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For years, evidence has been growing of the damning links between UN agencies – its Palestinian UNRWA in particular – and Hamas terrorism. The UNRWA was first caught out distributing violently anti-Semitic propaganda in the guise of “textbooks” for Palestinian schoolchildren. But October 7 laid bare much worse: hundreds of UN employees were also Hamas sympathisers and fighters, and some were even accused of participating in the barbaric horrors of October 7.
Israel’s Gaza invasion has exposed even more and worse. UNRWA compounds used as military bases by Hamas fighters and Hamas command centres and tunnel networks sited under UN sites. UN agencies have been supplying power, water, air and computer servers to Hamas’ military network. Armed Hamas fighters have also commandeered UN supply trains and distribution sites.
It doesn’t all stop there. Accusations of Hamas links are reaching all the way to the very top of the UN hierarchy.
The investigative unit of the United Nations opened a case probing whether pro-Hamas lobbying groups funded Francesca Albanese’s trips in 2023 to Australia and New Zealand.
The UN Office of Internal Oversight Services told Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, on June 26 that it referred his allegations against the UN special rapporteur for the Palestinians to Volker Turk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, whose office oversees the activities UN special rapporteurs.
The UN office’s email came hours after the publication of a widely-circulated video clip of JNS questioning a UN spokesman on why Albanese and other of the global body’s entities refused or ignored requests to clarify or refute details of the accusations.
Pro-Hamas groups help fund Albanese’s trips, for as much as $20,000. In return, she participated in media and fundraising events for pro-Hamas groups.
During a connected trip to New Zealand, the UN special rapporteur participated in what UN Watch calls a meeting “to lobby a major New Zealand sovereign wealth fund to divest from Israel-related companies.”
Why is a high-level UN delegate palling around with Hamas supporters? Jew-haters of a feather gonna flock together.
Albanese has a documented history of making antisemitic comments and justifying terrorism against Israel.
The French government rebuked her denial that Hamas attacked Israel on Oct 7 based on the terror group’s hatred of Jews, calling her remarks “scandalous” and “a disgrace.” The German government said her comments were “appalling.”
While Albanese’s role is a volunteer position, UN rules are clear that she cannot accept payment, including for travel, and honoraria from “any governmental or non-governmental source” for her job.
In response to the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services notification, Neuer wrote on Tuesday to Turk and Omar Zniber, president of the UN Human Rights Council, that beyond alleged financial improprieties, “it has become glaringly clear that the repeated incitement to antisemitism, violence and terrorism by Francesca Albanese is casting a shadow upon the reputation of the United Nations as whole, and in particular the work of its human rights system.”
Jewish Press
Hands up, though, who trusts the UN to investigate its own high-level delegates without fear or favour?
Possibly of a similar mind, over a hundred Israelis aren’t bothering for the UN to inevitably clear itself. They’re taking the UNRWA straight to court for aiding and abetting Hamas’ brutal terror atrocity.
The lawsuit, filed by more than 100 plaintiffs in New York Federal Court, alleges the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), and seven high-ranking officials including its head Philippe Lazzarini, assisted Hamas in building a terror infrastructure crucial for October 7.
“There is no pain in the world that compares to burying your children and grandchildren who were murdered and suffocated in their own home,” said Gadi and Reuma Kadem, two plaintiffs, in a statement included in the complaint.
“All that is left is to fight to hold those responsible for strengthening Hamas to account.
“UNRWA strengthened Hamas and transferred funds and financed the murders, acting as a full partner in the growth of Hamas terrorists.
“UNRWA and its directors are fully complicit in the murder of my children and family.”
The suit also alleges that the UNRWA channelled more than a billion dollars from a Manhattan bank to Hamas. Money they knew would be used to fund terror attacks on Jews.
“Whether defendants knew of the precise plans for the attack or its magnitude is irrelevant to their liability,” the lawsuit says.
“They knew that Hamas openly proclaimed its goal to target and murder innocent civilians in violation of the law of nations and treaties of the United States, and knew that the material support they were providing would enhance Hamas’s capability to do so” […]
The 101 plaintiffs, comprising survivors of the October 7 attack and relatives of those killed, are seeking unspecified damages.
The National
Perhaps their next step ought to be holding to account those in the UN hierarchy who were supposed to be overseeing the UNRWA. The buck doesn’t stop at some mid-level functionary’s desk.
