UN Watch – Jewish Refugees Day: ‘Algeria, where are your Jews?’
Today is Jewish Refugees Day, when we remember the fate of 850,000 Jewish refugees forced out of Arab countries and Iran in the 20th century. Communities dating back 2,500 years were destroyed.
At the United Nations, UN Watch’s Hillel Neuer asked Algeria, Egypt, Iraq and the others: “Where are your Jews?”
We’re still waiting for an answer.
Debate on U.N Human Rights Council Agenda Item Targeting Israel
March 20, 2017
PLO: “Israel has used the worst kinds of abuse, ethnic cleansing and imposing a regime of apartheid.”
Qatar: “Israel continues to exercise apartheid in Palestine, which constitutes a crime against humanity.”
Sudan: “Violence and terrorism are being exercised against the Palestinian people.”
Syria: “Violations including building of apartheid walls… to legitimize theft of land and to Judaize Jerusalem.”
Bahrain: “The separation wall is an example of the apartheid policy practiced by Israel.”
Saudi Arabia: “Israel’s practices of discrimination and extremism…”
UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer: Mr. President, let me begin by putting the following on the record: Everything we just heard — from the world’s worst abusers of human rights, of women’s rights, of freedom of religion, of the press, of assembly, of speech — is absolutely false; and, indeed, Orwellian.
Today’s report does not consider Israelis to be deserving of human rights — consistent with the approach of this council, where today’s notorious agenda item against Israel completely ignores their human rights.
Over the weekend, President Abbas announced he was giving his highest medal to Rima Khalaf, who resigned from the Economic and Social Commission of Western Asia, a Beirut-based UN agency of 18 Arab states, after Secretary General Guterres rightly instructed her to remove an absurd report which accused Israel of “apartheid.”
Mr. President, why is Mr. Abbas celebrating a report written by the notorious Richard Falk, after his own Palestinian Mission here, tried in 2010, to remove Mr. Falk on the basis that he was “a partisan of Hamas,” as we know from WikiLeaks?
The accusation against Israel is absurd. Israel’s 1.5 million Arabs…
Objections by Palestinians, Egypt, and Pakistan.
President gives UN Watch back the floor.
Hillel Neuer: Thank you, Mr. President.
Israel’s 1.5 million Arabs, whatever challenges they face, enjoy full rights to vote and to be elected in the Knesset, they work as doctors and lawyers, they serve on the Supreme Court.
Now I’d like to ask the members of that commission, that commissioned that report, the Arab states from which we just heard. Egypt, Iraq, and the others:
How many Jews live in your countries? How many Jews lived in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco?
Once upon a time, the Middle East was full of Jews.
Algeria had 140,000 Jews. Algeria, where
Egypt used to have 75,000 Jews. Where are your
Syria, you had tens of thousands of Jews. Where are your Jews?
Iraq, you had over 135,000 Jews. Where are your
Mr. President, where is the apartheid?
Why is there a U.N. commission on the Middle East that does not include Israel? From the 1960s and the ‘70s they refuse to include Israel. Where is the apartheid, Mr. President?
Mr. President, why are we meeting today on an agenda item singling out only one state, the Jewish state, for targeting.
Where is the apartheid, Mr. President?
UNHRC chamber goes silent.
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