UN in Geneva Holds Three Events Demonizing Israel in One Day

On just one day, the UN in Geneva housed three events to paint Israel as a demonic child-killing terrorist entity. The three "informal meetings held in parallel to the session" of the UN Human Rights Council took place on September 22, 2014. They were all timed to maximize the participation of governmental and non-governmental representatives. Permission for all such events must be given by the UN secretariat, and the events are broadly advertised by the UN itself. Though the UN bulletin announcing the events carries a standard disclaimer for what may or may not be said, the application to hold the meeting in the first place must have been vetted and approved by UN staff.

The events featured speakers alleging Israel was guilty of crimes against humanity, "extermination" of Palestinians and was a terrorist entity that had no right of self-defense, period.

The first side-event, entitled "Palestine: Justice at the ICC to hold Israel to account," was organized by the UN-accredited NGO called "Resource for Palestinian residency and refugee rights" (BADIL). The speakers accused Israel of deliberately "targeting" civilians and hospitals, and referred to the terrorist organization Hamas as a "political party" which "engage[d] in civilian governance."

For example, here's Rania Madi, Legal Advocacy Consultant of BADIL speaking on UN premises at a UN-sanctioned and UN-advertised event:

"The operation Protective Edge does not start in Gaza but it started in the OPT ["Occupied Palestinian Territories"]... If you remember, in June, three Israeli settlers were abducted and then Israeli military forces started arresting and demolishing many houses in the OPT. It was just a reason in fact to attack Gaza. After that the Israeli authorities announced that in fact the settlers had been killed, and it had nothing to do with Hamas or any other Palestinian resistance. [Actually, Israeli authorities said exactly the opposite - irrelevant to these terrorist sympathizers granted standing at the UN.]
...Israel is targeting civilians and they even target civilian structures like mosques, schools, commercial centers, hospitals...Israelis justify this by saying that in the civilian structures attacked there were members belonging to certain political parties with armed branches, ignoring the fact that such groups engage in civilian governance..."

The second side-event was entitled "Human rights violations in the Gaza strip during the Israeli military operation 'Protective edge' and measures to pursue war criminals." It was organized a UN-designated "national human rights institution" called the Palestine Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR). The speakers accused Israel of every conceivable crime and repeatedly called for Israelis to be tried as "war criminals."

The event included these comments - all made on UN premises at a UN-sanctioned and UN-advertised event:

• Mamdouh Aker, Commissioner and Member of the Executive Board of ICHR: "Israel used certain weapons like time explosives which inflict widespread injuries to civilians...Can we betray victims of these war crimes and crimes against humanity?...Israelis are trying to distort international law...One example is the self-defense argument. They are not entitled to claim self-defense ...Another argument they use is that Palestinians use human shields. In one aspect this dehumanizes us as Palestinians. I just refer to the marvelous letter by Sarah Roy whose parents were survivors of the Holocaust addressed to Eli Wiesel a very Zionist American who said we have no respect for human life and put our children as human shields. And she said, I as a Jew coming from a family of Holocaust survivors am ashamed that someone like Wiesel would use this argument of dehumanization of Palestinians ...We have to bring Israelis to the ICC and try them as war criminals... My colleague will give you an idea of some of the atrocities and violations the Israeli army committed in the last war."
• Aisha Ahmed, ICHR member: "The Israeli military forces targeted civilians...killed more than 2,000 Palestinians of whom the majority were women and children...Occupying power committed murders...They have been targeting entire families...Targeting women and children...Using chemical weapons is a serious violation under the Geneva Convention which bans all measures that would cause physical suffering or extermination...Individual mass forced transfers as well as deportations of persons are prohibited regardless of their motive...The occupying force targeted civilian objects from schools, mosques, and charities...The bombing of the only power station in Gaza is a war crime".
• Hassan Bin Thalet, Secretary-General of International Association International Gulf Organization: "Palestinian people are exposed to all kinds of violations, terrorism...The Palestinian case...represents people denied of their rights, exposed to violations, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide at the hand of the Israeli occupation forces...We must exert efforts... to prosecute war criminals, those who have committed serious violations against the Palestinian people in international and regional criminal courts."

The third side event was entitled "State terrorism: The case of Gaza," and was organized by the UN-accredited NGO "The Union of Arab Jurists." It featured Ayssar Midani who devoted a significant part of her speech to "Zionist terrorism." Among other things, Madani said:

"Jabotinsky was a principal ideologist of the lead terrorist clandestine organization Irgun, the first terrorist organization in the Middle East...Two Jewish terrorist organizations which started in the last century, Haganah and Irgun, organized assassinations in the entire Middle East, against the Palestinians etcetera ...The massacres perpetrated by the terrorist organizations Irgun and Hagana - which subsequently formed the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] continued at a systematic pace against the Palestinian people, aimed at emptying the land of its inhabitants: Haifa, Jaffa, Jerusalem, Gaza, Sabra and Shatilla, Rafah, Jenin. .."