which means only one thing: more dead Jews. Such a reality is in lockstep with Hamas. The Palestinian terrorists–UN symbiosis is no secret; it is openly flaunted.

Here’s mass murderer, Hamas political leader, and U.S. Specially Designated Global Terrorist Ismail Haniyeh on December 13, 2023, singing the praises of the Secretary-General and the General Assembly:

“We also express our appreciation for the positions of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, especially his message to the Security Council concerning the situation in the Palestinian territories, regarding it as a threat to international peace and security, in implementation of Article 99 of the United Nations Charter.… We also welcome the resolution issued by the United Nations General Assembly yesterday, which stipulates a ceasefire by an overwhelming majority. We are certain that the brutal aggression will end and the resistance will remain a faithful guardian of the rights and legitimate aspirations of our people.”263

Here’s the enthusiastic response of butchers, rapists, and sadists to the actions of the UN Security Council on March 25, 2024:

“In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. The Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas welcomes today’s call by the UN Security Council for an immediate ceasefire.… Hamas appreciates the efforts of our brothers in Algeria and all countries in the Security Council that have supported and continue to support our people, and work to stop the aggression and the zionist (sic) genocide war.264

All is not right with the world when the Islamic Resistance Movement—a terrorist organization—is a fan of a world body theoretically dedicated to world peace and human dignity.

13. The UN’s Israel-Bashing Tactical Campaign

a. Rely on Hamas for Statistics and Facts

UN officials set the stage for unquestioned reliance on Hamas “statistics.” Fully aware that Palestinian terrorists seek to inflate casualty numbers and have been repeatedly caught doing so,265 and knowing the major impact these figures have on public opinion, the United Nations has regurgitated the information from Hamas-controlled sources. If accuracy were the UN goal, solid reasons for challenging Hamas’s numbers abound.266 In early April 2024, even Hamas announced the data necessary to identify over 11,000 people was “incomplete.”267 In early May, the UN quietly altered its reports to halve the number of women and children killed, without explanation.268 And still, the UN serves as a global echo chamber for Hamas.

General Assembly President Dennis Francis, February 29, 2024269

“Tragically, over 30,000 civilians have been killed in this current phase of conflict. How many more lives before this spree of indiscriminate killings ends?”

Apparently, for the president of the General Assembly, all armed violent Palestinians are a fiction of Israel’s imagination.

The United Nations’ World Court repeated the slander:

“While figures relating to the Gaza Strip cannot be independently verified, recent information indicates that 25,700 Palestinians have been killed.… (see United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel—reported impact, Day 109” (24 Jan. 2024)).”270

The UN Court made no effort whatsoever to disaggregate combatants from civilians, or even to point out that the number killed would include both. It mouthed a caveat about verification and yet repeated the unverified, obviously highly prejudicial numbers anyway. It identified the “source” as OCHA, which is completely misleading since reverting to OCHA is simply another direction to move on to the actual source—in OCHA’s words: “Source: MoH Gaza.”271 The Ministry of Health (MoH) is a euphemism for Hamas—a party to the conflict with a record of lying about numbers and a vested interest in doing so. OCHA itself is at pains to take zero responsibility for the numbers, adding a “Disclaimer” that says:

“Disclaimer: The UN has so far not been able to produce independent, comprehensive, and verified casualty figures; the current numbers have been provided by the Ministry of Health or Government Media Office in Gaza and the Israeli authorities and await further verification. Other yet-to-be verified figures are also sourced.”272

To repeat: “not” verified casualty figures, “cannot be independently verified,” “await further verification,” “yet-to-be verified,” but fine to regurgitate—without even identifying the source as Hamas—by a so-called court of law as a key component of its analysis of the genocide accusation. The spectacle made a mockery of the rule of law.

From the start, the United Nations instituted a pattern of continuously announcing alleged numbers of dead and injured in Gaza without disaggregating casualties into terrorists and civilians. They have done so fully aware that killing the armed combatants of the enemy during a time of war is not illegal. Pretending they are all civilians or bemoaning the death of mass murderers doesn’t make it fact or law or right.

b. Rewrite the Rules of International Law for a Party of One—Israel

UN sources have continually misrepresented international law, claiming that any civilian casualty is a war crime. In fact, the rules prohibit targeting civilians, and they recognize that within limits, civilian collateral damage or indirect harm is an unfortunate, but legal, cost.

UN sources pretend determining proportionality is about numbers. If the numbers of dead are troubling, which they are, it must be an Israeli war crime. If the numbers of Palestinian dead are high by comparison to the numbers of Israeli dead, it must be an Israeli war crime. This kind of analysis is false, it isn’t law, it’s propaganda.

First, we don’t know the numbers of civilian deaths because we do know that Hamas lies about those numbers.273

Second, the laws of war do not prohibit any civilian casualties. They require proportionality—a principle that forbids attacks directed at legitimate military targets in which the expected civilian casualties will be excessive in relation to the anticipated military advantage gained.

Third, assessing the lawfulness of attacks is not a matter of hindsight. It depends on what was objectively reasonable based on the information available to the decision-maker at the time, not after-the-fact. The law does not require perfect accuracy in targeting. It requires that sufficient steps be taken to satisfy the proportionality analysis. The Hamas–UN legal team have no clue what was known to the reasonable decision-maker in the IDF at the time of IDF strikes, and they don’t care. They also don’t care about the steps taken by, and the involvement of, IDF lawyers in the targeting process. UN agents declare—immediately—that Israel’s actions are illegal without any of the requisite knowledge or analysis.

Fourth, killing combatants is not a crime. Proportionality has no application to combatants or military objectives. On the contrary, losses inflicted on enemy combatants and military objectives may be far greater than the losses experienced by the other warring party. This is why UN “experts”—together with Hamas’s oxymoronic “Ministry of Health”—go to such lengths to pretend there are no Palestinian combatants, or claim Palestinians are all simply “resisting,” or are not engaged in terrorism because killing Israelis/“occupiers” is not terror.274 These are legal-sounding contortions but they are not law.

Fifth, every time Israel has tried to get Palestinian civilians out of harm’s way, to prevent their use as human shields, UN actors have intervened to keep them in danger. We are quite literally witnessing the deadliest UN crime in history.

  1. UN officials have claimed that warning the population to move—warnings or precautionary measures consistent with international law, to prevent civilians from being used as human shields (a use of human beings inconsistent with international law)—is criminal on Israel’s part. For instance, they condemned Israel’s efforts to protect Palestinian civilians as “forcible population transfers,” “collective punishment,” a “crime against humanity,” “a death sentence,” a “noose around the civilian population.”275 UN actors quoted “the Palestinian Ministry of Health”—aka Hamas—as saying evacuation was “impossible” from places like al-Shifa Hospital, where Hamas itself was holed up276 and hiding some of the Israeli kidnapped.277

  2. The UN has actively inhibited and refused to help Palestinian civilians trying to get out of harm’s way.278 Multiple UN agencies issued a joint statement declaring: “We will not participate in the establishment of any ‘safe zone’ in Gaza that is set up without the agreement of all the parties”279—giving the party engaged in the practice of human shielding a veto over whether or not to prevent the practice of human shielding.

  3. The UN has objected to temporarily moving Palestinian civilians to safety in the neighboring state of Egypt or in other states that have offered refuge—keeping them instead as pawns to prevent Israel from defeating Hamas. UN actors continually object in the name of “forced” displacement, which would be news to the masses longing to get out but denied entry into Egypt, or the ability to depart for anywhere else.280

In 2012, the UN General Assembly gave the so-called “State of Palestine” non-member observer state status.281 The so-called state proceeded to ratify human rights treaties, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.282 The Secretary-General accepted this alleged ratification. And the treaty says: “Everyone shall be free to leave any country, including his own.”

Furthermore, international law says people have a right to seek asylum. And professional Israel-bashers like Amnesty International repeatedly demand that “Governments Welcome Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Migrants.”283 But the international lawyers and activists aren’t jumping up and down demanding Egypt or another state in the region or elsewhere do any welcoming, however temporary (while Israel removes the combatants permanently).

Instead, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees has been running a global campaign—in clear violation of the 1951 Refugee Convention—to prevent Palestinian civilians from fleeing or seeking refuge from the monsters in their communities who are using them as human shields.284

Hamas’s use of the Palestinian civilian population of Gaza as its human shield is both a war crime, and a win for Hamas precisely because of the United Nations’ falsification of legal standards and its active facilitation of human shielding.

And then there’s Navi Pillay and her go-to strategy of fabricating the facts and the law. Pillay spoke to an African news station in February 2024, shortly after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered provisional measures under the Genocide Convention in a case initiated by South Africa against Israel.

Independent Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, Navi Pillay, February 2, 2024285

“The highest judicial organ of the United Nations, has ruled decisively on the matter finding genocidal intent.” Pillay called it “a profound ruling.”

The misrepresentation of the outcome of the case by partisan actors was so serious that the presiding judge at the time, Joan Donoghue, took the unusual step of correcting the record for the media. After she retired, Donoghue told the BBC in April:

The Court decided that the Palestinians had a plausible right to be protected from genocide and that South Africa had the right to present that claim in the Court. It then looked at the facts as well, but it did not decide—and this is something where I’m correcting what’s often said in the media—it didn’t decide that the claim of genocide was plausible.… The short-hand that often appears, that there is a plausible case of genocide, isn’t what the Court decided.286

c. Keep Israeli Suffering out of the Equation

From the start, UN players set up a numbers game for victims that counted Palestinians and not Israelis. On the UN scale, there are millions of Palestinians in Gaza negatively impacted by Israel and small numbers of Israelis harmed by comparison. The 1,200 Israelis butchered almost one by one and at point-blank range in a single day were a mere blip. In this sickening hierarchy, the United Nations both ignores Hamas’s responsibility for the negative consequences of its actions for the Palestinian civilian population, and the massive effect of the unprecedented butchery on Israelis.

The United Nations took no account of the three to four million Israelis forced in and out of bomb shelters for days—repeated when rocket attacks recur; the tens of thousands internally displaced month after month; the one-third of the country’s agricultural land deserted or decomposing with farming communities reduced to ghost towns; the schools closed and the education system radically disrupted by attacks, closures, displacement, and military service; the parents unable to go to work; the businesses devastated; the cuts in airline services. Of no interest to the UN are the hundreds of thousands of people required to upend their lives—and the millions of immediate family members directly affected—who risk mortal danger to serve in the armed forces as a matter of life and death for their communities. Across the board came the failure of the UN to recognize and acknowledge the colossal human resources, both tangible and intangible, physical and mental, required from a society that is forced to wage war to survive. All of it counts for nothing in the UN scale of human suffering.

Keeping Israeli suffering out of the equation has had grave consequences. From day one “humanitarian aid” was a concept the UN applied only to non-Israelis. Not to the millions of Jews under rocket fire, not the Jews grappling with the trauma of October 7 and the fate of the kidnapped, not the Jews internally displaced in the hundreds of thousands, not the orphans whose parents had been butchered, not the families without fathers or mothers because in the hundreds of thousands they must defend their loved ones on the front lines. Humanitarianism was immediately appropriated to refer only to Palestinians, and to exclude the Jewish segment of humanity.

Also never counted in UN “statistics” is the suffering of millions of Israelis and Jews around the world, today’s remnant of the Jewish people still traumatized by the Holocaust. Their pain comes both from the events of October 7 themselves, the knowledge of the ongoing sexual brutality and starvation perpetrated on the hostages, and from the enormous stress and fear of the sacrifices being made by Israel’s civilian army fighting an enemy without a shred of human decency.

None of it—the fundamental denial of the Jewish people’s right of self-determination— matters for the UN calculus.287

d. Flip the Script: Invert Victim and Perpetrator

i. Inversion, fast and furious

UN officials immediately flipped the script from Israelis to Palestinians, with “humanitarianism” consisting of aid to Palestinians.

UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland, October 8, 2023288

Priority now is to avoid further loss of civilian life & deliver much needed humanitarian aid to the Strip.”

Israel was still preventing more dead in ongoing warfare on the ground inside Israel, under rocket attack on civilian centers, still counting the bodies, and the world was learning of appalling atrocities against Jews in the 21st century. And the UN “priority” is humanitarian aid to non-Jews, specifically to those in places where the people in charge are committing the atrocities—the very people who sickeningly calculate that any collateral damage suffered by their own people, when Israel attempts to protect itself, is a win-win. This calculus includes the very predictability of the UN response.

It was only October 12, and the United Nations couldn’t tell the difference between the attacked and the attacker, a kidnapped baby and a convicted murderer—when the first was Jewish and the second Palestinian.

UN “human rights experts” appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, October 12, 2023289

“UN independent experts today unequivocally condemned targeted and deadly violence directed at civilians in Israel and violent and indiscriminate attacks against Palestinian civilians in Gaza…. The experts urged…the release of hostages taken by Hamas and Palestinians arbitrarily detained by Israel.”

Since Hamas atrocities were something of a hard sell, in the post–October 7 world the United Nations took its pattern of inverting Israeli victim and Palestinian perpetrator to new heights of obscenity. As discussed above, UN “human rights experts” switched out Palestinian crimes ranging from sexual violence to kidnapping to summary executions for forged Israeli crimes of the same ilk.

And then there is the profound inversion of the charge of genocide. Genocide, a word coined and defined by a Jew who survived the Holocaust290 to describe the annihilation of Jews by the Nazis, carved into an international crime because of that Jew, is now used to justify the very crimes against Jews it was intended to prevent. A word and a principle and a law are appropriated by antisemites to engage in antisemitism. This upheaval of good and evil is driven by the United Nations without shame, conscience, or remorse.

ii. The Non-Racist Racist

The charge of Israeli racism—manufactured in the face of overt Arab and Muslim antisemitism—has been a UN ploy for more than half a century, and it includes the General Assembly “Zionism is racism” resolution in 1975, the Durban Declaration of 2001 (repeatedly reaffirmed), the “apartheid” label from multiple UN actors, and the latest genocide charge. The lingo of the hour is that Israelis “dehumanize” Palestinians—and not the other way around.

On the one hand, Palestinian Authority president and Holocaust denier291 Mahmoud Abbas292 is a man with a very long history of overt antisemitism in his writing and his statements, recorded and televised. Jews “have no right to defile the al-Aqsa Mosque with their filthy feet”;293 Israel has committed “50 holocausts” against Palestinians;294 Jews were not persecuted by the Nazis because they were Jews, but because of their “function in society which had to do with usury”;295 “rabbis in Israel made a clear declaration demanding that their government poison the water in order to kill the Palestinians.”296

Rival Palestinian factions have this much in common: antisemitism. Hamas’s voluminous record of antisemitism, its roots, its Covenant, its political fanaticism, its religious extremism, and the outpouring of hate speech from its leaders and clerics over the years have all been documented for decades.297 Hamas’s guiding instruments say: “The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him salvation, has said: ‘The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews).’”298 And “Palestine is a land that was seized by a racist, anti-human and colonial Zionist project.… The establishment of ‘Israel’ is entirely illegal and contravenes…the will of the Ummah.”299 Hamas officials periodically refer to Jews as the “brothers of apes and pigs.”300

And yet, in what might be called “UNsplaining,” October 7 has never been identified or condemned by the United Nations as antisemitism, as a manifestation of quintessential dehumanization of Jews by Palestinians,301 including Palestinian leaders at the highest levels—from the Palestinian Authority “President” to Hamas’s founding Charter. It has never been done because to the UN masters of inversion, diversion, projection, and deception, the dehumanizers are the Jews. It isn’t logic. It’s racism.

iii. Jews Are Nazis

The ultimate antisemitic inversion is that the victims of the Nazis are Nazis. Drawing an analogy between Israelis and Nazis has been a fixture of the abominable antisemitism, for instance, of UN “human rights expert” Francesca Albanese.302 Only a week after October 7, the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust, she said this about alleged Israeli crimes against Palestinians:

UN Special Rapporteur for the Situation of Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese, October 15, 2023303

“[A]trocity crimes must not only be punished but also prevented. The only possible meaning of ‘never again’ is simply this: never again, for any human being.”

Having started her own chain of atrocities, she has never stopped.

UN Special Rapporteur for the Situation of Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese, December 4, 2023304

“Fellow Europeans, Italians, Germans: after the Holocaust, we should instinctively know that Genocide starts with dehumanizing the Other. If Israels current attack against Palestinians doesn’t prompt our strong reaction, the darkest page of our recent history has taught us nothing.”

UN Special Rapporteur for the Situation of Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese, December 22, 2023305

“Israel’s apartheid and its attempt to exterminate Palestinians in Gaza.”

UN Special Rapporteur for the Situation of Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese, January 8, 2024306

“What happened in the Holocaust, and the persecution of the Jewish people in Europe, and the genocide that happened, must not be repeated by Israel against others.… What I am seeing today reminds me of that tragic experience.… What we need to understand is that this is similar to what happened in the Holocaust.”

UN Special Rapporteur for the Situation of Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese, March 27, 2024307

“In the case of Gaza, there exists a chilling clarity of this purpose, the systematic eradication of an entire people or at least a significant part thereof.”

“An Israeli state policy of genocidal violence toward the Palestinian people in Gaza.”308

This ultimate inversion tactic of analogizing Jews to Nazis has also been invoked by Nazi protégés, apologists, and wannabees in the name of Palestinians before October 7. Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, speaking at the General Assembly five months before October 7, said: “The false Zionist and Israeli claims continue.… They cannot avoid lying, but what can they do? They lie and lie. Like Goebbels [said]: ‘Lie and lie, until people believe it.’”309

In other words, Goebbels, the master liar, claims Jews are liars—as part of the Nazi plan for mass slaughter of Jews. Now Palestinian terrorists and their UN partners channel Goebbels. Liars lie; that’s what they do.

14. Conclusion

This is but a snapshot of the unprecedented amount of vitriol demonizing the State of Israel that has poured forth from the United Nations since October 7. The UN—states and staff—stepped in to match the ferocity and velocity of the crimes committed on the ground by Palestinian terrorists. It made no difference what Israel did afterward, short of self-immolation. The system of legal-sounding gibberish and political wheeler-dealers was already in place, locked and loaded.

Prior to October 7, the General Assembly had already sent a case to the International Court of Justice bent on instituting a global network of boycotts, divestment, and sanctions. The International Criminal Court was in constant contact with Navi Pillay’s “Inquiry,” had already opened an investigation targeting Israelis, and had been readying itself to start prosecuting—more precisely, persecuting Jews—which it has now done.310 The UN “Human Rights” Council had already launched global witch hunts for companies doing business with Israel in the form of published blacklists. There was no hope of the Security Council condemning Hamas or any other Palestinian terrorist group or individual no matter what they did—a Russian and Chinese veto would see to that. The UN Racial Discrimination Committee, with members notorious for their bias and anti-Israel associations, was poised to find Israel guilty of the racist crime of apartheid. Pillay’s Commission of Inquiry was churning out volumes of hate speech, unperturbed by their members having been caught red-handed spewing antisemitism. And UN special rapporteurs like Francesca Albanese were already engaged in an antisemitic social media blitzkrieg. The list goes on.

The only difference between October 8 and October 7 was that some hoped just maybe it would be a wake-up call; good people everywhere might recognize that October 7 was the natural progression of the demonization of the Jewish state and part company with the agenda already in motion at the United Nations. UN players and their Palestinian partners knew that, and that their years of planning and scheming to turn back the clock to 1947 were at risk. Hence the intensity of the reaction and the groundswell of aggression manufactured from so many quarters. And here we are. Jews are still in captivity, tortured, raped, and starved. BDS is on steroids. The criminalization of Jewish self-defense and Jewish self-determination is underway. And the United Nations is firmly on the side of evil.

* * *

Notes

* I wish to acknowledge the superlative research of Sarah Willig, JD, in producing this chapter.

** The chapter is current as of April 10, 2024.

  1. “Comment by UN Human Rights Chief on unfolding situation in Israel and Gaza,” October 7, 2023, 6:51 a.m. EST, https://www.ohchr.org/en/statements/2023/10/comment-un-human-rights-chief-unfolding-situation-israel-and-gaza↩︎

  2. Twitter account of UN General Assembly President @UN_PGA, October 7, 2023, 9:48 a.m., https://twitter.com/UN_PGA/status/1710653291611218143↩︎

  3. “The Gaza Strip: Number of displaced people over 70,000 in UNRWA shelters, UNRWA school sheltering displaced families receives a direct hit,” October 8, 2023, 1:46 p.m., https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/news-releases/gaza-strip-number-displaced-people-over-70000-unrwa-shelters.↩︎

  4. Journal of the United Nations, October 8, 2023, 3:00 p.m., https://journal.un.org/en/new-york/meeting/officials/f40083bf-fc9a-4140-42e5-08dbc75f10fd/2023-10-08↩︎

  5. Palestinian representative Riyad Mansour, Security Council Media Stakeout, October 8, 2023, United Nations, New York, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf7FThPVZ70↩︎

  6. UN Security Council resolution S/RES/2712 (2023), adopted November 15, 2023, (12 in favor (Albania, Brazil, China, Ecuador, France, Gabon, Ghana, Japan, Malta, Mozambique, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates), 0 against, and 3 abstentions (Russian Federation, United Kingdom, United States); UN Security Council resolution S/RES/2720 (2023), adopted December 22, 2023 (13 in favor (Albania, Brazil, China, Ecuador, France, Gabon, Ghana, Japan, Malta, Mozambique, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom), 0 against, 2 abstentions (Russian Federation, United States); UN Security Council resolution S/RES/2728 (2024), adopted March 25, 2024 (14 in favor (Algeria, China, Ecuador, France, Guyana, Japan, Malta, Mozambique, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, Switzerland, United Kingdom), with 1 abstention (United States).↩︎

  7. The operative part of the American-led resolution did not “condemn” Hamas. Only the preamble mentioned “condemning all acts of terrorism, including the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023.” There’s no doubt that the resolution could have done so—since the operative part contained “condemnation in the strongest terms of the attacks carried out by the Houthis on vessels in the Red Sea and its demand that they cease immediately.” So. when it came to commerce, no problem; Israeli lives didn’t carry the same weight. Furthermore, the American-led resolution did not state that Hamas is a terrorist organization. On the contrary, it explicitly refused to do so. In its “operative” portion, as opposed to the less weighty and less important preamble, the resolution referred only to “Hamas and other armed groups.” Its preamble referred to “Hamas and other terrorist and armed extremist groups.” The maneuver was intended to avoid any UN statement that Hamas is a terrorist group—which we know without a doubt because previous drafts of the US resolution said “Hamas and other terrorist groups.” Draft resolution/United States of America [on ceasefire in the Gaza Strip], S/2024/239, March 22, 2024, https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/4042000/files/S_2024_239-EN.pdf?ln=en↩︎

  8. “Explanation of Vote by Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield on a Malta-Drafted UN Security Council Resolution on the Situation in the Middle East,” United States Mission to the United Nations, November 15, 2023, https://usun.usmission.gov/explanation-of-vote-by-ambassador-linda-thomas-greenfield-on-a-malta-drafted-un-security-council-resolution-on-the-situation-in-the-middle-east/↩︎

  9. S/RES/2728 (2024), March 25, 2024; S/RES/2720 (2023), December 22, 2023; S/RES/2712 (2023), November 15, 2023.↩︎

  10. The death of seven team members of the aid workers from the World Central Kitchen was admitted by Israel, which launched an immediate investigation and meted out harsh consequences for those responsible for the accident. See below.↩︎

  11. “Press Statement on Humanitarian Workers and Threat of Famine in Gaza,” SC/15658, April 11, 2024,

    https://press.un.org/en/2024/sc15658.doc.htm↩︎

  12. Her term has since ended.↩︎

  13. “Hybrid Press Briefing by The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel,” October 25, 2023, https://media.un.org/en/asset/k1m/k1m9kirxe4↩︎

  14. “Joint briefing of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel and the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967,” Friday, November 10, 2023, https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/coiopt/statements/20231010-Briefing_MSs_Geneva_COIOPTEJI.pdf↩︎

  15. “Human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the obligation to ensure accountability and justice,” UN Human Rights Council resolution A/HRC/RES/55/28, April 5, 2024. The vote was 28 in favor (Algeria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Burundi, Chile, China, Cote d’Ivoire, Cuba, Eritrea, Finland, Gambia, Ghana, Honduras, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Maldives, Morocco, Paraguay, Qatar, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam), 6 against (Argentina, Bulgaria, Germany, Malawi, Paraguay, United States), and 13 abstentions (Albania, Benin, Cameroon, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, France, Georgia, India, Japan, Lithuania, Montenegro, Netherlands, Romania). The penultimate draft version (“Human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the obligation to ensure accountability and justice,” UN Human Rights Council resolution A/HRC/RES/55/28, (A/HRC/55/L.30 as orally revised), https://undocs.org/A/HRC/RES/55/28; March 26, 2024) said “Israel, as the occupying Power, may not invoke the right to self-defense under Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations against territory that it occupies” (emphasis added).↩︎

  16. Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice, July 9, 2004, https://www.icj-cij.org/case/131/advisory-opinions:

    Article 51 of the Charter thus recognizes the existence of an inherent right of self-defense in the case of armed attack by one State against another State. However, Israel does not claim that the attacks against it are imputable to a foreign State. The Court also notes that Israel exercises control in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and that, as Israel itself states, the threat which it regards as justifying the construction of the wall originates within, and not outside, that territory.… Consequently, the Court concludes that Article 51 of the Charter has no relevance in this case. (para. 139).

    ↩︎

  17. Emphasis added.↩︎

  18. Cameroon.↩︎

  19. Albania, Benin, and Cameroon abstained.↩︎

  20. It also included the shameful spectacle of Belgium, Finland, and Luxembourg siding with the gang of human rights lowlifes.↩︎

  21. Among other things, the Human Rights Council resolution also contains these abominations:

    Specifies “terror attacks” committed by Israelis (allegedly) and no terror attacks by Hamas, including the terror attacks of October 7

    Equates the brutally abducted, sexually assaulted, fate-unknown kidnap victims in Gaza with legally detained prisoners in Israel (who include October 7 perpetrators themselves)

    Claims falsely that Israel targets protected persons, and never says Hamas targets protected persons starting with October 7 itself

    Expresses “deep concern” about the conditions of Palestinian prisoners in Israel, and no concern about the conditions of the hostages

    Paints Israel as officially inciting genocide (untrue) and totally ignores official, public, recurrent, and recent Palestinian incitement to genocide

    “Human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the obligation to ensure accountability and justice,” UN Human Rights Council resolution A/HRC/RES/55/28, April 5, 2024, https://undocs.org/A/HRC/RES/55/28↩︎

  22. “Human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the obligation to ensure accountability and justice,” UN Human Rights Council resolution A/HRC/RES/55/28, April 5, 2024, https://undocs.org/A/HRC/RES/55/28↩︎

  23. See, for instance: “Sanction Apartheid Israel,” June 18, 2020, available at https://hrvoices.org/assets/attachments/articles/Global_South_Statement_FINAL.pdf signatories: June 18, 2020, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kgt6PK7sNH5ecokc7yCG4bcBUyOz4–2/view; see also: “42. Requests the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel to report on both the direct and indirect transfer or sale of arms, munitions, parts, components and dual use items to Israel, the occupying Power, including those that have been used during the Israeli military operation in Gaza since 7 October 2023, and to analyze the legal consequences of these transfers, applying international humanitarian law, customary international law related to State responsibility and the Arms Trade Treaty, where applicable, and to present its report to the Human Rights Council at its fifty-ninth session”; “Human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the obligation to ensure accountability and justice,” UN Human Rights Council resolution A/HRC/RES/55/28, April 5, 2024, https://undocs.org/A/HRC/RES/55/28

    43. Requests the Secretary-General, in view of the unprecedent magnitude of crimes and violations, to ensure the availability of all additional resources, including through voluntary resources, necessary to enable the Commission of Inquiry to carry out its mandate, in particular investigative and outreach expertise, and in the areas of legal analysis and evidence-collection”; “Human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the obligation to ensure accountability and justice,” Resolution of the UN Human Rights Council, A/HRC/RES/55/28, April 5, 2024, https://undocs.org/A/HRC/RES/55/28↩︎

  24. “UN experts deplore extraterritorial use of lethal drones to conduct killings in countering terrorism,” January 9, 2024, Press Release, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/01/israel-and-lebanon-un-experts-deplore-extraterritorial-use-lethal-drones↩︎

  25. “with the Israeli action, or reaction, to the Hamas attack…we are concluding that this is indiscriminate attacks against civilians.…This cannot be equated with self-defense. It amounts to collective punishment.” “Navi Pillay Talks to Al Jazeera,” October 30, 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz1th-a_2M4&t=5s↩︎

  26. “Profile of Saleh al-Arouri, a Senior Hamas Terrorist,” Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, November 4, 2023, https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/en/profile-of-saleh-al-arouri-a-senior-hamas-terrorist/↩︎

  27. “UN experts condemned Israel’s alleged killings of Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri and six others last week in Lebanon, which would amount to extrajudicial killings.… Israel was not exercising self-defense because it presented no evidence that the victims were committing an armed attack on Israel from Lebanese territory.” “UN experts deplore extraterritorial use of lethal drones to conduct killings in countering terrorism,” January 9, 2024, Press Release, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/01/israel-and-lebanon-un-experts-deplore-extraterritorial-use-lethal-drones↩︎

  28. “‘Such egregious violations cannot be justified in the name of self-defense after attacks by Hamas

    on 7 October’…Israel remains the occupying power in the occupied Palestinian territory, which also includes the Gaza Strip, and therefore cannot wage a war against the population under its belligerent occupation’”; “UN experts call on international community to prevent genocide against the Palestinian people,” November 16, 2023, Press Release, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/11/gaza-un-experts-call-international-community-prevent-genocide-against↩︎

  29. The reach of the United Nations’ BDS campaign against Israel extends far beyond an arms embargo. UN BDS activities have been in motion for years, and are intended to expand under cover of recent events. For instance, see: “all Member States can and must use their leverage to prevent and stop violations of international humanitarian law—through diplomatic and economic pressure, conditioning arms exports on compliance with the rules of war, and cooperation in combating impunity.” “OCHA tells Security Council the six-month devastating war in Gaza must end,” Briefing to the Security Council on the humanitarian situation in Gaza, by Ramesh Rajasingham Director Coordination Division, OCHA, on behalf of Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, April 5, 2024, https://www.unocha.org/news/ocha-tells-security-council-six-month-devastating-war-gaza-must-end↩︎

  30. UN Special Rapporteur for the Situation of Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese, Twitter account @FranceskAlbs, October 7, 2023, https://twitter.com/FranceskAlbs/status/1710652724147065023↩︎

  31. “Application and Biography of Francesca Albanese for the position of Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967,” November 23, 2021, OHCHR website https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/2021-12/ALBANESE_Francesca_form.pdf↩︎

  32. “Question of the violation of human rights in the occupied Arab territories, including Palestine,” Commission on Human Rights resolution 1993/2, E/CN.4/RES/1993/2 (A+B), February 19, 1993; “The Special Rapporteur firmly condemns the crimes committed by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups in Israel on 7 October.… This report does not examine those events, as they are beyond the geographic scope of her mandate.” “Anatomy of a Genocide,” Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese, UN Human Rights Council 55th session, A/HRC/55/73, para. 2, March 25, 2024, https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/sessions-regular/session55/advance-versions/a-hrc-55-73-auv.pdf↩︎

  33. “Secretary-General’s remarks to the press on the situation in the Middle East,” October 9, 2023, https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/speeches/2023-10-09/secretary-generals-remarks-the-press-the-situation-the-middle-east↩︎

  34. The Secretary-General spoke at 12:30 pm ET. UN Web TV Live Schedule, October 9, 2023, https://webtv.un.org/en/schedule/2023-10-09; Hamas threat reported by The Times of Israel at 1:17pm ET (8:17 pm local time). “Hamas threatens to begin executing hostages in response to strikes,” The Times of Israel, October 9, 2023, https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/hamas-threatens-to-begin-executing-hostages-in-response-to-strikes/↩︎

  35. “Secretary-General’s remarks to the Security Council—on the Middle East,” October 24, 2023, https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/speeches/2023-10-24/secretary-generals-remarks-the-security-council-the-middle-east%C2%A0↩︎

  36. “UN expert urges immediate ceasefire and humanitarian access as Gaza health sector reaches ‘breaking point,’” UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health Tlaleng Mofokeng, October 17, 2023, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/10/un-expert-urges-immediate-ceasefire-and-humanitarian-access-gaza-health↩︎

  37. “Navi Pillay Talks to Al Jazeera,” October 30, 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz1th-a_2M4&t=5s↩︎

  38. “Statement by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Israel and the Occupied

    Palestinian Territory,” November 10, 2023, https://www.ohchr.org/en/statements-and-speeches/2023/11/opening-remarks-un-high-commissioner-human-rights-volker-turk↩︎

  39. “Joint briefing of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel and the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967,” Friday, November 10, 2023, https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/coiopt/statements/20231010-Briefing_MSs_Geneva_COIOPTEJI.pdf↩︎

  40. “UN experts call on international community to prevent genocide against the Palestinian people,” November 16, 2023, Media Center, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/11/gaza-un-experts-call-international-community-prevent-genocide-against↩︎

  41. “Declaring Israel’s occupation of Palestine unlawful is legitimate—Judge Navi Pillay,” Newzroom Afrika, February 2, 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOt-IoLW4Ic.↩︎

  42. Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese, para. 956, A/HRC/55/73, March 26, 2024, https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/sessions-regular/session55/advance-versions/a-hrc-55-73-auv.pdf↩︎

  43. “The Woman in the Hamas Video Is My Daughter,”—Naama Levy, 19—The Free Press, December 8, 2023, https://www.thefp.com/p/the-woman-in-the-hamas-video-is-my-daughter.↩︎

  44. “Rape and murder of a young girl from the music festival,” Special Announcement—The Hamas Atrocities Documentation Center (HADC), Video No. 16, Issue No. 2, posted October 16, 2023, MEMRI, https://www.memri.org/reports/special-announcement-%E2%80%93-hamas-atrocities-documentation-center-hadc↩︎

  45. https://twitter.com/FranceskAlbs/status/1712059782029328580, @FrancesAlbs, October 11, 2023.↩︎

  46. Reem Alsalem, UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and Girls, @UNSRVAW, October 11, 2023, https://twitter.com/UNSRVAW/status/1712076899046859059↩︎

  47. “Q&A: UNHCR team helps women in eastern Libya,” UNCHR website, July 6, 2011, https://www.unhcr.org/news/stories/qa-unhcr-team-helps-women-eastern-libya↩︎

  48. UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls Reem Alsalem, Report on Hazinor Channel 13 News, Israel, March 5, 2024, https://twitter.com/Bar_ShemUr/status/1764990599172694319↩︎

  49. She added this deliberately convoluted double negative that was not an affirmation that Palestinians had in fact raped Jews: “But this doesn’t mean that I believe that rape didn’t occur.” Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on Israel, Press Conference during the UN Human Rights Council session, March 27, 2024, https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k19/k199zd7ei5↩︎

  50. “Commission of Inquiry collecting evidence of war crimes committed by all sides in Israel and Occupied Palestinian Territories since 7 October 2023,” Press Release, OHCHR, October 10, 2023, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/10/commission-inquiry-collecting-evidence-war-crimes-committed-all-sides-israel↩︎

  51. “Secretary-General’s remarks to the press on the situation in the Middle East,” António Guterres, October 11, 2023, https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/speeches/2023-10-11/secretary-generals-remarks-the-press-the-situation-the-middle-east↩︎

  52. Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, October 10, 2023, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/10/un-human-rights-chief-urges-states-defuse-powder-keg-situation-israel-and↩︎

  53. The High Commissioner has continued the ruse. See, for instance: “UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk today strongly deplored the sharp rise in hatred globally—including anti-Semitism and Islamophobia—since 7 October, while at the same time expressing concerns about undue restrictions on protests over the conflict in Israel and Gaza, and related free expression. The High Commissioner said he was disgusted by the sharp rise in cases of anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and other hate-speech, both online and offline, since 7 October.” “UN Human Rights Chief condemns rise in hatred,” OHCHR Press Release, November 4, 2023, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/11/un-human-rights-chief-condemns-rise-hatred↩︎

  54. “Human Rights and other Civil Society Groups Urge United Nations to Respect Human Rights in the Fight Against Antisemitism,” Human Rights Watch website, April 20, 2023, https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/04/04/human-rights-and-other-civil-society-groups-urge-united-nations-respect-human↩︎

  55. “Working definition of antisemitism,” International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, https://holocaustremembrance.com/resources/working-definition-antisemitism↩︎

  56. “Letter Urging Inclusion of IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism in UN Action Plan,” Anti-Defamation League website, May 18, 2023, https://www.adl.org/resources/letter/letter-urging-inclusion-ihra-working-definition-antisemitism-un-action-plan↩︎

  57. IDF soldiers who were first on the scene relayed information to reporters: “October 10, 2023—Israel-Hamas war news,” CNN, October 11, 2023, https://www.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news/israel-hamas-war-gaza-10-10-23/h_acc9121c3e878d221f6e5ee32e74be80; I24NEWS English, October 10, 2024, “It’s not a war, it’s not a battlefield. It’s a massacre.” IDF Major General Itai Veruv, Kfar Aza, https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1711692051266273496; I24NEWS English, October 10, 2024, “‘…they cut heads of children, cut heads of women…,’” David Ben Zion, Deputy Commander of Unit 71 in Kfar Aza in southern Israel, https://twitter.com/i24NEWS_EN/status/1711781404344721828↩︎

  58. Atrocity documentation is readily available from a great many sources. Here are just some that have collected evidence on many of the crimes: “Sexual Violence Crimes on October 7,” The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel, February 2024, https://www.gov.il/BlobFolder/news/arcci-submits-first-report-to-un-21-feb-2024/en/English_Swords_of_Iron_DOCUMENTS_Sexual%20violence%20crimes%20on%20Ocober%207-Feb.%202024.pdf; “Oct. 7 2023, Hamas Massacre: Documentation of Crimes Against Humanity,” Government of the State of Israel, https://saturday-october-seven.com/; “What Happened on the 7th of October,” Israel National Digital Agency website, https://info710.com/october7/what-happened-on-the-7th-of-october/; “Eyewitness Stories From Inside the Massacre,” October7.org (a site created by Israeli volunteers of eyewitness testimonies), https://www.october7.org/about-october-7; “Hamas Massacre October 2023,” https://www.hamas-massacre.net/

    (shared by the official Israel X account on November 2, 2023, https://twitter.com/Israel/status/1720088273664811259); “Screams Before Silence: A documentary film on the sexual violence committed by Hamas on October 7, 2023,” Kastina Communications, https://www.screamsbeforesilence.com/; “Hamas Atrocities Documentation Center,” MEMRI, https://www.memri.org/reports/special-announcement-%E2%80%93-hamas-atrocities-documentation-center-hadc↩︎

  59. “LISTEN: ‘Your son killed 10 Jews,’ Hamas terrorist tells Gazan parents,” Jerusalem Post, October 24, 2023, https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-769989↩︎

  60. “le plus grand massacre antisémite de notre siècle” (original). “Hommage aux victimes de l’attaque du Hamas: ‘Le plus grand massacre antisémite de notre siècle,’ dénonce Emmanuel Macron,” February 7, 2024, https://www.publicsenat.fr/actualites/politique/hommage-aux-victimes-de-lattaque-du-hamas-le-plus-grand-massacre-antisemite-de-notre-siecle-denonce-emmanuel-macron↩︎

  61. Tweet by UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory Francesca Albanese, February 10, 2024, https://twitter.com/FranceskAlbs/status/1756351236909965591↩︎

  62. Tweet by UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory Francesca Albanese, February 10, 2024, (translation from French) https://twitter.com/FranceskAlbs/status/1756505201576436144↩︎

  63. “Israel’s symbolic ‘ban’ must not distract from atrocity crimes in Gaza: UN expert,” Press Release by UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory Francesca Albanese, OHCHR website, February 15, 2024, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/02/israels-symbolic-ban-must-not-distract-atrocity-crimes-gaza-un-expert. Albanese ridicules the antisemitism charge as possibly present for the odd isolated actor, and disputes the demonstrable reality that antisemitism was (and is) characteristic of Hamas and October 7 perpetrators: “while anti-Semitism could have played a role in the attacks at an individual level for some, their main determinants are to be found elsewhere.”↩︎

  64. “I am with those who see recent developments in Israeli politics as symptomatic of the sustained oppression that Israel has inflicted upon the Palestinians…” Tweet by Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur, Twitter account @FranceskAlbs, February 18, 2023, https://twitter.com/FranceskAlbs/status/1626983201007624195; “Since 1967, Israel has advanced its settler-colonial project.… Punishing their indigeneity and rejection of colonization, Israel construed Palestinians as a ‘security threat’ to justify their oppression,” Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese, A/HRC/55/73, para. 12, March 26, 2024, https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/sessions-regular/session55/advance-versions/a-hrc-55-73-auv.pdf↩︎

  65. “The intensity of suffering & the scope of destruction resulting from [emphasis added] 13 days of Israel’s relentless bombing are unprecedented & unimaginable. Palestinians & Israeli/int’l hostages are all at great risk.” Tweet by Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur, Twitter account @FranceskAlbs, October 20, 2023, https://twitter.com/FranceskAlbs/status/1715379297836277954,1/4; “UN experts demand safe passage for Freedom Flotilla’s humanitarian mission to Gaza,” April 26, 2024, https://www.ohchr.org/en/statements/2024/04/un-experts-demand-safe-passage-freedom-flotillas-humanitarian-mission-gaza; “…stories Palestinians and other witnesses relay add [] new depths to atrocities the world has witnessed since the beginning of Israel’s assault [emphasis added] on Gaza over six months ago…no Palestinian is safe under Israel’s unfettered control,” “Testimonies from the Occupied Palestinian Territory show new depths of Israel’s atrocities: UN expert,” Press Release by Francesca Albanese, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, April 25, 2024, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/04/testimonies-occupied-palestinian-territory-show-new-depths-israels↩︎

  66. “…Zionism. This movement saw Palestine as the land to realize a ‘State for the Jews’ through settlement and colonization. However, in that land a native Palestinian Arab population had resided for millennia. In 1947, the United Nations resolved to reconcile the separate claims to the land of the indigenous Palestinian people and the largely European Jewish settlers…,” Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese, September 21, 2022, A/77/356, para. 26, https://undocs.org/Home/Mobile?FinalSymbol=A%2F77%2F356&Language=E&DeviceType=Desktop&LangRequested=False; “Genocide is a dormant gene of settler-colonialism. Seeing ISR as the state born out of the Holocaust, some countries cant [sic] accept that it might commit atrocities, incl genocide. Acknowledging ISR’s settler-colonial origins would help remedy that false perception & move twd justice.” Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur, Twitter account @FranceskAlbs, January 26, 2024, https://twitter.com/FranceskAlbs/status/1750951992476717470.↩︎

  67. Here is just one example of a UN blood libel, signed by Albanese among others, which followed the pattern of taking wild unsubstantiated claims of Palestinian terrorists at face value—and then spreading them. “GENEVA (19 October 2023)—UN experts today expressed outrage against the deadly strike at Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, which killed more than 470 civilians on Tuesday (17) and trapped hundreds under the rubble. The strike reportedly followed two warnings issued by Israel that an attack on the hospital was imminent if people inside were not evacuated. ‘The strike against Al Ahli Arab Hospital is an atrocity.… We are sounding the alarm: There is an ongoing campaign by Israel resulting in crimes against humanity in Gaza.…’” Press Release, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, October 19, 2023, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/10/gaza-un-experts-decry-bombing-hospitals-and-schools-crimes-against-humanity; “UN experts decry bombing of hospitals and schools as crimes against humanity, call for prevention of genocide,” October 19, 2023; actually—“US assesses that Israel is ‘not responsible’ for Gaza hospital blast,” CNN report on US National Security Council report, October 18, 2023, https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/18/politics/us-intel-gaza-hospital-blast/index.html; “Between 100 and 300 believed killed in Gaza hospital blast, according to preliminary US intelligence assessment,” CNN report on intelligence assessment by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, October 19, 2023, https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/19/politics/us-intelligence-assessment-gaza-hospital-blast/index.html↩︎

  68. “We are particularly distressed by reports that Palestinian women and girls in detention have also been subjected to multiple forms of sexual assault.… At least two female Palestinian detainees were reportedly raped while others were reportedly threatened with rape and sexual violence,” “UN experts appalled by reported human rights violations against Palestinian women and girls” (Alsalem, Albanese, Estrada Tanck), Press Release, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, February 19, 2024, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/02/israelopt-un-experts-appalled-reported-human-rights-violations-against↩︎

  69. “Israel’s pernicious practices of killing and displacement from Gaza…Israeli policies spanning the occupied Palestinian territory are unquestionably endangering Palestinian existence on their land…the most likely implication—the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians”; “Testimonies from the Occupied Palestinian Territory show new depths of Israel’s atrocities: UN expert,” Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur, April 25, 2024, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/04/testimonies-occupied-palestinian-territory-show-new-depths-israels;“Colonialism is characterized as ‘settler’ when also driven by the logic of elimination of the indigenous character of the colonized land. This manifests in the establishment and promotion of colonies, namely, settlements of foreign people implanted among the indigenous population with the aim of subjugating and dispossessing the natives,” Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese, September 21, 2022, A/77/356, para. 13, https://undocs.org/Home/Mobile?FinalSymbol=A%2F77%2F356&Language=E&DeviceType=Desktop&LangRequested=False; “The detention of Salah Hammouri and the practices it entails are not ‘just’ unlawful, they are sadistic. This persecution, emblematic of Israel’s treatment of many Palestinians, must cease.” Tweet by Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur, Twitter account @FranceskAlbs, October 19, 2022, https://twitter.com/FranceskAlbs/status/1582772841396973568 (Salah Hammouri was deported to France, where he holds citizenship; Israel said he was a member of the terrorist organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Previously, he had been convicted in an alleged plot to kill a prominent Israeli rabbi but was released from prison following a 2011 prisoner swap with Hamas.)↩︎

  70. “a web of national and international businesses operate in the illegally occupied Palestinian territory,” (para. 51), “Attacks on cultural objects of significance to eliminate all traces and expressions of Palestinian existence, and the incorporation of a revisionist view of history to assert (false) claims of sovereignty in the occupied Palestinian territory, demonstrate the occupier’s intention to permanently strip the land of its indigenous identity” (para. 55), Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese, A/77/356, September 21, 2022, https://undocs.org/Home/Mobile?FinalSymbol=A%2F77%2F356&Language=E&DeviceType=Desktop&LangRequested=False; “Knowing how Israel operates, my assessment is that Israeli forces intentionally killed #WCK [World Central Kitchen] workers so that donors would pull out & civilians in Gaza could continue to be starved quietly,” @FranceskAlbs, April 2, 2024, https://twitter.com/FranceskAlbs/status/1775243387043471706↩︎

  71. “With their status as protected persons deliberately denied, Palestinian children have been made vulnerable without redress,” Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese, A/78/545, para. 8, October 20, 2023, https://undocs.org/Home/Mobile?FinalSymbol=A%2F78%2F545&Language=E&DeviceType=Desktop&LangRequested=False↩︎

  72. After accusing Israel of a “crime against humanity,” Albanese says: “It has now taken it to a new level by terrorizing people through…induced disease,” Francesca Albanese, Twitter account @FranceskAlbs, January 2, 2024, https://twitter.com/FranceskAlbs/status/1742176687993823330; “knowingly and intentionally imposing a high rate of disease,” “Over one hundred days into the war, Israel destroying Gaza’s food system and weaponizing food, say UN human rights experts,” Press Release, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, January 16, 2024, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/01/over-one-hundred-days-war-israel-destroying-gazas-food-system-and↩︎

  73. “Israel’s genocide on the Palestinians in Gaza is an escalatory stage of a longstanding settler colonial process of erasure. For over seven decades this process has suffocated the Palestinian people as a group—demographically, culturally, economically and politically—, seeking to displace it and expropriate and control its land and resources,” Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese, para. 956, A/HRC/55/73, March 26, 2024, https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/sessions-regular/session55/advance-versions/a-hrc-55-73-auv.pdf; “The ‘de-development’ that Israel has imposed on the occupied Palestinian territory has irreparably harmed the Palestinian economy,” Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese, A/77/356, para. 52, September 21, 2022, https://undocs.org/Home/Mobile?FinalSymbol=A%2F77%2F356&Language=E&DeviceType=Desktop&LangRequested=False↩︎

  74. Open letter posted to the Facebook page of Francesca Albanese, July 31, 2014: “America and Europe, one of them subjugated by the Jewish lobby, and the other by the sense of guilt about the Holocaust, remain on the sidelines and continue to condemn the oppressed—the Palestinians—who defend themselves with the only means they have (deranged missiles), instead of making Israel face its international law responsibilities,” available at https://static.timesofisrael.com/www/uploads/2022/12/Screen-Shot-2022-12-07-at-12.28.55-PM.jpg?_gl=1*dvl9r9*_ga*ODE2NTAwNDIzLjE2Njk3MzA3NzA.*_ga_RJR2XWQR34*MTcxMjkyNzA0My45NDIuMS4xNzEyOTI4OTc1LjAuMC4w↩︎

  75. “Human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the obligation to ensure accountability and justice,” UN Human Rights Council resolution A/HRC/RES/55/28, April 5, 2024, para. 254.↩︎

  76. The full paragraph disingenuously reads the Council: “Reaffirms that criticism of violations of international law by Israel should not be conflated with antisemitism”; except that, actually, this was the first time the Council had affirmed this.↩︎

  77. @FranceskAlbs, April 2, 2024, https://twitter.com/FranceskAlbs/status/1775243387043471706↩︎

  78. The death of seven aid workers from the World Central Kitchen was promptly admitted by Israel, which launched an immediate investigation and imposed serious consequences on those responsible for the accident. “Statement by PM Netanyahu upon Leaving Hadassah-Ein Kerem Hospital,” Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, Press Release, February 4, 2024, https://www.gov.il/en/pages/spoke-hadassah020424: “Unfortunately, in the past day there was a tragic event in which our forces unintentionally harmed non-combatants in the Gaza Strip. This happens in war. We are conducting a thorough inquiry and are in contact with the governments. We will do everything to prevent a recurrence.” “Conclusion of the investigation of the General Staff Fact-Finding and Assessment Mechanism into the incident in which seven employees of the World Central Kitchen were killed during a humanitarian operation in the Gaza Strip,” IDF Announcement, April 5, 2024, https://idfanc.activetrail.biz/ANC0504245555:

    The investigation’s findings indicate that the incident should not have occurred. Those who approved the strike were convinced that they were targeting armed Hamas operatives and not WCK employees. The strike on the aid vehicles is a grave mistake stemming from a serious failure due to a mistaken identification, errors in decision-making, and an attack contrary to the Standard Operating Procedures. After being presented with, and considering the investigation’s findings, the IDF Chief of the General Staff decided that the following command measures will be taken: the brigade fire support commander, an officer with the rank of major, will be dismissed from his position. The brigade chief of staff, an officer with the rank of colonel in reserve, will be dismissed from his position. Additionally, the brigade commander and the 162nd Division commander will be formally reprimanded. The IDF Chief of Staff decided to formally reprimand the commander of the Southern Command for his overall responsibility for the incident.

    World Central Kitchen announced on April 28, 2024, that it would resume operations in Gaza.↩︎

  79. “Side event” during the UN Human Rights Council, organized by the NGO Association Ma’onah for Human Rights and Immigration, entitled “Human Rights Violations Against Women and Children,” 11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. CET, United Nations Palais des Nations, Room XXV, Geneva, March 28, 2024.↩︎

  80. Ricorrere is also the word for “resort” in her native language of Italian.↩︎

  81. “Navi Pillay Talks to Al Jazeera,” October 30, 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz1th-a_2M4&t=5s; see also: Navi Pillay speaking at a Hybrid Press Briefing by The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, October 25, 2023, https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1m/k1m9kirxe4: “President Nelson Mandela explained…why they adopted the policy of resorting to armed struggle. And he spelt that out as a legitimate means.… I can’t compare that with Palestine, except the suffering here is so much worse, so much longer.”↩︎

  82. International of Court of Justice, https://www.icj-cij.org/index.php/node/4136↩︎

  83. Minor differences in the composition result from retirement or departure.↩︎

  84. “Hamas ends ANC visit,” October 21, 2015, https://www.dw.com/en/hamas-ends-south-africa-visit/a-18798099; “ANC Parliamentary Caucus signs MoU with Hamas parliamentarians,” December 4, 2018, https://english.palinfo.com/o_post/ANC-Parliamentary-Caucus-signs-MoU-with-Hamas-parliamentarians/; “Parliament delegation led by Zahar signs a memorandum of understanding with the ruling parliamentary bloc in South Africa,” December 4, 2018, Sawa News Agency, https://palsawa.com/post/178992; “The new conflagration has arisen from the continued illegal occupation of Palestine land, continued settlement expansion, desecration of the Al Aqsa Mosque and Christian holy sites, and ongoing oppression of the Palestinian people,” “South Africa calls for the immediate cessation of violence, restraint, and peace between Israel and Palestine,” Media Statement, Department of International Relations & Cooperation, South Africa, October 7, 2023, https://dirco.gov.za/south-africa-calls-for-the-immediate-cessation-of-violence-restraint-and-peace-between-israel-and-palestine/; “South Africa’s support for the Palestinian cause has deep roots,” January 11, 2024, The Economist, https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2024/01/11/south-africas-support-for-the-palestinian-cause-has-deep-roots; “South Africa’s call to Hamas leader embarrasses government,” October 21, 2023, https://www.thecitizen.co.tz/tanzania/news/africa/south-africa-s-call-to-hamas-leader-embarrasses-government-4408638; “South Africa’s Foreign Minister Pandor speaks with Hamas leader,” October 18, 2023, https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/rest-of-africa/south-africa-s-foreign-minister-speaks-with-hamas-leader-4405076; “Palestine Conference in Johannesburg Calls For True, Meaningful Liberation,” Palestine Chronicle, December 7, 2023, https://www.palestinechronicle.com/palestine-conference-in-johannesburg-calls-for-true-meaningful-liberation↩︎

  85. Order, Application of The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel), January 26, 2024, para. 59, https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20240126-ord-01-00-en.pdf↩︎

  86. “The Court also takes note of a press release of 16 November 2023, issued by 37 Special Rapporteurs, Independent Experts and members of Working Groups part of the Special Procedures of the United Nations Human Rights Council, in which they voiced alarm over ‘discernibly genocidal and dehumanizing rhetoric coming from senior Israeli government officials.’” The list of 37 is led by Albanese. Order, Application of The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel), January 26, 2024, para. 53, https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20240126-ord-01-00-en.pdf↩︎

  87. “Anatomy of a Genocide,” Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese, UN Human Rights Council 55th session, A/HRC/55/73, March 25, 2024, https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/sessions-regular/session55/advance-versions/a-hrc-55-73-auv.pdf↩︎

  88. Full quote: “This report does not examine those events [of October 7], as they are beyond the geographic scope of her mandate.” “Anatomy of a Genocide,” A/HRC/55/73, para. 2.↩︎

  89. “Anatomy of a Genocide,” para. 14.↩︎

  90. “Anatomy of a Genocide,” para. 7, 12.↩︎

  91. “Anatomy of a Genocide,” para. 10.↩︎

  92. “Anatomy of a Genocide,” para. 7.↩︎

  93. “Anatomy of a Genocide,” para. 11.↩︎

  94. “Anatomy of a Genocide,” para. 24.↩︎

  95. “Anatomy of a Genocide,” para. 26.↩︎

  96. “Anatomy of a Genocide,” Summary.↩︎

  97. “Anatomy of a Genocide,” para. 33.↩︎

  98. “Anatomy of a Genocide,” para. 37.↩︎

  99. “Anatomy of a Genocide,” para. 51.↩︎

  100. “Anatomy of a Genocide,” para. 87.↩︎

  101. “Anatomy of a Genocide,” para. 68.↩︎

  102. “Anatomy of a Genocide,” para. 80.↩︎

  103. “Anatomy of a Genocide,” para. 86.↩︎

  104. “Anatomy of a Genocide,” para. 54.↩︎

  105. The full quote: “Israel’s Prime Minister and President have stated that Israel was fighting on behalf of ‘all civilized states and… peoples,’ ‘a barbarism that has no place in the modern world,’ that they ‘will uproot evil and it will be good for the entire region and the world.’ This racist rhetoric echoes that of other colonial powers, and tries to construe Israel’s genocidal violence as legitimate in light of Palestinians’ alleged ‘barbarian’ and ‘premodern’ character.” “Anatomy of a Genocide,” para. 54.↩︎

  106. “Anatomy of a Genocide,” para. 75.↩︎

  107. “Anatomy of a Genocide,” para. 94.↩︎

  108. “Anatomy of a Genocide,” para. 57.↩︎

  109. “Anatomy of a Genocide,” Summary.↩︎

  110. “Anatomy of a Genocide,” para. 72.↩︎

  111. “Anatomy of a Genocide,” para. 92.↩︎

  112. “Anatomy of a Genocide,” para. 90.↩︎

  113. “Anatomy of a Genocide.” The full quote: “Whether or not Israel’s accusations of hospital shielding at Al Shifa were true—but still remain to be proven—, the civilians in the hospitals should have been protected and not subjected to siege and military attack” (para. 90). Except that Israel did not attack “the civilians”; it targeted the enemy combatants who she pretends not to know were present and not to know were using the facilities for military purposes (and at one time to hold kidnapped Israeli civilians). Among all the other facts she ignores are Israel’s documented deliveries of medical supplies to al-Shifa Hospital.↩︎

  114. “Anatomy of a Genocide,” para. 6.↩︎

  115. “Anatomy of a Genocide,” para. 95.↩︎

  116. “Secretary-General’s remarks to the press on the situation in the Middle East,” António Guterres, October 11, 2023, https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/speeches/2023-10-11/secretary-generals-remarks-the-press-the-situation-the-middle-east↩︎

  117. Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice, July 9, 2004, https://www.icj-cij.org/case/131/advisory-opinions:

    Article 51 of the Charter thus recognizes the existence of an inherent right of self-defense in the case of armed attack by one State against another State. However, Israel does not claim that the attacks against it are imputable to a foreign State. The Court also notes that Israel exercises control in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and that, as Israel itself states, the threat which it regards as justifying the construction of the wall originates within, and not outside, that territory.… Consequently, the Court concludes that Article 51 of the Charter has no relevance in this case. (para. 139)

    ↩︎

  118. Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice, Separate Opinion of Judge Elaraby, July 9, 2004, https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/131/131-20040709-ADV-01-06-EN.pdf↩︎

  119. The General Assembly referral to the ICJ includes, for instance:

    “Expressing grave concern about the continuing systematic violation of the human rights of the Palestinian people by Israel,…Reiterates that all measures and actions taken by Israel, the occupying Power, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem…in violation of the relevant provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, and contrary to the relevant resolutions of the Security Council, are illegal and have no validity.… Condemns all acts of violence, including all acts of terror, provocation, incitement and destruction, especially any use of force by the Israeli occupying forces against Palestinian civilians in violation of international law.…What are the legal consequences arising from the ongoing violation by Israel of the right of the Palestinian people to…” (emphasis added)

    Legal consequences arising from the policies and practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem,” Request for Advisory Opinion transmitted to the Court pursuant to General Assembly resolution 77/247 of December 30, 2022.↩︎

  120. In 2019 and 2022. “Incumbent Lebanese PM keeps post as economic crisis deepens,” Associated Press, June 23, 2022, https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-religion-elections-lebanon-692e870338fc2030e877e24f36326f56; see also: “Bipartisan letter from members of Congress to Secretary of State Antony Blinken re: International Court of Justice Judge Nawaf Salam,” March 28, 2024, website of Congressman Ronny L. Jackson, https://jackson.house.gov/uploadedfiles/03_28_2024_final_signed_jackson_sherman_letter_to_secretary_blinken_re_icj_judge_salam.pdf↩︎

  121. https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/2024-02/20240206_salam_en.pdf↩︎

  122. Twitter account of Nawaf Salam @nawafasalam, June 5, 2015, https://twitter.com/nawafasalam/status/607020119705960449↩︎

  123. UN General Assembly President Dennis Francis, Twitter account, @UN_PGA, https://twitter.com/UN_PGA/status/1710653291611218143↩︎

  124. Chair of the UN Committee on Palestinian Rights, UN Ambassador of Senegal, Cheikh Niang, October 7, Twitter account, UNISPAL, https://twitter.com/UNISPAL/status/1710778860785016917↩︎

  125. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, Press Release, October 10, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/10/un-human-rights-chief-urges-states-defuse-powder-keg-situation-israel-and↩︎

  126. UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Lynn Hastings, Statement, OCHA, October 10, https://ochaopt.org/content/statement-humanitarian-coordinator-occupied-palestinian-territory-lynn-hastings-hostilities-between-palestinian↩︎

  127. Navi Pillay, chair, UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, Press Release, October 10, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/10/commission-inquiry-collecting-evidence-war-crimes-committed-all-sides-israel↩︎

  128. “The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement,” August 19, 1988, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hamas.asp↩︎

  129. “Türk calls for end to ‘carnage’ in Gaza,” February 29, 2024, https://www.ohchr.org/en/statements-and-speeches/2024/02/turk-calls-end-carnage-gaza↩︎

  130. “Gaza: UN experts call on international community to prevent genocide against the Palestinian people,” November 16, 2023, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/11/gaza-un-experts-call-international-community-prevent-genocide-against↩︎

  131. Edward Said, Ibrahim Abu-Loghud, Janet L. Abu-Loghud, Mohammad Hallaj, and Elia Zureik, “A Profile of the Palestinian People,” Edward Said and Christopher Hitchens, eds., Blaming the Victims: Spurious Scholarship and the Palestinian Question, 1988, p. 248.↩︎

  132. “Hassan Al-Banna and the Mufti of Palestine,” in “Contents of Secret Bulletin of Al Ikhwan al-Muslimin dated 11 June 1946,” Cairo, July 23, 1946, NACP RG 226 (Office of Strategic Services), Washington Registry SI Intelligence, Field Files, entry 108A, box 15, folder 2 (cited in Jeffrey Herf, Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World, New Haven, CT, Yale University Press, 2009, p. 244). When al-Husseini arrived in Egypt in June 1946, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood Hasan al-Banna declared: “The Mufti is worth the people of a whole nation put together. The Mufti is Palestine and Palestine is the Mufti. Oh Amin!… Yes, this hero who challenged an empire and fought Zionism, with the help of Hitler and Germany. Germany and Hitler are gone, but Amin Al-Husseini will continue the struggle.”↩︎

  133. Press Conference during the UN Human Rights Council session, UN Special Rapporteur on the OPT, March 27, 2024, https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k19/k199zd7ei5↩︎

  134. “UN experts deplore attacks on civilians, call for truce and urge international community to address root causes of violence,” October 12, 2023, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/10/israeloccupied-palestinian-territory-un-experts-deplore-attacks-civilians; “UN experts decry bombing of hospitals and schools as crimes against humanity, call for prevention of genocide,” October 19, 2023, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/10/gaza-un-experts-decry-bombing-hospitals-and-schools-crimes-against-humanity. No amount of food or facts is capable of contradicting a starvation charge that has been manufactured from week 1. Of a war the supposed “starver” didn’t start. Inconvenient facts include:

    Palestinian terrorists destroyed preexisting aid delivery crossings between Israel and Gaza (and used them for mass murder);

    the alleged Israeli “starvers” fixed the crossings and shipped aid in again;

    the murderers and rapists have stolen, and continue to steal, aid from the Palestinian people they were elected to protect;

    in the knowledge that the aid is supplying and assisting a genocidal enemy, the “starvers” have continued to ship aid into Gaza anyway;

    the murderers and rapists continue to target the aid crossings hoping to kill more Jews (in particular, to harm the “starvers” trying to facilitate the aid);

    the “starvers” continue to ship aid into Gaza that they know will not be delivered to feed their own people—the kidnapped Israelis—being starved by the Palestinian aid recipients.

    The starvation charge and assignations of responsibility to Israel, aren’t logical, factual or legal. On the aid specifics, see: “Swords of Iron: Humanitarian Efforts,” COGAT (Coordinator of the Government Activities in the Territories), “the official Israeli unit tasked with the coordination and facilitation of said humanitarian initiatives and is doing so in coordination with the international community,” https://govextra.gov.il/cogat/humanitarian-efforts/home/↩︎

  135. “UN experts decry bombing of hospitals and schools as crimes against humanity, call for prevention of genocide,” October 19, 2023, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/10/gaza-un-experts-decry-bombing-hospitals-and-schools-crimes-against-humanity↩︎

  136. Navi Pillay, head, UN COI, “Hybrid Press Briefing by The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel,” October 25, 2023, https://media.un.org/en/asset/k1m/k1m9kirxe4https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1m/k1m9kirxe4↩︎

  137. Yuri Boychenko, Chief of the Anti-Racial Discrimination Section, Thematic Engagement,

    Special Procedures and Right to Development Division, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Representative of the Secretary-General, “Committee Experts Address the Conflict in the Gaza Strip,” Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination Opens 111th Session in Geneva, November 20, 2023, https://www.ohchr.org/en/news/2023/11/committee-elimination-racial-discrimination-opens-one-hundred-and-eleventh-session; “Women bearing the brunt of Israel-Gaza conflict: UN expert,” Reem Alsalem, UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences, November 20, 2023,

    https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/11/women-bearing-brunt-israel-gaza-conflict-un-expert↩︎

  138. “UN expert condemns ‘unrelenting war’ on health system amid airstrikes on hospitals and health workers,” Tlaleng Mofokeng, Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, December 7, 2023, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/12/gaza-un-expert-condemns-unrelenting-war-health-system-amid-airstrikes↩︎

  139. United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, Balakrishnan Rajagopal, Twitter account @adequatehousing, December 23, 2023, 4:31 PM, https://twitter.com/adequatehousing/status/1738673584980070414↩︎

  140. Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur, Twitter account @FranceskAlbs, January 2, 2024,

    https://twitter.com/FranceskAlbs/status/1742176687993823330↩︎

  141. Five “experts” including Francesca Albanese, “UN experts condemn killing and silencing of journalists,” February 1, 2024, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/02/gaza-un-experts-condemn-killing-and-silencing-journalists↩︎

  142. Paula Gaviria Betancur, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons, “Israel’s dehumanization of displaced persons must end, says UN expert,” March 6, 2024, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/03/gaza-israels-dehumanisation-displaced-persons-must-end-says-un-expert↩︎

  143. “UN experts deeply concerned over ‘scholasticide’ in Gaza,” April 18, 2024, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/04/un-experts-deeply-concerned-over-scholasticide-gaza, including Albanese.↩︎

  144. “UN experts deeply concerned over ‘scholasticide’ in Gaza,” April 18, 2024, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/04/un-experts-deeply-concerned-over-scholasticide-gaza, including Albanese.↩︎

  145. António Guterres, UN Secretary-General, Press Conference, UN Headquarters, November 6, 2023, https://press.un.org/en/2023/sgsm22021.doc.htm↩︎

  146. “Secretary-General’s remarks to the General Assembly on Priorities for 2024,” February 7, 2024,

    https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statement/2024-02-07/secretary-generals-remarks-the-general-assembly-priorities-for-2024-scroll-down-for-bilingual-delivered-all-english-version↩︎

  147. The scale and speed of the destruction and death on October 7 apparently doesn’t count. “Secretary-General’s remarks to the General Assembly on Priorities for 2024,” February 7, 2024,

    https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statement/2024-02-07/secretary-generals-remarks-the-general-assembly-priorities-for-2024-scroll-down-for-bilingual-delivered-all-english-version↩︎

  148. “Türk calls for end to ‘carnage’ in Gaza,” February 20, 2024, https://www.ohchr.org/en/statements-and-speeches/2024/02/turk-calls-end-carnage-gaza↩︎

  149. “Statement by Tlaleng Mofokeng, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health,” November 16, 2023, https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/issues/health/sr/20231116-statement-sr-health-israel-opt.pdf↩︎

  150. “Over one hundred days into the war, Israel destroying Gaza’s food system and weaponizing food, say UN human rights experts,” eight “experts” including Francesca Albanese, Reem Alsalem, and Tialeng Mofokeng, January 16, 2024, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/01/over-one-hundred-days-war-israel-destroying-gazas-food-system-and↩︎

  151. World Food Program USA, “Global Food Crisis: 10 Countries Suffering the Most From Hunger” (Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, the Sahel (Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger), South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia, Northern Ethiopia, Haiti), https://www.wfpusa.org/articles/global-food-crisis-10-countries-suffering-the-most-from-hunger/↩︎

  152. “Over one hundred days into the war, Israel destroying Gaza’s food system and weaponizing food, say UN human rights experts,” January 16, 2024, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/01/over-one-hundred-days-war-israel-destroying-gazas-food-system-and↩︎

  153. Nine “experts” including Francesca Albanese, Reem Alsalem, and Tialeng Mofokeng, “UN experts condemn ‘flour massacre,’ urge Israel to end campaign of starvation in Gaza,” March 5, 2024, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/03/un-experts-condemn-flour-massacre-urge-israel-end-campaign-starvation-gaza↩︎

  154. Paula Gaviria Betancur, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons, “Gaza: Israel’s dehumanization of displaced persons must end, says UN expert,” March 6, 2024, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/03/gaza-israels-dehumanisation-displaced-persons-must-end-says-un-expert↩︎

  155. Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian Territories Occupied Since 1967, March 27, 2024, Press Conference, https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k19/k199zd7ei5↩︎

  156. “Navi Pillay Talks to Al Jazeera,” October 30, 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz1th-a_2M4&t=5s↩︎

  157. “Statement by Navanethem Pillay, Chair of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel,” April 16, 2024, Geneva, https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/coiopt/statements/2024-04-16-commissioners-briefing-ms-commissioner-pillay-v2-0.pdf↩︎

  158. “March 24, 2024 Update Regarding the Shifa Hospital Operation by IDF Spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari,” IDF website, https://www.idf.il/en/mini-sites/hamas-israel-war-24/briefings-by-idf-spokesperson-rear-admiral-daniel-hagari/march-24-press-briefings/update-regarding-the-shifa-hospital-operation-by-idf-spokesperson-rear-admiral-daniel-hagari/↩︎

  159. In her words: “[T]he Commission has been sharing, on an ongoing basis, information with the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. Commissioner Sidoti and I have met both with Prosecutor Karim Khan and Deputy Prosecutor Nazhat Khan. We look forward to and expect to see progress on the ICC investigations this year.” Briefing to Member States, April 16, 2024, Geneva, “Statement by Navanethem Pillay, Chair of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel,” https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/coiopt/statements/2024-04-16-commissioners-briefing-ms-commissioner-pillay-v2-0.pdf↩︎

  160. Bearing in mind that:

    “Medical establishments and units…[w]hen they are used to interfere directly or indirectly in military operations, and thereby cause harm to the enemy, the rationale for their specific protection is removed. This would be the case for example if a hospital is used as a base from which to launch an attack; as an observation post to transmit information of military value; as a weapons depot; as a center for liaison with fighting troops; or as a shelter for able-bodied combatants.… An act harmful to the enemy may render a medical establishment or unit liable to attack.… A concrete example would be the placing of a medical establishment or unit in proximity to a military objective with the intention of shielding it from enemy’s military operations.

    “The protection of hospitals during armed conflicts: What the law says,” International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), https://www.icrc.org/en/document/protection-hospitals-during-armed-conflicts-what-law-says↩︎

  161. “UN experts decry bombing of hospitals and schools as crimes against humanity, call for prevention of genocide,” October 19, 2023, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/10/gaza-un-experts-decry-bombing-hospitals-and-schools-crimes-against-humanity↩︎

  162. “US assesses that Israel is ‘not responsible’ for Gaza hospital blast,” CNN report on US National Security Council report, October 18, 2023, https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/18/politics/us-intel-gaza-hospital-blast/index.html; “Between 100 and 300 believed killed in Gaza hospital blast, according to preliminary US intelligence assessment,” CNN report on intelligence assessment by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, October 19, 2023, https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/19/politics/us-intelligence-assessment-gaza-hospital-blast/index.html.↩︎

  163. “Freed hostage says she was abducted by armed Gaza civilians, sold to Hamas,” The Times of Israel, April 9, 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/freed-gaza-hostage-says-she-was-abducted-by-armed-civilians-sold-to-hamas/; “Israeli family’s agony as they mark Jewish festival without 19-year-old daughter taken hostage by Hamas and kept as a domestic slave by the terror group in Gaza,” The Daily Mail, March 24, 2024, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13234071/Israeli-familys-agony-mark-Jewish-festival-without-19-year-old-daughter-taken-hostage-Hamas-kept-domestic-slave-terror-group-Gaza.html↩︎

  164. “Israel reveals 12 UNRWA staffers it says took part in Oct. 7, says 30 more assisted,” The Times of Israel, February 16, 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-reveals-12-unrwa-staffers-it-says-took-part-in-oct-7-says-30-more-assisted/; Press Briefing by IDF Spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, March 4, 2024, https://www.idf.il/en/mini-sites/hamas-israel-war-24/briefings-by-idf-spokesperson-rear-admiral-daniel-hagari/march-24-press-briefings/press-briefing-by-idf-spokesperson-rear-admiral-daniel-hagari-march-4-2024/; “‘I’m inside with the Jews’: IDF releases recordings of UNRWA staff accused of joining Oct. 7 attack,” by Emanuel Fabian, The Times of Israel, March 4, 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/im-inside-with-the-jews-idf-releases-recordings-of-unrwa-staff-accused-of-joining-oct-7-attack/; tweet by the IDF, March 4, 2024, https://twitter.com/IDF/status/1764742950628569551; tweet by the IDF, March 4, 2024, https://twitter.com/IDF/status/1764716524768461115↩︎

  165. https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/10/gaza-un-experts-decry-bombing-hospitals-and-schools-crimes-against-humanity, last accessed April 17, 2024.↩︎

  166. Navi Pillay, “Hybrid Press Briefing by the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel,” October 27, 2022, https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1j/k1jzwzf8gg↩︎

  167. Legal Consequences Arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Including East Jerusalem,” Request for Advisory Opinion transmitted to the Court pursuant to General Assembly resolution 77/247 of December 30, 2022, January 19, 2023, https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/186/186-20230117-REQ-01-00-EN.pdf↩︎

  168. “Statement by Karim A.A. Khan KC, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, at the 21st session of the Assembly of States Parties,” Opening plenary, December 5, 2022, https://asp.icc-cpi.int/sites/asp/files/2022-12/ASP21-STMT-PROS-ENG.pdf; Annual Report of the Office of the Prosecutor—2022, December 1, 2022,

    https://www.icc-cpi.int/sites/default/files/2022-12/2022-12-05-annual-report-of-the-office-of-the-prosecutor.pdf; ICC prosecutor Kharim Khan announced the opening of an investigation into the “Situation in the State of Palestine” on March 3, 2021 (“Statement of ICC Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, respecting an investigation of the Situation in Palestine,” International Criminal Court website, March 21, 2021, https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/statement-icc-prosecutor-fatou-bensouda-respecting-investigation-situation-palestine), following a decision on December 20, 2019, by former ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda that an investigation was warranted (“Statement of ICC Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, on the conclusion of the preliminary examination of the Situation in Palestine, and seeking a ruling on the scope of the Court’s territorial jurisdiction,” International Criminal Court website, December 20, 2019, https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/statement-icc-prosecutor-fatou-bensouda-conclusion-preliminary-examination-situation-palestine), and a ruling by the Pre-Trial Chamber on February 5, 2021 (Decision by the Pre-Trial Chamber on the “Prosecution request pursuant to article 19(3) for a ruling on the Court’s territorial jurisdiction in Palestine,” February 5, 2021, https://www.icc-cpi.int/court-record/icc-01/18-143), that the Court could exercise its criminal jurisdiction over the situation.↩︎

  169. For instance: ICC prosecutor meeting with UN and Palestinian officials: Annual Report of the Office of the Prosecutor—2022, December 1, 2022, https://www.icc-cpi.int/sites/default/files/2022-12/2022-12-05-annual-report-of-the-office-of-the-prosecutor.pdf; “The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel,” OHCHR website, https://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/hrc/co-israel/index and https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/2022-06/OPTEJI_ICC.png↩︎

  170. “Review of UNRWA-Produced Study Materials in the Palestinian Territories,” Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se), https://www.impact-se.org/wp-content/uploads/UNRWA-Produced-Study-Materials-in-the-Palestinian-Territories—Jan-2021.pdf; “Review of 2022 UNRWA-Produced Study Materials in the Palestinian Territories,” July 2022, Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se), https://www.impact-se.org/wp-content/uploads/Review-of-2022-UNRWA-Produced-School-Materials.pdf↩︎

  171. “The Secretary-General creates inquiry on Gaza,” https://humanrightsvoices.org/schabas/the-secretary-general-creates-a-second-inquiry-on-gaza (for instance: Incident No. 1: July 17, 2014; Incident No. 2: July 22, 2014; Incident No. 3: July 30, 2014); UNRWA facilities have been repeatedly used by Hamas terrorists for military purposes, as staging grounds, weapons depots, and hideouts, and as shields to provide cover to nearby military assets. UNRWA teachers and officials have been, and continue to be, exposed as members and supporters of Hamas.↩︎

  172. “Two-State Solution Only Viable Way to Resolve Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Secretary-General Tells International Meeting as It Opens in Moscow,” International meeting in support of Israeli-Palestinian peace, AM meeting, GA/PAL/1336, July 1, 2015, https://press.un.org/en/2015/gapal1336.doc.htm; Tor Wennesland, Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process briefing to the Security Council on the Situation in the Middle East

    November 28, 2022, https://unsco.unmissions.org/sites/default/files/security_council_briefing_-_28_november_2022.pdf; 9236th meeting of the UN Security Council (PM), SC/15167, January 5, 2023,

    https://press.un.org/en/2023/sc15167.doc.htm↩︎

  173. 42nd Meeting—54th Regular Session of Human Rights Council, tweeted out by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, https://twitter.com/UN_HRC/status/1711426746036244847, and https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1d/k1dnfjfexu↩︎

  174. 42nd Meeting—54th Regular Session of Human Rights Council, tweeted out by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, https://twitter.com/UN_HRC/status/1711426746036244847, and https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1d/k1dnfjfexu↩︎

  175. Remarks of UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini at the Global Refugee Forum, December 13, 2023, https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/official-statements/statement-unrwa-commissioner-general-philippe-lazzarini-global-refugee↩︎

  176. “Inside UNRWA Facilities: Weapons and Underground Hamas Intelligence Asset,” IDF website, February 10, 2024, https://www.idf.il/en/mini-sites/idf-press-releases-regarding-the-hamas-israel-war/february-24-pr/inside-unrwa-facilities-weapons-and-underground-hamas-intelligence-asset/; see note 169 above.↩︎

  177. “Statement of the Commissioner-General of UNRWA to the General Assembly,” March 4, 2024, https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/official-statements/statement-commissioner-general-unrwa-general-assembly↩︎

  178. See note 123 above.↩︎

  179. “Declaring Israel’s occupation of Palestine unlawful is legitimate— Judge Navi Pillay,” Newzroom Afrika, February 2, 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOt-IoLW4Ic↩︎

  180. Al-Husseini was a Nazi propagandist who trafficked in hate speech against Jews and whose Jewish victims spanned continents, from the Middle East to Europe, from Palestine to Iraq to Nazi Germany. As he had promised Hitler himself, al-Husseini plotted sabotage operations in the Middle East, including “a 1944 mission for Palestinian Arabs and Germans to carry out sabotage and propaganda after German planes dropped them into Palestine by parachute.” Richard Breitman and Norman Goda, Hitler’s Shadow: Nazi War Criminals, U.S. Intelligence, and the Cold War, National Archives and Records Administration, 2011, p. 20, https://www.archives.gov/iwg/reports/hitlers-shadow.pdf; Sean McMeekin, The Berlin-Baghdad Express: The Ottoman Empire and Germany’s Bid for World Power (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2010), p. 362; Rafael Medoff, “The Mufti’s Nazi years re‐examined,” Journal of Israeli History, September 1996, p. 327; “4 JULY 2001 RELEASE: KURT WIELAND,” MI5 Security Service, available at https://web.archive.org/web/20110611043738/https://www.mi5.gov.uk/output/4-july-2001-releases-kurt-wieland.html; The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al Hasanji (Husseini): “To the Reichsfuehrer SS and Minister of the interior H. Himmler,” July 17, 1944, available at: http://cojs.org/july-27-1944-2/↩︎

  181. Approximately one million Jewish refugees fled persecution from Arab countries, Iran, and Turkey after the creation of the modern State of Israel in 1948. Today, Jewish communities are nonexistent in Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Syria, and Yemen. Minute populations remain in Morocco and Tunisia. Less than 10% and 20% of the pre-1948 Jewish population in Iran and Turkey, respectively, remain.↩︎

  182. “Mehdi Hasan exclusive Town Hall with special guest Francesca Albanese,” Zeteo, April 1, 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifSvNHA1c4s&t=1s↩︎

  183. “Report of the Human Rights Council on its fourteenth session,” A/HRC/14/27, October 23, 2012.↩︎

  184. “The grave attacks by Israeli forces against the humanitarian boat convoy,” UN Human Rights Council Resolution 14/1, adopted June 2, 2010.↩︎

  185. Pillay’s Commission of Inquiry claimed it was the investigative UN address, guaranteeing another inquisition contextualizing Hamas atrocities, faux facts and bad law. UN Navi Pillay, chair, UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, Press Release, October 10, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/10/commission-inquiry-collecting-evidence-war-crimes-committed-all-sides-israel; See notes 189, 190.↩︎

  186. “Security Council Press Statement on Terrorist Attack in Rasak, Sistan and Baluchistan, Islamic Republic of Iran,” SC/15534, December 16, 2023, https://press.un.org/en/2023/sc15534.doc.htm↩︎

  187. “Security Council Press Statement on Terrorist Attack in Moscow Region, Russian Federation,” SC/15640, March 22, 2024, https://press.un.org/en/2024/sc15640.doc.htm↩︎

  188. “Women bearing the brunt of Israel-Gaza conflict: UN expert,” Press Release, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, November 20, 2023, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/11/women-bearing-brunt-israel-gaza-conflict-un-expert↩︎

  189. “Women bearing the brunt of Israel-Gaza conflict: UN expert,” Press Release, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, November 20, 2023, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/11/women-bearing-brunt-israel-gaza-conflict-un-expert; see also: “the experts expressed alarm at increasing allegations of sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas and other armed groups against women and girls in Israel on 7 October, as well as sexual assault and threats of sexual violence against women in the occupied Palestinian territory since then. ‘These reports must be investigated, and those responsible must be held accountable through an independent process,’ they said.” The “experts” referred to included Reem Alsalem and Francesca Albanese: “Occupied Palestinian territory and Israel: UN experts call for permanent ceasefire to protect rights and futures of women and girls,” Press Release, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, December 14, 2023, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/12/occupied-palestinian-territory-and-israel-un-experts-call-permanent↩︎

  190. A series on the UN Human Rights Council’s “Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel” (COI) by Anne Bayefsky and published by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA): (1) “The Newest Anti-Israel UN Action Must Be Challenged—Now,” JCPA, December 20, 2021, https://jcpa.org/article/the-newest-anti-israel-un-action-must-be-challenged-now; (2) “The UN Commission of Inquiry: An Exercise in Historical Revisionism,” JCPA, June 8, 2022, https://jcpa.org/article/the-un-commission-of-inquiry-an-exercise-in-historical-revisionism; (3) “The Latest UN Commission of Inquiry on ‘Occupied Palestinian Territory’ Is an Inquisition,” JCPA, June 27, 2022, https://jcpa.org/the-latest-un-commission-of-inquiry-on-occupied-palestinian-territory-is-an-Inquisition/; (4) “The UN Human Rights Council’s ‘Commission of Inquiry’ Goes Openly Antisemitic,” JCPA, August 1, 2022, https://jcpa.org/article/the-un-human-rights-councils-commission-of-inquiry-goes-openly-antisemitic/; (5) “New UN Commission of Inquiry Report a Masterpiece of Modern Antisemitism,” JCPA, October 23, 2022, https://jcpa.org/new-un-commission-of-inquiry-report-a-masterpiece-of-modern-antisemitism/; (6) “Lies and Unapologetic Antisemitism from the UN ‘Commission of Inquiry,’” JCPA, November 6, 2022, https://jcpa.org/lies-and-unapologetic-antisemitism-from-the-un-commission-of-inquiry/; (7) “Pillay’s Latest Propaganda Crusade against Israel: The June 2023 UN Human Rights Council’s Commission of Inquiry Report,” JCPA, June 18, 2023, https://jcpa.org/article/pillays-un-propaganda-crusade-continues-the-latest-un-human-rights-councils-commission-of-inquiry-report/; (8) “Pillay’s Pogrom: The UN Tells Palestinian Terrorists, ‘We Have Your Back,’” JCPA, October 22, 2023, https://jcpa.org/article/pillays-pogrom-the-un-tells-palestinian-terrorists-we-have-your-back/↩︎

  191. “The Commission has been collecting and preserving evidence of war crimes committed by all sides since 7 October 2023…The Commission is gravely concerned with Israel’s latest attack on Gaza… the Commission is committed to investigating current events and identifying those responsible for violations of international law on all sides… It will continue sharing information collected with the relevant judicial authorities, especially with the International Criminal Court,” UN Navi Pillay, chair, UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, Press Release, October 10, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/10/commission-inquiry-collecting-evidence-war-crimes-committed-all-sides-israel↩︎

  192. “I am alarmed by disturbing reports of gender-based and sexual violence.” UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous, “Briefing by UN Under-Secretary-General and UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous to the 9,484th meeting of the UN Security Council on ‘The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question’”, November 22, 2023, https://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/speech/2023/11/speech-now-more-than-ever-we-must-seek-peace;“We remain alarmed by gender-based violence reports on 7 Oct & call for rigorous investigation,” UN Women, Twitter account @UN_Women , November 24, 2023, https://twitter.com/UN_Women/status/1728262284537925701↩︎

  193. On February 29, 2024, High Commissioner Türk still refers only to “reports” of sexual violence: “The killing of civilians, reports of torture and sexual violence inflicted by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups, and the holding of hostages since that time, are appalling and entirely wrong.” Türk calls for end to “carnage” in Gaza, OHCHR Press Release, February 29, 2024, https://www.ohchr.org/en/statements-and-speeches/2024/02/turk-calls-end-carnage-gaza↩︎

  194. The exceptions are Alice Jill Edwards, Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and Morris Tidball-Binz, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. They issued a press release on January 8, 2024:

    The allegations include grave violations of international law, including killings, hostage-taking, and torture including sexual torture. Across 22 villages approximately 1,200 Israeli and foreign nationals were killed.… “The growing body of evidence about reported sexual violence is particularly harrowing.…” Allegations of sexual torture include rapes and gang rapes, sexual assaults, mutilations and gunshots to genital areas. Female bodies were found with their clothing pulled up to their waists, with underpants removed or torn or stained with blood. “These acts constitute gross violations of international law, amounting to war crimes which, given the number of victims and the extensive premeditation and planning of the attacks, may also qualify as crimes against humanity,” the experts said. “There are no circumstances that justify their perpetration,” the experts said….

    “UN experts demand accountability for victims of sexual torture and unlawful killings during 7 October attacks,” January 8, 2024, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/01/un-experts-demand-accountability-victims-sexual-torture-and-unlawful↩︎

  195. Not one UN official unequivocally acknowledged Hamas’s sexual violence for more than 60 days, until December 10, 2023. “Statement by the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Lynn Hastings, on International Human Rights Day,” December 10, 2023, https://www.ochaopt.org/content/statement-united-nations-resident-and-humanitarian-coordinator-occupied-palestinian-territory-lynn-hastings-0↩︎

  196. “Secretary-General’s remarks to the Security Council – on the Middle East,” January 23, 2024, https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statement/2024-01-23/secretary-generals-remarks-the-security-council-the-middle-east-bilingual-delivered-scroll-down-for-all-english↩︎

  197. See below.↩︎

  198. UN Women, https://www.unwomen.org/en↩︎

  199. “About UN Women,” https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/about-un-women↩︎

  200. Emphasis added. Tweet by Executive Director of UN Women Sima Bahous, October 7, 2023, https://twitter.com/unwomenchief/status/1710833472095269002↩︎

  201. Emphasis added. “UN Women statement on the situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, October 14, 2023,” https://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/statement/2023/10/un-women-statement-on-the-situation-in-israel-and-the-occupied-palestinian-territory↩︎

  202. Tweet by UN Women, October 28, 2023, https://twitter.com/UN_Women/status/1718310451761848692↩︎

  203. See, e.g., “Civilians, including women & girls in #Gaza URGENTLY need: Lifesaving inputs,…”, tweet by UN Women, October 22, 2023, https://twitter.com/UN_Women/status/1716107205823377832; “Voices from Gaza: Amani’s story of loss,” UN Women website, November 1, 2023, https://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/feature-story/2023/11/voices-from-gaza-amanis-story-of-loss; “We condemn the strikes on #Jabalia refugee camp, all refugee camps and civilian infrastructure. The continuous bombardment has caused devastating destruction and loss of lives, leaving nowhere safe for the people of #Gaza, including women & children. Civilians are #NotATarget.” Tweet by UN Women, November 2, 2023, https://twitter.com/UN_Women/status/1720206701654065328; “Hospitals are #NotATarget. Safe access to health care is essential for women & children. #Gaza needs: Protection of civilians…,” tweet by Sima Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women, November 10, 2023, https://twitter.com/unwomenchief/status/1723117461069804029↩︎

  204. UN Women rapid assessment and humanitarian response in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, October 20, 2023, https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2023/10/un-women-rapid-assessment-and-humanitarian-response-in-the-occupied-palestinian-territory↩︎

  205. “After backlash over silence, UN Women tweets, then deletes, statement condemning Hamas attack in Israel,” JTA, November 27, 2023, https://www.jta.org/2023/11/27/israel/after-backlash-over-silence-un-women-tweets-then-deletes-statement-condemning-hamas-attack-in-israel↩︎

  206. UN Women Instagram account, November 24, 2023, https://www.instagram.com/p/C0Dbiwnsus2/↩︎

  207. Emphasis added. UN Women Instagram account, November 25, 2023, https://www.instagram.com/p/C0FMI8ZPv1Y/↩︎

  208. Emphasis added. “UN Women statement on the situation in Israel and Gaza,” December 1, 2023, https://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/statement/2023/12/un-women-statement-on-the-situation-in-israel-and-gaza↩︎

  209. Emphasis added. “Statement on Gaza by UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous,” January 19, 2024, https://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/statement/2024/01/statement-on-gaza-by-un-women-executive-director-sima-bahous↩︎

  210. “Mission report: Official visit of the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict (OSRSG-SVC) to Israel and the occupied West Bank 29 January—14 February 2024,” March 4, 2024, https://www.un.org/sexualviolenceinconflict/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/report/mission-report-official-visit-of-the-office-of-the-srsg-svc-to-israel-and-the-occupied-west-bank-29-january-14-february-2024/20240304-Israel-oWB-CRSV-report.pdf↩︎

  211. “Mission report: Official visit of the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict (OSRSG-SVC) to Israel and the occupied West Bank 29 January—14 February 2024,” para. 17, March 4, 2024.↩︎

  212. “Mission report: Official visit of the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict (OSRSG-SVC) to Israel and the occupied West Bank 29 January—14 February 2024,” paras. 58, 60, 61, March 4, 2024.↩︎

  213. UN Women, Twitter account @UN_Women, March 5, 2024, https://twitter.com/UN_Women/status/1765011961987617273↩︎

  214. “We can and must choose to end poverty for women and girls,” Opening remarks by UN Under-Secretary-General and UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous at the opening of the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, March 11, 2024, https://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/speech/2024/03/speech-we-can-and-must-choose-to-end-poverty-for-women-and-girls↩︎

  215. Tanck has only acknowledged “allegations of sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas and other armed groups against women and girls in Israel on 7 October, as well as sexual assault and threats of sexual violence against women in the occupied Palestinian territory since then. ‘These reports must be investigated.…’” (emphasis added) “Occupied Palestinian territory and Israel: UN experts call for permanent ceasefire to protect rights and futures of women and girls,” December 14, 2023, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/12/occupied-palestinian-territory-and-israel-un-experts-call-permanent; see also: “UN experts urge the international community to step up pressure to end crimes, uphold international law and save lives in Gaza,” March 7, 2024, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/03/un-experts-urge-international-community-step-pressure-end-crimes-uphold↩︎

  216. AL ISR 1/2024, February 7, 2024, posted on the website of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, “Mandates of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences; the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 and the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls,” https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=28727↩︎

  217. It includes, for instance, “…suggests coordinated planning and authorization from higher authorities,” and “is suggestive of an intent to spread terror among [sic] local population.” AL ISR 1/2024, February 7, 2024, posted on the website of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, “Mandates of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences; the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 and the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls,” https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=28727↩︎

  218. “The response of the State of Israel to the Joint communication AL ISR 1/2024 by the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls, its Causes and Consequences, and the Working Group on Discrimination Against Women, received on 21 February 2024,” OHCHR Communication database, https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadFile?gId=38342↩︎

  219. “UN experts appalled by reported human rights violations against Palestinian women and girls,” Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, February 19, 2024, seven “experts,” the first and second being Alsalem and Albanese, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/02/israelopt-un-experts-appalled-reported-human-rights-violations-against; the “communication” was sent to the government of Israel’s representative in Geneva via the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva. It is dated February 7, 2024; it was received on February 21, 2024. The missive gave Israel 60 days to respond, and Israel responded on April 11, 2024. On February 19, 2024, Reem Alsalem, Francesca Albanese, Dorothy Estrada Tanck (chair), and the other members of the Working group on discrimination against women and girls, Claudia Flores, Ivana Krstić, Haina Lu, and Laura Nyirinkindi, put out a press release without the response.↩︎

  220. “UN Special Representative Pramila Patten concludes her visit to Israel,” Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, February 6, 2024, https://www.gov.il/en/pages/un-special-representative-patten-concludes-visit-to-israel-6-feb-2024↩︎

  221. “Mission report Official visit of the Office of the SRSG-SVC to Israel and the occupied West Bank 29 January–14 February 2024,” Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict (SRSG-SVC), March 4, 2024, https://www.un.org/sexualviolenceinconflict/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/report/mission-report-official-visit-of-the-office-of-the-srsg-svc-to-israel-and-the-occupied-west-bank-29-january-14-february-2024/20240304-Israel-oWB-CRSV-report.pdf↩︎

  222. “The applicable standard of proof adopted by the mission team is one of ‘reasonable grounds to believe,’ consistent with the practice of investigative bodies, including those established by the UN Security Council and Human Rights Council.…[T]here have been occasions where more information has supported a finding of fact, and the overall finding has therefore been stated to be established at the level of ‘clear and convincing’ information.” “Mission report Official visit of the Office of the SRSG-SVC to Israel and the occupied West Bank 29 January–14 February 2024,” paras. 26, 27, Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict (SRSG-SVC), March 4, 2024, https://www.un.org/sexualviolenceinconflict/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/report/mission-report-official-visit-of-the-office-of-the-srsg-svc-to-israel-and-the-occupied-west-bank-29-january-14-february-2024/20240304-Israel-oWB-CRSV-report.pdf↩︎

  223. “U.N. experts urge independent probe into reports of sexual assault against women by IDF,” CNN, February 23, 2024, https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2024/02/23/exp-ctw-un-israel-allegations-reem-alsalem-intv-fst-022310aseg1-cnni-world.cnn↩︎

  224. “Israel-Gaza war: World Food Programme stops deliveries to northern Gaza,” February 20, 2024, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68349031↩︎

  225. AL ISR 1/2024, February 7, 2024, posted on the website of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, “Mandates of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences; the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 and the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls,” https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=28727↩︎

  226. AL ISR 1/2024, page 1, para. 3, February 7, 2024, posted on the website of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, “Mandates of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences; the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 and the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls,” https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=28727↩︎

  227. Forty-eight abducted Israeli women have been released and 19 remain in captivity (as of May 13, 2024). “Return of hostages,” Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, updated date: April 9, 2024, https://www.gov.il/en/pages/return-of-hostages-24-nov-2023; “Swords of Iron: Hostages and Missing Persons Report—Hostages and missing persons update—updated to 7 May 2024,” https://www.gov.il/en/pages/hostages-and-missing-persons-report↩︎

  228. AL ISR 1/2024, February 7, 2024, posted on the website of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, “Mandates of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences; the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 and the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls,” https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=28727↩︎

  229. “Mission report: Official visit of the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict (OSRSG-SVC) to Israel and the occupied West Bank 29 January–14 February 2024,” para. 61, March 4, 2024; see also: “One discernible pattern emerged: 24 out of the 29 soldiers displayed apparent, often multiple, gunshot wounds to the head” (para. 70).↩︎

  230. “Return of hostages: Marking six months since the October 7 terror attack,” Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, April 9, 2024, https://www.gov.il/en/pages/return-of-hostages-24-nov-2023↩︎

  231. “Swords of Iron: War in the South–Hamas’ Attack on Israel,” Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, April 30, 2024, https://www.gov.il/en/pages/swords-of-iron-war-in-the-south-7-oct-2023↩︎

  232. “Return of hostages: Marking six months since the October 7 terror attack,” Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, April 9, 2024, https://www.gov.il/en/pages/return-of-hostages-24-nov-2023↩︎

  233. “What Happened on the 7th of October,” Israel National Digital Agency website, last accessed May 1, 2024, https://info710.com/october7/what-happened-on-the-7th-of-october/↩︎

  234. “What Happened on the 7th of October, Israel National Digital Agency website,” last accessed May 1, 2024, https://info710.com/october7/what-happened-on-the-7th-of-october/↩︎

  235. “President Isaac Herzog’s statement to the international community,” Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, October 9, 2023, https://www.gov.il/en/pages/president-herzog-s-statement-to-the-international-community-9-oct-2023↩︎

  236. Full quote of the communication allegation: “In January 2024, a Palestinian female infant was reportedly taken by the IDF from her home in Gaza to Israel by an Israeli officer, Harel ltach, a commander in the Givati Brigade, after the alleged killing of her family members, in what appears to be a forced transfer of a child out of Gaza. The IDF has so far not returned the infant and her exact location is reportedly unknown.” (AL ISR 1/2024, February 7, 2024, posted on the website of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, “Mandates of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences; the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 and the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls,” https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=28727)↩︎

  237. The Israeli reply states: “One type of allegation the communication makes relates to alleged ‘abduction of children’ by IDF forces. The only allegation made with sufficiently concrete details concerns the alleged case of a female infant who was ‘taken by the IDF from her home….’ However, the communication fails to mention that this claim was already examined and publicly denied by the IDF [IDF spokesman speaking to Israel Public Broadcasting, January 2, 2024, reported in English, https://twitter.com/AmichaiStein1/status/1742301776567533853, and Hebrew, https://twitter.com/roysharon11/status/1742298408730189985]. Instead, the communication claims that ‘the IDF has so far not returned the infant and that her exact location is unknown.’” (“The response of the State of Israel to the Joint communication AL ISR 1/2024 by the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls, its Causes and Consequences, and the Working Group on Discrimination Against Women, received on 21 February 2024,” para. 13, OHCHR Communication database, https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadFile?gId=38342)

    Captain Harel Itach, a captain in the IDF, was mortally wounded in Gaza at the end of December 2023.

    A eulogy at his funeral and an interview with a second-hand source, who had not heard the story from Captain Itach directly, relayed that Captain Itach had found a baby alone in a Gaza building and brought her to Israel for treatment. (“The wounded soldier paid tribute to the fallen commander: ‘I agree to die for you ten times,’” Ynetnews, December 31, 2023, https://www.ynet.co.il/news/article/s1zxmkkot [translation from Hebrew]. Galgalatz Radio; a third-party site has the interview here: January 1, 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqlU2pi6Fk0)

    Questions were quickly raised about the story. (Kan Israeli public broadcasting journalist, January 2, 2024, https://twitter.com/nurityohanan/status/1742110684911902831)

    Within 48 hours, on January 2, 2024, the IDF corrected the mistaken information and informed a Kan reporter that the story was false. (“IDF spokesman to @roysharon11: ‘After an investigation, no baby girl was taken from Gaza to Israeli territory. The allegations regarding the abduction of a baby girl have no foundation.’” The reporter added: “The late Capt. Harel Itach rescued a dog from the rubble in Gaza and brought it to Israel, somehow his friend mistakenly heard that it was a baby (and said it in an interview).” (Tweet in English, Amichai Stein, correspondent at the Kan Diplomatic desk, Israeli public broadcasting corporation, https://twitter.com/AmichaiStein1/status/1742301776567533853)

    Further details emerged on January 5, 2024, that describe Captain Itach’s rescue of the dog. (“‘He gave her some of his food’: Harel rescued a dog he found in Gaza, and she was present at his funeral,” Walla News, January 5, 2024, https://news.walla.co.il/item/3633602 [translation].)

    Neither the humanitarian intent nor the swift correction made any difference to Albanese’s decision to run with the story—more than a month after it was disproven—and claim that it raised “serious concerns” that “children may have been abducted and forcefully carried off and transferred to Israel or killed.”↩︎

  238. “President Herzog meets US Secretary of State Blinken in Tel Aviv,” Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, November 30, 2023, https://www.gov.il/en/pages/president-herzog-meets-us-secretary-of-state-blinken-30-nov-2023↩︎

  239. Press Briefing by IDF Spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, February 19, 2024, https://www.idf.il/en/mini-sites/hamas-israel-war-24/briefings-by-idf-spokesperson-rear-admiral-daniel-hagari/february-24-press-briefings/press-briefing-by-idf-spokesperson-rear-admiral-daniel-hagari-february-19th-2024-2/↩︎

  240. “Swords of Iron: War in the South—Hamas’ Attack on Israel,” Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, April 30, 2024, https://www.gov.il/en/pages/swords-of-iron-war-in-the-south-7-oct-2023↩︎

  241. Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, https://www.gov.il/BlobFolder/news/swords-of-iron-war-in-the-south-7-oct-2023/en/English_Swords_of_Iron_Abducted%20children.pdf↩︎

  242. “President Herzog calls on world leaders to advance return of hostages,” Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, December 31, 2023, https://www.gov.il/en/pages/president-herzog-calls-on-world-leaders-to-advance-return-of-hostages-31-dec-2023↩︎

  243. “As women,” Israel Government Press Office, March 7, 2024, https://www.gov.il/en/pages/internationalwomensdayisraelifemalehostages070324↩︎

  244. “German-Israeli Shani Louk, seen paraded by terrorists in Gaza, confirmed dead,” The Times of Israel, October 30, 2023, https://www.timesofisrael.com/german-israeli-shani-louk-seen-paraded-by-terrorists-in-gaza-confirmed-dead/↩︎

  245. “Mission report: Official visit of the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict (OSRSG-SVC) to Israel and the occupied West Bank 29 January–14 February 2024,” paras. 71, 72, March 4, 2024.↩︎

  246. “Silent Cry: Sexual Crimes in the October 7 War: Special Report of the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel,” February 21, 2024, https://www.gov.il/BlobFolder/news/arcci-report-october-7/ru/Russian_ARCCI%20report%20.pdf↩︎

  247. “President Herzog addresses central rally marking 100 days of captivity for the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza,” Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, January 14, 2024, https://www.gov.il/en/pages/president-herzog-addresses-central-rally-marking-100-days-of-captivity-of-the-hostages-14-jan-2024↩︎

  248. Tweet by Embassy of Israel to the USA, Twitter account @IsraelinUSA, February 20, 2024, https://twitter.com/IsraelinUSA/status/1759988785884913705↩︎

  249. “Swords of Iron: War in the South–Hamas’ Attack on Israel,” Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, April 30, 2024, https://www.gov.il/en/pages/swords-of-iron-war-in-the-south-7-oct-2023↩︎

  250. “Mission report: Official visit of the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict (OSRSG-SVC) to Israel and the occupied West Bank 29 January–14 February 2024,” para. 72, March 4, 2024.↩︎

  251. “Mission report: Official visit of the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict (OSRSG-SVC) to Israel and the occupied West Bank 29 January–14 February 2024,” para. 75, March 4, 2024.↩︎

  252. AL ISR 1/2024, February 7, 2024, posted on the website of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, “Mandates of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences; the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 and the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls,” https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=28727↩︎

  253. “The experts expressed concern that an unknown number of Palestinian women and children, including girls, have reportedly gone missing after contact with the Israeli army in Gaza. ‘There are disturbing reports of at least one female infant forcibly transferred by the Israeli army into Israel, and of children being separated from their parents, whose whereabouts remain unknown,’ they said.” “UN experts appalled by reported human rights violations against Palestinian women and girls,” Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, February 19, 2024, seven “experts,” the first and second being Alsalem and Albanese, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/02/israelopt-un-experts-appalled-reported-human-rights-violations-against↩︎

  254. “We are particularly distressed by reports that Palestinian women and girls in detention have also been subjected to multiple forms of sexual assault, such as being stripped naked and searched by male Israeli army officers. At least two female Palestinian detainees were reportedly raped while others were reportedly threatened with rape and sexual violence.” “UN experts appalled by reported human rights violations against Palestinian women and girls,” Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, February 19, 2024, seven “experts,” the first and second being Alsalem and Albanese, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/02/israelopt-un-experts-appalled-reported-human-rights-violations-against↩︎

  255. Interview conducted by Bar Shem-Ur, Hazorfim, aired on Hazinor, Channel 13, March 5, 2024, https://twitter.com/i/status/1764990599172694319↩︎

  256. Interview conducted by Bar Shem-Ur, Hazorfim, aired on Hazinor, Channel 13, March 5, 2024, https://twitter.com/i/status/1764990599172694319↩︎

  257. “Human Rights Council–Press conference: UN Special Rapporteur on the OPT,” Francesca Albanese, March 27, 2024, https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k19/k199zd7ei5↩︎

  258. “Human Rights Council–Press conference: UN Special Rapporteur on the OPT,” Francesca Albanese, March 27, 2024, https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k19/k199zd7ei5↩︎

  259. “Conflict-related sexual violence,” Report of the Secretary-General, S/2024/292, April 4, 2024, https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/4044629/files/S_2024_292-EN.pdf?ln=en↩︎

  260. “Conflict-related sexual violence,” Report of the Secretary-General, S/2024/292, April 4, 2024, paras. 39–43, https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/4044629/files/S_2024_292-EN.pdf?ln=en↩︎

  261. Full quote: “I call upon the Government of Israel to grant, without further delay, access to relevant United Nations bodies to carry out a fully-fledged investigation into all alleged violations, including conflict-related sexual violence, to ensure justice and accountability.” “Conflict-related sexual violence,” Report of the Secretary-General, S/2024/292, April 4, 2024, para. 43, https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/4044629/files/S_2024_292-EN.pdf?ln=en↩︎

  262. “Conflict-related sexual violence,” Report of the Secretary-General, S/2024/292, April 4, 2024, paras. 36, 53, https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/4044629/files/S_2024_292-EN.pdf?ln=en↩︎

  263. Link to original video, interview with Ismail Haniyeh on Al Jazeera, December 13, 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnshQIn5R3k; translation, “Media Ignore Hamas’ Praise for the UN After Gaza Ceasefire Resolution, by Rinat Harash,” Honest Reporting, December 20, 2023, https://honestreporting.com/media-ignore-hamas-praise-for-the-un-after-gaza-ceasefire-resolution/↩︎

  264. Resistance News Network, Hamas (online channel Telegram): Monday: 15 Ramadan 1445 AH—corresponding to March 25, 2024, https://t.me/PalestineResist/33617↩︎

  265. In April 2002 UN behavior was a major contributing factor to an atmosphere of anti-Israel hysteria over an alleged Israeli “massacre” in Jenin, labeled even in a Fatah-authored report as “the suicide bomber’s capital.” Terje Larsen, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, told the world the scene in Jenin was “horrific beyond belief,” “totally destroyed…like an earthquake; we have expert people here who…say they have never seen anything like it.” Peter Hansen, Commissioner General of UNRWA, called it “a human catastrophe that had few parallels in recent history.” UN press releases blazed: “End the horrors in the camps.” Buried in paragraph 57 of a report issued by the Secretary-General months later was the fact that the Palestinian death toll had been 52, more than half of whom were armed combatants. The impression of a massacre at Israeli hands is what remains in the public consciousness. Report of the Secretary-General prepared pursuant to General Assembly resolution ES-10/10 (Report on Jenin), A/ES-10/186, July 30, 2002, https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/470313/files/A_ES-10_186-EN.pdf?ln=en↩︎

  266. Lenny Ben-David, “The Casualty Figures in Gaza Are a Scam,” Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, November 30, 2023, https://jcpa.org/article/the-casualty-figures-in-gaza-are-a-scam/; Benjamin Fox, Samy Suissa, and David Langleben, “‘Indiscriminate Killings’ in Gaza? The Facts Suggest Otherwise,” Jewish Journal, December 6, 2023, https://jewishjournal.com/commentary/366055/indiscriminate-killings-in-gaza-the-facts-suggest-otherwise/; Lenny Ben-David, “A Coordinated Media Attack on Israel by the New York Times, Washington Post, and CNN,” Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, December 28, 2023, https://jcpa.org/article/a-coordinated-media-attack-on-israel-by-the-new-york-times-washington-post-and-cnn/; Tom Simpson, Lewi Stone, and Gregory Rose, “Statistically Impossible: A Critical Analysis of Hamas’s Women and Children Casualty Figures,” Fathom, March 2024, https://fathomjournal.org/statistically-impossible-a-critical-analysis-of-hamass-women-and-children-casualty-figures/; tweet thread by Salo Aizenberg, Twitter account @Aizenberg55, March 3, 2024, https://twitter.com/Aizenberg55/status/1764317959327989907?s=20; Abraham Wyner, “How the Gaza Ministry of Health Fakes Casualty Numbers,” Tablet, March 6, 2024, https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/how-gaza-health-ministry-fakes-casualty-numbers; “Gaza Fatality Data Has Become Completely Unreliable,” Washington Institute for Near East Policy, March 26, 2024, https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/gaza-fatality-data-has-become-completely-unreliable; Gabriel Epstein, “How Hamas Manipulates Gaza Fatality Numbers,” Washington Institute for Near East Policy, No. 144, January 2024, https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/media/7168; Mark Zlochin and Gabriel Epstein, “The numbers of dead in Gaza don’t add up—and there is no easy explanation,” The Telegraph, March 28, 2024, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/terror-and-security/unrwa-staff-death-toll-gaza-israel-hamas-war-data/; Elder of Ziyon, “More evidence that Gaza death statistics are not close to accurate,” March 28, 2024, https://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2024/03/more-evidence-that-gaza-death.html?m=1; “Hamas-Run Gaza Health Ministry Admits to Flaws in Casualty Data,” Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), April 9, 2024, https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2024/04/09/hamas-run-gaza-health-ministry-admits-to-flaws-in-casualty-data/↩︎

  267. Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health, April 6, 2024, Telegram channel, https://t.me/MOHMediaGaza/5271; Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health, April 3, 2024, Telegram channel, https://t.me/MOHMediaGaza/5258↩︎

  268. As per screenshots in the Jerusalem Post, on May 6, OCHA’s chart shows 34,735 people allegedly killed in Gaza and this total included over 9,500 women and over 14,500 children. On May 8, OCHA’s chart shows 34,844 people allegedly killed and this total now includes very precisely 4,949 women and 7,797 children. And for the first time, OCHA’s chart mentions large numbers are unidentified—or as they put it, “24,686 identified.” “UN seemingly halves estimate of Gazan women, children killed,” Jerusalem Post, May 13, 2024, https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-800772; see also: “Hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel—reported impact | Day 217…Reported Casualties, (Cumulative) as of 9 May 2024,” United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), May 13, 2024, https://www.ochaopt.org/content/hostilities-gaza-strip-and-israel-reported-impact-day-217↩︎

  269. Emphasis added. Dennis Francis (Trinidad and Tobago), President of the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Twitter account of the UN General Assembly President, @UN_PGA, February 29, 2024, https://twitter.com/UN_PGA/status/1763423493138305529↩︎

  270. Emphasis added. Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel), International Court of Justice, Order, para. 46, January 26, 2024, https://www.icj-cij.org/case/192/orders↩︎

  271. “Hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel—Reported Impact, January 24, 2024, at 23:59,” OCHA, https://www.unocha.org/publications/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/hostilities-gaza-strip-and-israel-reported-impact-24-january-2024-2359↩︎

  272. “Hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel—Reported Impact, January 24, 2024, at 23;59,” OCHA, https://www.unocha.org/publications/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/hostilities-gaza-strip-and-israel-reported-impact-24-january-2024-2359↩︎

  273. See above, section “Rely on Hamas for Statistics and Facts.”↩︎

  274. The UN refused to condemn Hamas or identify its heinous actions as “terrorism.” The UN has no definition of terrorism, precisely because Islamic states refuse to include targeting Israelis within any definition.↩︎

  275. For instance: “Israel must rescind evacuation order for northern Gaza and comply with international law: UN expert,” October 13, 2023, https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k11/k11c14od40; “Geneva Press Briefing: Situation in the Middle East Only—UNHCR, OCHA, ICRC, UNICEF, and WHO,” October 13, 2023, https://media.un.org/en/asset/k11/k11c14od40; tweet by OCHA head Martin Griffiths, @UNReliefChief, October 13, 2023, https://twitter.com/UNReliefChief/status/1712805386837770535?s=20; “Statement by World Health Organization (WHO),” October 14, 2023, https://www.who.int/news/item/14-10-2023-evacuation-orders-by-israel-to-hospitals-in-northern-gaza-are-a-death-sentence-for-the-sick-and-injured; tweet by WHO in occupied Palestinian territory, @WHOoPt, October 15, 2023, https://twitter.com/WHOoPt/status/1713622370584322458; “Latest: Occupied Palestinian Territory/Israel,” Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, October 17, 2023, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-briefing-notes/2023/10/latest-occupied-palestinian-territoryisrael; “UN experts decry bombing of hospitals and schools as crimes against humanity, call for prevention of genocide,” Press Release, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, October 19, 2023, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/10/gaza-un-experts-decry-bombing-hospitals-and-schools-crimes-against-humanity↩︎

  276. “The Shifa Hospital: Live Updates Regarding All Terrorist Infrastructure Located,” website of the Israel Defense Forces, November 20, 2023, https://www.idf.il/en/mini-sites/hamas-israel-war-24/all-articles/the-shifa-hospital-live-updates-regarding-all-terrorist-infrastructure-located/; Press Briefing by IDF Spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, April 1, 2024, IDF website, https://www.idf.il/en/mini-sites/hamas-israel-war-24/briefings-by-idf-spokesperson-rear-admiral-daniel-hagari/april-24-press-briefings/press-briefing-by-idf-spokesperson-rear-admiral-daniel-hagari-april-1-2024/↩︎

  277. “Hamas Brings Hostages to Shifa Hospital (Part I),” YouTube account of the Israel Defense Forces, November 20, 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnwYsBlBxyw; “Hamas Brings Hostages to Shifa Hospital (Part II),” YouTube account of the Israel Defense Forces, November 20, 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHfYk8tvsOc↩︎

  278. For instance: Jens Laerke, OCHA: “We have no capacity or mandate to do an evacuation, and it’s certainly not on us to evacuate anyone.… There is only one solution, and that is to rescind this order.” “Geneva Press Briefing: Situation in the Middle East Only—UNHCR, OCHA, ICRC, UNICEF, and WHO,” October 13, 2023, https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k11/k11c14od40; Secretary-General’s Spokesperson: QUESTION: “The Israeli Government said that they want the UN to help with the evacuations. Is there any will on your side to help with this?” SPOKESMAN: “…We will not be party to forced displacement of people.” Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, Daily Press Briefing by the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General, February 12, 2024, https://press.un.org/en/2024/db240212.doc.htm↩︎

  279. “Statement by Principals of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee, Humanitarian chiefs will not take part in unilateral proposals to create ‘safe zones’ in Gaza,” November 16, 2023, https://interagencystandingcommittee.org/about-inter-agency-standing-committee/statement-principals-inter-agency-standing-committee-humanitarian-chiefs-will-not-take-part↩︎

  280. Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner General, United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA): “The United Nations and several member states, including the U.S., have firmly rejected forcibly displacing Gazans out of the Gaza Strip.” “Opinion: We must prevent humanitarian aid from being used as an instrument of war,” Los Angeles Times, December 9, 2023, https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2023-12-09/israel-gaza-hamas-united-nations-humanitarian-relief; Secretary-General’s Spokesperson: “We are completely against forced displacement…no one should be advocating for mass displacements of Palestinians out of Gaza.” Florencia Soto Niño, Associate Spokesperson for the Secretary-General, Daily Press Briefing by the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General, January 3, 2024, https://press.un.org/en/2024/db240103.doc.htm; Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees: “An exodus of Gazans into Egypt must be ‘avoided at all costs’…the UN refugees chief said. ‘The position of Egypt has been very clear. People should not go across the border.’” “Gazans Should Not Flee To Egypt: UN Refugees Chief,” AFP, Barron’s News, February 16, 2024, https://www.barrons.com/news/gazans-should-not-flee-to-egypt-un-refugees-chief-4dfc89c0↩︎

  281. “Status of Palestine in the United Nations,” Resolution of the General Assembly, A/RES/67/19, adopted November 29, 2012, https://undocs.org/A/RES/67/19↩︎

  282. Acceded to by the “State of Palestine,” April 2, 2014.↩︎

  283. https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/refugees-asylum-seekers-and-migrants/#definitions; see also: “The right to flee from danger and seek safe haven ought to be something we all innately understand.” https://www.amnestyusa.org/updates/everyone-has-the-right-to-seek-asylum/↩︎

  284. Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees: “An exodus of Gazans into Egypt must be ‘avoided at all costs’…the UN refugees chief said. ‘The position of Egypt has been very clear. People should not go across the border.’” “Gazans Should Not Flee To Egypt: UN Refugees Chief,” AFP, Barron’s News, February 16, 2024, https://www.barrons.com/news/gazans-should-not-flee-to-egypt-un-refugees-chief-4dfc89c0; Filippo Grandi, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)” “‘[W]e must fervently do everything’ to avoid such an outflow of the Gazan population.” “UN refugee chief says outflow of Gazans into Egypt would make conflict resolution impossible,” April 12, 2024, Reuters, https://www.reuters.com/world/un-refugee-chief-says-outflow-gazans-into-egypt-would-make-conflict-resolution-2024-04-12/↩︎

  285. “Declaring Israel’s occupation of Palestine unlawful is legitimate—Judge Navi Pillay,” Newzroom Afrika, February 2, 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOt-IoLW4Ic↩︎

  286. In full, the statement reads:

    The Court test for deciding whether to impose measures, uses the idea of plausibility, but the test is the plausibility of the rights, that are asserted by the applicant, in this case South Africa. So, the Court decided that the Palestinians had a plausible right to be protected from genocide and that South Africa had the right to present that claim in the Court. In then looked at the facts as well, but it did not decide—and this is something where I’m correcting what’s often said in the media—it didn’t decide that the claim of genocide was plausible. It did emphasize in the Order that there was a risk of irreparable harm to the Palestinian right to be protected from genocide. But the short-hand that often appears, that there is a plausible case of genocide, isn’t what the Court decided.

    “Former head of ICJ explains ruling on genocide case against Israel brought by S Africa,” Interviewing Joan Donoghue, HARDtalk, BBC, April 25, 2024, https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-middle-east-68906919↩︎

  287. In UN circles, the fires of antisemitism now spreading to Jews outside of Isael as a corollary of legitimizing Palestinian violence inside of Israel count— for even less. On the contrary, the likes of Francesca Albanese are encouraging more hate speech and chaos on the streets and campuses of America and elsewhere (in the name of—her list—peace, law, values, rights, human rights, equal rights, justice, freedom, dignity, non-discrimination, mass intersectional consciousness, and climate change). (“Love” didn’t make the cut.) Francesca Albanese, Twitter account @FranceskAlba, April 22, 2024, https://twitter.com/FranceskAlbs/status/1782283476902822323↩︎

  288. Emphasis added. Tor Wennesland, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, at Sunday, October 8, 2023, Twitter account of UNSCO—Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, @UNSCO_MEPP, https://twitter.com/UNSCO_MEPP/status/1711015931726463146↩︎

  289. Emphasis added. The lead name of the group is Albanese. “UN experts deplore attacks on civilians, call for truce and urge international community to address root causes of violence,” October 12, 2023, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/10/israeloccupied-palestinian-territory-un-experts-deplore-attacks-civilians↩︎

  290. Polish Jewish refugee Raphael Lemkin.↩︎

  291. “Palestinian Leader: Number of Jewish Victims in the Holocaust Might be ‘Even Less Than a Million…’ Zionist Movement Collaborated with Nazis to ‘Expand the Mass Extermination’ of the Jews,” MEMRI, Inquiry & Analysis Series No. 95, May 31, 2002, https://www.memri.org/reports/palestinian-leader-number-jewish-victims-holocaust-might-be-even-less-million-zionist↩︎

  292. “He Said It All Already In 2018 And More: Jews Poison Wells—Mahmoud Abbas’s Antisemitism And Holocaust Denial In Perspective,” MEMRI, Special Dispatch No. 10799, September 18, 2023, https://www.memri.org/reports/he-said-it-all-already-2018-and-more-jews-poison-wells-%E2%80%93-mahmoud-abbass-antisemitism-and#_edn10↩︎

  293. “Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas: Jews ‘Have No Right to Defile the Al-Aqsa Mosque with Their Filthy Feet,” MEMRI TV, #5850, source: Palestinian Authority TV, September 16, 2015, https://www.memri.org/tv/palestinian-president-mahmoud-abbas-jews-have-no-right-defile-al-aqsa-mosque-their-filthy-feet↩︎

  294. “Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas During Press Conference With German Chancellor: Israel Has Committed 50 Holocausts Against The Palestinian People,” MEMRI TV, #9761, source: Al-Jazeera Network (Qatar), https://www.memri.org/tv/pa-president-abbas-press-conference-germany-israel-commits-fifty-holocausts↩︎

  295. “The Persecution Of The Jews In Europe Throughout History Was Due To ‘Their Function In Society, Which Had To Do With Usury, Banks, And So On,’” MEMRI TV, Special Dispatch No. 10799, September 18, 2023, https://www.memri.org/reports/he-said-it-all-already-2018-and-more-jews-poison-wells-%E2%80%93-mahmoud-abbass-antisemitism-and↩︎

  296. “Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at EU Parliament: Israeli Rabbis Urged to Poison Palestinian Water,” MEMRI TV #5537, source: Palestinian Authority TV, June 23, 2016, 00:37–00:46, https://www.memri.org/tv/palestinian-authority-president-mahmoud-abbas-eu-parliament-israeli-rabbis-urged-poison↩︎

  297. See, for instance: “The Ideology Of Hamas—In Its Own Words,” MEMRI, #10899, October 23, 2023, https://www.memri.org/reports/ideology-hamas-%E2%80%93-its-own-words; “‘The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion’ In The Hamas Charter: Islamization Of Western Antisemitism And Its Integration Into The Jihad Against The Jews,” MEMRI, #1748, February 26, 2024, https://www.memri.org/reports/protocols-elders-zion-hamas-charter-islamization-western-antisemitism-and-its-integration; “Based on Koranic Verses, Interpretations, and Traditions, Muslim Clerics State: The Jews Are the Descendants of Apes, Pigs, And Other Animals,” MEMRI #11, October 31, 2002, https://www.memri.org/reports/based-koranic-verses-interpretations-and-traditions-muslim-clerics-state-jews-are↩︎

  298. “The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement,” available at: https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hamas.asp↩︎

  299. “A Document of General Principles & Policies,” Hamas, May 2017, https://irp.fas.org/world/para/docs/hamas-2017.pdf↩︎

  300. For instance: “Hamas Official Sheikh Hamad Al-Regeb Refers To Jews As ‘Brothers Of Apes And Pigs’ During A Rafah Friday Sermon, Prays For Annihilation Of Polytheists And Atheists, Adds: ‘Oh Allah, Enable Us To Get To The Necks Of The Jews,’” MEMRI TV, #10220, source: Online “Al-Abrar Mosque on YouTube,” April 7, 2023, https://www.memri.org/tv/rafah-gaza-friday-sermon-hamas-official-regeb-allah-necks-jews-annihilate-them; “Former Hamas Interior Minister Fathi Hammad: We Will Annihilate the Brothers of Apes and Pigs,” MEMRI TV, #4632, source: Al-Jazeera Network (Qatar), October 31, 2014, https://www.memri.org/tv/former-hamas-interior-minister-fathi-hammad-we-will-annihilate-brothers-apes-and-pigs; “Hamas MP Fathi Hammad Slams Arab and Islamic Regimes for Being Ruled by ‘4 Million Brothers of Apes and Pigs,’” MEMRI TV, #1688, source: Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas/Gaza), https://www.memri.org/tv/hamas-mp-fathi-hammad-slams-arab-and-islamic-regimes-being-ruled-4-million-brothers-apes-and-pigs↩︎

  301. See above, section on “Mount a ‘Not Antisemitism’ Campaign”; see above, note 66; see also “Daily Press Briefing by the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General Stéphane Dujarric,” February 12, 2024, in which the spokesperson—in response to a question from a reporter—made a comment that failed to address this pivotal issue directly and unequivocally. https://press.un.org/en/2024/db240212.doc.htm↩︎

  302. See, for instance: post by Francesca Albanese on her Facebook page, “In the first pic a Nazi soldier, a dog, and a man on the ground—who is a Jew. In the second pic an Israeli soldier, a dog, and a man on the ground—who is a Palestinian.” Facebook page Francesca Albanese, November 29, 2015, https://www.facebook.com/franci.albanese/posts/10153014874326706↩︎

  303. Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur, Twitter account, @FranceskAlbs, October 15, 2023, https://twitter.com/FranceskAlbs/status/1713513705533473243↩︎

  304. Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur, Twitter account, @FranceskAlbs, December 4, 2023, https://twitter.com/FranceskAlbs/status/1731646447777427668↩︎

  305. Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur, Twitter account, @FranceskAlbs, December 22, 2023, https://twitter.com/FranceskAlbs/status/1738312950111248855↩︎

  306. “UN Special Rapporteur On The Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca P. Albanese: What Is Happening Today Is Similar To The Holocaust; The Holocaust Does Not Give Israel The Right To Destroy The Palestinian People,” MEMRI TV, #10793, source: Interview on Alghad TV (Egypt), January 8, 2024, https://www.memri.org/tv/francesca-albanese-un-palestine-holocaust-israel-destroy↩︎

  307. Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian Territories occupied since 1967, Press Conference during the UN Human Rights Council session, March 27, 2024, https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k19/k199zd7ei5↩︎

  308. While particularly fanatical, Albanese is not alone in UN circles in pushing this ultimate slander. Noureddin Amir (Algeria), Member of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination: “75 years later it is the same state that continues to take a stand against the international community, against international law.… [T]he horrible Holocaust, where…six million Jews were exterminated. So, what is happening today? Today, there is a new Holocaust and it is the Palestinian people that are paying the price.… We are living a true Holocaust, a veritable Holocaust and the international community must be seized of this, to put an end to this.” 3020th Meeting, 111th Session, Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), November 20, 2023, https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1m/k1m0vprv07↩︎

  309. “Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas In U.N. General Assembly Speech: U.S., Britain Created Israel To Get Rid Of Their Jews; The Israelis Lie Like Goebbels,” MEMRI TV, #10291, source: Palestinian Authority TV, May 15, 2023, https://www.memri.org/tv/pa-president-abbas-usa-britain-established-israel-get-rid-of-jews-no-historical-evidence (1:48–1:55 original Arabic); also “High-level event to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Nakba at the UN Headquarters in New York,” May 15, 2023 (UN translation into English varies slightly), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gq5RX_znbXQ↩︎

  310. On May 20, 2024, the Prosecutor of the ICC, Karim Khan, announced he had filed applications for arrest warrants to the Pre-Trial Chamber of the ICC against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri (Deif), and Ismail Haniyeh. A detailed analysis of this development is beyond the scope of this paper. But one thing is immediately clear. It has UN fingerprints, such as those of Navi Pillay, all over it. The simultaneous prosecution of Hamas terrorists and the democratically-elected defenders of the Jewish state is a perversion of justice, not equal justice. Even-handedness between those committed to perpetrating genocide and those committed to preventing it—the again side and the never-again side—is the problem. Or the latest UN solution to the continued existence of the State of Israel. “Statement of ICC Prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan KC: Applications for arrest warrants in the situation in the State of Palestine,” May 20, 2024, https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/statement-icc-prosecutor-karim-aa-khan-kc-applications-arrest-warrants-situation-state↩︎