Thread by @HillelNeuer

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."

And now here's the evidence @MFATgovtNZ was hiding:
unwatch.org/wp-content/upl…

@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."

So why did @MFATgovtNZ tell their FM @winstonpeters that everything was great?

@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.

aljazeera.com/news/2019/07/e…

@IsraelInstNZ @MFATgovtNZ @NZinEgypt @winstonpeters 8. See the full cache of 119 pages of internal NZ foreign ministry documents concerning UNRWA here: unwatch.org/wp-content/upl…

Read the full report from the important group @IsraelInstNZ which obtained these documents using the Official Information Act: israelinstitute.nz/wp-content/upl…