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The relationship between Israel and the United Nations has a long and complicated history. In the days of the founding of Israel, the UN served as a great platform for Zionism to obtain wide recognition of the Jewish people’s right to self-determination. Yet, with time, various bodies of the UN became a platform to attack, delegitimate, and demonize the Jewish state and deny Jews the very right it once recognized. From UNESCO to the Human Rights Council, representatives of authoritarian and non-democratic countries turned the UN into a battleground in which Israeli and American diplomats constantly have to fight for Israel. The latest round of such battle is happening under the guise of the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel, in which anti-Zionist and antisemitic opinions are institutionalized. One of the foremost figures in the fight against the Orwellian reality of such UN institutions is Hillel Neuer, an international lawyer and the executive director of the UN Watch, who dedicates his efforts to scrutinizing the international circus run by some of the worst violators of human rights who, while targeting Israel, often ignore or suppress inquires into human rights violations by countries such as Russia, China, and Iran. This made him the most hated man in Geneva and the subject of many campaigns to suppress his voice and stop his work. In this webinar, Hillel Neuer will explain what has been going on in the UNHRC, the COI, and his own targeting by UN officials.

About the speaker: Hillel Neuer, International lawyer, writer and activist, Hillel Neuer is the Executive Director of UN Watch, a human rights organization in Geneva, Switzerland. Israel’s Ma’ariv newspaper named him one of the “Top 100 Most Influential Jewish People in the World.” His speeches at the United Nations have been seen by millions around the world. Mr. Neuer has appeared in debates on CNN, BBC and Al Jazeera. McGill University awarded Neuer an honorary doctorate for his work to advance human rights, and for being “a voice for those without one.” In 2016, the City of Chicago declared “Hillel Neuer Day,” citing his role “as one of the world’s foremost human rights advocates.” The Tribune de Genève described Neuer as a human rights activist who is “feared and dreaded” by the world’s dictatorships. The Journal de Montréal wrote that Neuer “makes the U.N. tremble.”