House members heard testimony Wednesday on what one lawmaker called "rampant antisemitism and systematic anti-Israel bias" at the United Nations.
"Make no mistake, antisemitic bigotry is at the root of the U.N.'s hostility to Israel, which is ugly, evil, and manifests itself in almost every U.N. entity," said Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) the chair of the Global Human Rights Subcommittee. "The United Nations is unquestionably the world's foremost legitimizer of antisemitism, including its most virulent and violent forms."
The hearing came after calls for the U.N. Secretary-General to resign when he seemed to justify the Hamas massacre of Israelis. And it focused on one agency in particular, where U.N. employees openly celebrated the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
It also follows Iran's recent appointment to chair a U.N. Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva despite the regime's egregious human rights violations and help in planning the terrorist attacks against innocent Israeli civilians.
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In its new report, the group U.N. Watch documents how 20 teachers and staff members of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) rejoiced over the massacre of Israeli civilians in their social media accounts.
U.N. Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer quoted a post by UNWRA Gaza teacher Osama Ahmed after the Hamas atrocities.
"Allah is great, Allah is great, reality surpasses our wildest dreams," the post read.
Neuer told the subcommittee that the celebration of the attack by UNRWA staff should not have been a surprise, considering what was already known about the agency's association with Hamas.
"UNRWA staff regularly called to murder Jews, and created teaching materials that glorify terrorism, encourage martyrdom, demonize Israelis and incite anti-Semitism," Neuer said.
Middle East expert Dr. Jonathan Schanzer of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the committee, "UNRWA employees have been exposed as members of Hamas, the terrorist organization that slaughtered 14 hundred Israelis in cold blood on Oct. 7. This might explain why UNRWA's educational materials refer to Israel as the enemy, teach math by counting martyred terrorists and include the phrase jihad is one of the doors to paradise in grammar lessons."
Neuer said that since the Hamas massacre, the overwhelming majority of statements by U.N. bodies and officials have pointed the finger at Israel and not Hamas, following a pattern at the U.N. in which Israel is continually held to a standard not applied to any other nation.
"At the U.N. General Assembly last year, there was one resolution on Iran, one on Syria, one on North Korea and 15 on Israel. Zero resolutions were adopted on China, Venezuela, Zimbabwe and 180 other countries," Neurer said.
Rep. Kathy Manning (D-NC) said, "There is no question that certain U.N. member states, bodies, and the general assembly have a negative, disproportionate focus on Israel and routinely support singling it out, more than any other country in the world."
In 2022 alone, UNRWA received $344 million in U.S. funding for an agency that Middle East experts say includes staff who clearly support Hamas.
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