UN Watch Shadow Report Exposes Palestinian Antisemitism Ahead of First UN Racism Review
Posted on 12 August 2019
GENEVA, August 12, 2019 — One day before the “State of Palestine” undergoes its first review by the UN’s anti-racism committee, UN Watch announced its submission of a 32-page shadow report documenting gross and systematic antisemitism by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, as well as the failure of the PA to acknowledge any of this in its own report before the world body.
The UN Watch submission provides a resource for UN committee members in their questioning of the Palestinian delegation, and puts on record key facts before a global audience. Moreover, UN Watch is sending a delegation to address the meeting tomorrow, to brief the UN committee experts, and to monitor its proceedings.
“We exposed how the PA’s submission to the UN committee is a sham: it makes no mention at all of racist and discriminatory Palestinian practices, and inappropriately seeks to shift the focus of the review onto Israel. We implore the UN’s anti-racism committee to look beyond the PA report and to diligently scrutinize Palestinian practices in line with the committee’s objectives,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch.
According to the United Nations website, UN Watch was one of only four groups in the world to submit a report for the Palestinian session, and the only universal human rights group to do so. Two of the four who submitted are pro-PLO front groups, the “International Alliance for Peace and Development” and “Maat for Peace,” both run by Ayman Okeil.
Notably, groups like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International—which lobbied for the Palestinians to be recognized as a state for the purpose of signing human rights treaties, saying this would hold them to account—failed to make any submission for this first review of the Palestinians by the UN anti-racism committee.
UN Watch’s detailed submission reveals that the PA and Hamas routinely violate international commitments to combatting racism, through laws, policies, and statements aimed at denying any Jewish rights in Israel or the Palestinian-controlled territories.
By contrast, in its own report, the PA shirks its obligations as a party to the anti-racism convention by failing to address the problem of racism in Palestinian law and society, and instead seeking repeatedly to blame Israel.
“The PA exploits the reporting process of the anti-racism committee as yet another UN vehicle to attack Israel. This is a waste of the committee’s time and resources, as Israel is subject to its own review later this year,” said Neuer.
Read in full: UN Watch Shadow Report Exposes Palestinian Antisemitism Ahead of First UN Racism Review