• ‍During the height of the Gaza protests this spring, UNRWA-run schools were closed, encouraging students to join the protest and riot at the border.
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• The UN Security Council has refused to explicitly condemn Hamas’ border riots, missiles, terrorist tunnels and attacks on Israeli civilians, even as it condemned the actions Israel took in self-defense.
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• In its 12-year existence, the UN Human Rights Council has held eight special sessions to specifically target Israel…but done virtually nothing on Syria and other serial human rights abusers around the world.

Dear Supporter,

The United Nations has great potential to promote human dignity and combat hatred and intolerance. But I can tell you that today, as far as it concerns the Jewish people, the situation at the UN is worse than any of us at Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies (FSWC) have ever seen it.

From the UN Human Rights Council’s ongoing targeting of Israel, to the UN Relief and Works Agency’s (UNRWA) schools in the Palestinian territories lauding terrorists and refusing to acknowledge the Jewish State’s existence, to the UN Security Council failing to condemn Hamas terrorism, we are facing a steep, uphill battle to defend Israel and the Jewish people on the world’s most important stage.

I refuse to stand by and say nothing as our brothers and sisters in the Jewish State are maligned on the world stage. FSWC has pledged to continue to advocate for Israel, defend the Jewish State from unfair attacks, and speak out on behalf of the Jewish people worldwide. Won’t you partner with us?

You understand that no one group can takethis task on alone. But thanks to you and your fellow supporters, FSWC and our partners worldwide are well positioned on the front lines to make a difference for Israel and the Jewish people.

And today, we urgently need your help. I’m writing you today to ask for your immediate contribution to ensure FSWC has the resources in place to monitor and expose events at the UN…and fight back!

With your help, we will stand firm with our partners at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the only Jewish NGO accredited to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, and one of the few Jewish NGOs at the United Nations.

For over two decades, the Wiesenthal Center has been using this high-level access to combat anti-Jewish bias at these agencies. You and I play an important role in making this work possible, and with your help today, we can fulfill our sacred obligation to speak out on behalf of all concerned Jews.

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Targeting Israel at the UN Human Rights Council

You know, of course, about the outrageous and nefarious anti-Israel resolutions by the UN Human Rights Council. That agency has perverted its mandate so much that the U.S. recently announced it would withdraw.

As it heaps continual abuse on Israel,serving as a rubber-stamping kangaroo court, the UNHRC ignores horrific human rights abuses around the world and provides diplomatic safe haven for state sponsors of terrorism and human rights abuse like Iran. 

Indeed, as thecasualty numbers of Palestinian casualties climbed from Hamas’ recent so-called“March of Return” riots at the Gaza-Israel border, the Human Rights Councilissued a resolution condemning Israel without ever once mentioning Hamas andits provocations.

I’m sure you know at least some of the truth: Since the protests began at the end of March, hundreds of kites and helium balloons have been flown into Israel outfitted with Molotov cocktails and containers of burning fuel. These makeshift incendiaries have set more than 250 fires in the Gaza periphery and destroyed some 17,500 dunams (4,300 acres) of land, the majority of it in nature reserves and parks.

Meanwhile, Hamas’cynical but effective PR machine records each shooting, death, and funeral to go viral on social media and live on Al Jazeera. Families’ cooperation with Hamas translates into $3,000 for every dead Palestinian.

And yet, like clockwork, Hamas is rewarded for its brutal policies by nations that routinely pass one-sided resolutions at the U.N. General Assembly and U.N.Human Rights Council to sanction Israel — but never the Palestinians. Only the threat of U.S. vetoes at the Security Council thwarts more dangerous,anti-Israel moves.

For all of these reasons and more, the Wiesenthal Center has applauded the U.S. withdrawal from this dangerously biased agency. Now we are urging other democracies to follow the U.S. lead and leave the UNHRC as well.

UNRWA: Teaching Palestinian Children to Hate Jews

UNRWA is the United Nations agency that handles medical and education for the Palestinian territories and elsewhere in the Middle East. It claims they use a “peace curriculum.”

I ask you, how peaceful can their curriculum be when PA schoolbooks celebrate “martyrdom” against Jews…refer to Israel as the “Zionist occupier”…and even erase all mention of the Jewish State from the map?

In addition to their textbooks never mentioning the State of Israel, maps identify even Tel Aviv by a phony Arabic name, and poems glorify fallen terrorists, while teachers instruct students to hold up a symbolic key that gives them claim over Israeli land — every inch, from the Mediterranean to the Jordan.

Students as young as six or seven are taught to accept and even engage in a violent struggle for the end of Israel and the “removal” of its Jewish citizens. Year after year, children are indoctrinated with the dangerous goal of “liberation of Palestine from Zionist occupation.”

UNRWA is the single largest employer in Gaza. In face-to-face meetings with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and other senior officials, the Wiesenthal Center is urging the UN leadership to take responsibility and reform the Hamas-dominated agency whose young students are indoctrinated to become pawns of terrorists.

Slow Change Coming to UNESCO

You no doubt remember me telling you about the outrageous campaign at UNESCO to recast Jewish historic places as belonging to the Arab world. Since 2011 when the Palestinians were awarded entry into UNESCO, the Arab bloc has systematically tried to claim key religious and historic sites – from the Church of the Nativity, to the Western Wall and the Temple Mount – as “Palestinian.”

But as an NGO at UNESCO and with a strong relationship with UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay, we have been pressing for meaningful changes.

Of course, you know about our groundbreaking exhibition People, Book, Land – The 3,500-Year Relationship of the Jewish People With the Holy Land, co-sponsored by UNESCO.

This powerful and effective narrative tells the true story of the Jewish people’s long and enduring history in the Land of Israel premiered at UNESCO world headquarters in Paris before moving to the U.S. Congress and UN headquarters in New York. It has been presented in Italian at the Vatican, In Japanese in Tokyo, in Danish in Copenhagen, in Spanish in Buenos Aires and Santiago, in France at the European Commission in Strasbourg, at the UK’s House of Commons in London, at Israel’s Knesset in Jerusalem and even in the 96% Muslim nation of Azerbaijan.

We have provided Hillel International with five sets of this powerful exhibit to travel to universities across North America, empowering Jewish students with pride in our history and bringing the truth about Israel and the Jewish people directly to these campuses.

And we continue to monitor developments at UNESCO, sounding the alarm when enemies continue their campaigns at the UN’s cultural arm.

Historic Expertise and a Deep Bench

Together with our partners, our 25-year history with the United Nations and our relationships with international diplomats are key to making your voice heard on the world stage. 

But we also have a deep bench of partners working on your behalf at the United Nations in both New York and Europe. My colleague, Dr. Shimon Samuels, the Wiesenthal Center’s Director of International Affairs, routinely speaks out against Palestinian anti-Semitism and the singling out of Israel for unfair criticism by international agencies.

Dr. Samuels personally attends UNESCO meetings in Paris, defending Israel from its attackers and staunchly pushing back against Palestinian efforts to erase the Jewish identity of the Western Wall and re brand our ancient holy sites as Muslim. And his presence at UN meetings in Geneva is invaluable.

Meanwhile, Government Affairs Director Mark Weitzman recently helped secure a historic breakthrough when thirty-one European nations adopted a new definition of anti-Semitism. Now he is calling upon the UN to immediately appoint a Special Representative on anti-Semitism to investigate and act on increasing appearances of anti-Jewish hate at the UN.

But you know that no matter how outrageous their actions, Palestinians can always count on the UN and its agencies to give them a moral free pass.

And it is always Israel that bears the brunt of unjustified and unending condemnation, it is Israel that is accused of war crimes, and it is Israel whose response to terrorist attacks against innocent families is denounced as“disproportionate.”

All this contributes to the toxic image of Israel and her supporters among millions of people around the world, particularly in Europe.

Which is why we must not rest. But with your special support, together we can make a vital difference, giving us the leverage we need to stand with Israel in world capitals, at the UN, in international media,and with NGOs.

Please act today. We urgently need your support to continue to fight the battles that matter most to you, your family and our shared future.

Sincerely,

Avi Benlolo
President and CEO

P.S. The situation at the UN has rarely been more dangerous for the State of Israel. You and I can make a difference in this fight! Please make a generous contribution today.