1. Today we'll be posting internal documents of the New Zealand Foreign Ministry that show how diplomats whitewash UNRWA corruption & antisemitism, hiding key information (like this report: unwatch.org/130-page-repor…) from their own ministers & taxpayers. Obtained by @IsraelInstNZ:
@IsraelInstNZ@MFATgovtNZ@NZinEgypt@winstonpeters 2. In that internal email, @MFATgovtNZ on 24/1/2018 reported: "There is nothing in their assessment about alleged complicity with 'terrorism' acts or anti-Jewish bias in educational materials/teachings."
@IsraelInstNZ@MFATgovtNZ@NZinEgypt@winstonpeters 3. In this recent 5 June 2019 memo, seeking to justify a $1 million grant, NZ officials claim—based on no less than 9 sources of information—that "UNRWA performance and risk management approaches are satisfactory."
This was 6 months after the UN Ethics Report accused UNRWA of...
@IsraelInstNZ@MFATgovtNZ@NZinEgypt@winstonpeters 4. "...sexual misconduct, nepotism, retaliation, discrimination and other abuses of authority, for personal gain, to suppress legitimate dissent, and to otherwise achieve their personal objectives."
@IsraelInstNZ@MFATgovtNZ@NZinEgypt@winstonpeters 5. How did NZ diplomats get UNRWA so spectacularly wrong? After all, no less than 25 UNRWA directors and staffers reported the systemic corruption in the UN Ethics Report sent to the UN Secretary-General back in December 2018.
@IsraelInstNZ@MFATgovtNZ@NZinEgypt@winstonpeters 6. NZ diplomats boasted of their many supposedly reliable sources confirming UNRWA's great condition: "Annual reports, thematic evaluations, updates on agency policies, meetings between Embassy staff and UN personnel in New York, Palestine and Jordan..."
@IsraelInstNZ@MFATgovtNZ@NZinEgypt@winstonpeters 7. "...multi-donor assessments via Multilateral Organization Performance Assessment Network (MOPAN) & informal discussions with other donors." Yet this was all nonsense. Abuse, corruption & sexual harassment were everywhere. NZ just didn't want to see it.
Meet Nawaf Salam, president of the World Court. As Lebanon's UN rep, he voted 11 times for the Islamic Regime in Iran, blocked Security Council action for Assad's victims and backed tyrants Lukashenko and Fidel Castro. He voted against Israel 210 times. unwatch.org/report-head-of…
2/ When ICJ President @nawafasalam was at the UN, he consistently sided with the Islamic Regime in Iran. Over 11 years, he voted against 11 UN General Assembly resolutions that condemned the fundamentalist regime’s violations against its people.
3/ In 2007, when the UN General Assembly considered a resolution to denounce the Islamic Republic of Iran’s use of stoning as a method of execution, Judge Nawaf Salam voted to shield the regime, joining a club that includes China, Russia, Cuba, North Korea and Venezuela.
BREAKING: Hamas war room and killer drones found in UNRWA Headquarters in Gaza City. IDF finds Hamas surveillance ops room, huge quantities of weapons, tactical drones, rockets, machine guns, mortars, explosives and grenades.
📍UNRWA Pledging Conference opens today, 10 am in NY
2/ Today when he addresses the UNRWA Pledging Conference in New York, expect commissioner general Philippe Lazzarini to deliver his usual “We did not know what was under our noses” defence.
3/ At today's UNRWA pledging conference, starting today at the United Nations at 10 am in New York, expect also all of our governments to recite the identical mantra: “UNRWA is an indispensable, irreplaceable, life-saving lifeline.”
Mehdi Hassan: “UN set up independent inquiry, Israel refused to give evidence.”
Let's unpack the lies.
1. Chair herself said she had “excellent cooperation” with 🇮🇱; her mandate was NOT to identify the terrorists; and Israel is sharing info with separate UN inquiry run by OIOS.
2/ What Catherine Colonna said at the United Nations about how her report was misrepresented by the media completely demolishes Mehdi Hassan's claims. (As he blocked me, I need you to tag @mehdirhasan so he will see this.)
TRANSCRIPT:
Q: How would you characterize the Israeli cooperation with you, given that as you may have seen today, the main takeaway from your report is Israel has yet to provide any evidence for its allegations that UNRWA personnel were involved in the October 7th attack. So how would you characterize that cooperation and this main takeaway?
Catherine Colonna: Thank you. I covered everybody when I said that we received very good cooperation from everywhere, including Israel. I could go in details who received us and so on and so forth, but I want to repeat that we had an excellent cooperation from all sides.
Now about one of the quotes—I couldn't read everything this morning—but one of the quotes that have been issued does not respect, I think, the text of the report. We have written – and the beauty of writing reports is that you can refer to what's written—we've written that UNRWA has not received evidence by Israel, not that there is no evidence. It's very different.
So please, again and again, refer to the content of the report and not to what you hear sometimes about it. I would really appreciate if you could base your comments and base your judgments on the content and not on preconceived opinions.
Q: You stated that Israel has given no evidence to UNRWA about their claims that any UNRWA employees took part in October 7th, but did you during your investigation ask Israel for evidence?
Catherine Colonna: Thank you for this opportunity to have me repeating that there must be no confusion between what we've been tasked for, which is assessing whether UNRWA does everything in its power to ensure neutrality and address challenges, etc., and what the OIOS is in charge of. There are two separate missions. So allegations regarding individuals, a difficult case, are in the scope of the OIOS mission. It is not the scope of our mandate.
And by the way, it is no surprise that Israel did not provide evidence to UNRWA because it doesn't owe this evidence during the investigation to UNRWA, but to the OIOS. And my understanding is that they have a better cooperation now than at the beginning, and that the team will, their investigators will return there soon. So this is a separate, separate mission.
3/ Mehdi Hassan: “The UN set up an independent inquiry.”
Fact: The inquiry was completely rigged. UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini created the inquiry—as his surrogate Chris Gunness said—“to provide cover” for pro-UNRWA states to restart funding.
📜 unwatch.org/report-unrwa-r…
Today: UNRWA chief Lazzarini in Bundestag denies he reinstated Hamas-linked school and union leader Fathi al-Sharif, decries “misinformation.”
4 days ago: UNRWA-linked site reports Lazzarini met alliance including Hamas & Islamic Jihad, agreed to “reinstate Fathi Al-Sharif.” 🧵
According to Palestinian Refugees Portal, a news site funded by an UNRWA affiliate, “the Alliance of Palestinian Forces” (which includes Hamas and Islamic Jihad) held a meeting on Monday, June 30, with UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini. /2 refugeesps.net/post/27887/%D8…
“The leadership of the coalition of Palestinian forces in Lebanon, the Islamic forces and Ansar Allah held a meeting with UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini, in the presence of the Chairman of the Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee, Dr. Basil Al-Hassan, and the Director of UNRWA in Lebanon, Dorothy Klaus, on Monday at the Government Palace in the capital, Beirut.” /3 alqudsnews.net/post/205379/%D…
Dear @AntonioGuterres: Acting under Article 3 of the United Nations Code of Conduct, we today filed a Complaint over financial misconduct by Francesca Albanese. We demand that you disclose all illegal payments she took since 2022, and all her expenses:
🧵 unwatch.org/wp-content/upl…
We requests that you commence an immediate and independent investigation into serious allegations that Ms. Albanese has been illegally requesting payments for work done in her official UN capacity, in gross violation of her solemn obligations under the Code of Conduct. /2
Art. 3 of the Code of Conduct prohibits Albanese from taking remuneration from “any governmental or non-governmental source” for activities in pursuit of her mandate. Albanese herself admitted she “cannot take [an] honorarium for anything she does in her official capacity.” ⤵️ /3
BREAKING: UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini in Beirut reinstates Hamas-linked principal & union leader Fatah al-Sharif in “understandings” reached with Lebanese Prime Minister, in exchange for Islamist UNRWA union factions ending months-long strike tomorrow. refugeesps.net/post/27925/%D9…
In March, under pressure from UN Watch, UNRWA chief Lazzarini suspended al-Sharif for three months without pay over his Hamas ties. Yet instead of condemning his links to a terrorist group, al-Sharif's fellow UNRWA teachers and staff backed him—and went on strike in support. /2
Contrary to UNRWA's “just a few bad apples” line on teachers' terror support, the entire UNRWA Lebanon teachers’ union—2,000 teachers—held mass strikes across Lebanon, shutting schools and services, to march on UNRWA's Beirut office to back al-Sharif. /3 unwatch.org/unrwa-teachers…