The United Nations Human Rights Council’s (UNHRC) session in Geneva on Wednesday was marked by the interruption and scolding of pro-Israel speakers.
Meanwhile, those speaking against the Jewish state were allowed to lob insults and accusations of “genocide.”
U.N. Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer was interrupted twice while speaking out against United Nations Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, whose term is up for renewal. He was interrupted and ultimately blocked from delivering his full remarks.
The Permanent Observer Representative of the State of Palestine to the U.N. Ibrahim Khraishi first interrupted Neuer with a “point of order.” Khraishi started his remarks by saying Neuer was out of order and accused the U.N. watchdog chief of being “affiliated with the Mossad.” This claim went unchallenged by the officials running the session, who complained repeatedly about “disrespectful language.”
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Neuer called the incident “censorship in its rawest form” and said it was “a day of shame for the United Nations” in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“They let the PLO spew slander but shut down my microphone when I cited the words of France, Germany, Canada, and the United States. What is more ‘disrespectful’—reporting the fact that democracies have condemned Francesca Albanese for antisemitism, or allowing a U.N.-accredited delegate to accuse a human rights defender of being a Mossad operative?”
After the first interruption, Neuer cited precedent for bringing a complaint against a U.N. official in the council session. However, Khraishi once again objected and, at that point, the U.N. official running the session moved to proceed to the next speaker rather than let Neuer conclude.
“I was silenced today, but the truth will not be. France, Germany, Canada, the U.S., and the Netherlands have all spoken. They’ve condemned Francesca Albanese’s antisemitism. They’ve called her unfit. It’s time for every democracy to find its voice. Silence is complicity,” Neuer told Fox News Digital.
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Neuer was not the only pro-Israel speaker who was reprimanded for their language. Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust Director Anne Bayefsky was also scolded. After her video was played in the session, she was condemned for what the U.N. officials running the session deemed to be “disrespectful” and outside of “acceptable limits.”
“They don’t define terrorism. They don’t name Hamas. Albanese and [Navi] Pillay are immune from condemnation for their atrocities. There is no U.N. accountability. And for that the new American administration must hold them to account,” Bayefsky told Fox News Digital.
Albanese, who was appointed special rapporteur in 2022, has been condemned by the governments of multiple countries and faced accusations of antisemitism. According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Albanese responded to a Hamas-organized conference in Gaza by saying “you have the right to resist this occupation.” That was just a few months after her appointment to the U.N. position.
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On Wednesday, Neuer sent an official letter to Human Rights Council President Jürg Lauber urging him not to reappoint Albanese. In the letter, Neuer accuses Albanese of “routinely” violating the Code of Conduct, characterizing her breaches as “widespread, systematic and grave.”
“Failure to address this issue would gravely undermine the credibility of the UNHRC and signal an unacceptable tolerance for antisemitism within its ranks,” Neuer warned in the letter.
Albanese’s response to French President Emmanuel Macron calling the Oct. 7 attacks “the largest antisemitic massacre of our century” sparked backlash from France, the U.S. and Germany.
In February 2024, Albanese said that those killed on Oct. 7 were murdered “in response to Israel’s oppression,” and not because they were Jewish.
The French Mission to the U.N. condemned Albanese’s response in a post on X. According to the ADL’s translation, the post read: “The October 7 massacre is the largest antisemitic massacre of the 21st century. To deny it is wrong. To seem to justify it, by bringing in the name of the United Nations, is a shame.” This was just a few months after the mission condemned her “hate speech and antisemitism.”
The German Mission to the U.N. backed France’s condemnation. The office reposted France’s post and wrote, “To justify the horrific terror attacks of 7/10 & deny their antisemitic nature is appalling. Making such statements in a U.N. capacity is a disgrace and goes against everything the United Nations stand for.”
Michèle Taylor, who was serving as the U.S. ambassador to UNHRC at the time, condemned Albanese’s statements “justifying, dismissing and denying the antisemitic undertones of Hamas’ October 7 attack are in and of themselves antisemitic.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the Palestinian Mission to the U.N. regarding Khraishi’s accusation against Neuer and has yet to get a response.
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