Andrew Lundy

Recovering journo, ex CP (VP Digital), Global (Dir, Digital), (EIC), CBC (Sr Producer) | Jeopardy! silver medalist

[Andrew Lundy @Landru12]

@Pagmenzies Perfect crystallization of the newer crop of "journalists" - entitled, lazy, smug, and steeped in every dogma of critical theory.

[Andrew Lundy @Landru12]

@TheLastRefuge2 9

[Andrew Lundy @Landru12]

@EvanDyerCBC Were you too busy to contact @HillelNeuer for this story?

[Hillel Neuer @HillelNeuer]

The Case Against UNRWA
Testimony by UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer before the United States Congress, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Joint Hearing of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Accountability and the Subcommittee on Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations, January 30, 2024

Chairmen, Ranking Members, and Members of the Committee: Thank you for inviting me to testify today. For years, we have been told by UNRWA and its supporters that the agency performs “lifesaving work” and that its teachers offer Palestinian students an education that “promotes human rights, tolerance, equality, and non-discrimination.”

Today, more than ever before — and I mean literally today, in light of the bombshell news reports in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, Reuters, and elsewhere — we now know this has been a lie.

From these and other revelations of the past few days, we know that in Gaza, at least 12 UNRWA employees personally participated in the massacre of October 7th, which involved the murder of 1,200 Israelis along with mass rape, torture, and mutilation. Secretary of State Blinken said yesterday, “These intelligence reports are highly, highly credible.”

The world also learned yesterday that 1,200 UNRWA employees in Gaza are part of Hamas or Islamic Jihad, meaning actual operatives within the political and military organizations.

Finally, an estimated 6,000 UNRWA employees, being half of the UNRWA workforce in Gaza, have close family members in these terrorist organizations.

Now, UNRWA’s top donors, the United States, Germany, Britain, Canada, and many others have just announced they’re freezing funds.

Accordingly, I have come here from Geneva today to bring before the Congress our case against UNRWA.

I have come here to ask the Congress of the United States, which is the largest donor to UNRWA at over $300 million a year, to not just suspend, but to end the funding for good — and to take the lead in dissolving an organization that is riddled with incitement to hate, involvement in terrorism, and the perpetuation of war.

Members of the committee will find all of the evidence that I present here on our website under “The Case Against UNRWA”: https://t.co/01e7iUJHQV

Now, on Friday, Secretary-General Guterres announced that he was “horrified” to learn that members of his UNRWA staff were implicated in terrorism.

Members of the Committee: I am here to bear witness and testify that Secretary-General Guterres, the head of UNRWA Philippe Lazzarini, their predecessors, and their senior colleagues, could not possibly have been shocked that UNRWA employees are implicated in terrorism.

Because for the past nine years, and Chairman Smith knows this very well, we’ve been uncovering, publishing, and submitting to the UN, to UNRWA, evidence of widespread and systematic incitement to jihadi terrorism, the praise of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, calls to slaughter Jews on the part of UNRWA teachers, school principals, and other employees.

These reports range from 10 to 200 pages. For example, just in November, we sent a report on 20 teachers who celebrated the October 7th massacre. https://t.co/rlrYtp8Txn

In March, together with IMPACT-se, we identified 133 UNRWA teachers and staff who promoted hate and violence in social media. https://t.co/84fYMz1yTJ

In June 2022, we released a report called “UNRWA’s Teachers of Hate.” https://t.co/JZkuE0ziaA

It included the following Facebook post by Elham Mansour, an UNRWA teacher: “By Allah, anyone who can kill and slaughter any Zionist and Israeli criminal and doesn’t do so, doesn’t deserve to live. Kill them and pursue them everywhere. They are the greatest enemy. All Israel deserves is death.” https://t.co/fsk0fg3tNn

This is an UNRWA teacher’s statement on Facebook. We sent it to the UN. They did nothing.

We sent them reports in 2021: https://t.co/0nwEqnjtjF

In 2019: https://t.co/jVnFsoicl3

In 2017: https://t.co/OH9epYrOfM

And in 2015, numerous reports:
• Nov. 30, 2015: https://t.co/JgUADpQ6RA
• Oct. 19, 2015: https://t.co/YSC4Xwn26N
• Sept. 1, 2015: https://t.co/KsG6HeUo9f
* Aug. 23, 2015: https://t.co/lblvdQD0ZQ

They never contacted us for information. They refused our repeated written requests to meet to discuss the problem.

They cannot say they didn’t know. Mr. Guterres knew. The head of UNRWA knew. The United Nations knew. They simply chose not to act.

But it’s much worse than that. From the beginning, their response to our reports was to attack us for doing the work they failed to do.

If we look at Chris Gunness, the longtime UNRWA spokesman — he’s now come back as a surrogate, giving interviews on Al Jazeera — he said on Twitter the following, in response to our reports:
• “Appeal to journalists: please don’t turn UN Watch’s baseless allegations about antisemitism into a he-said-she-said story. It’s a non-story.”
• “UN Watch makes a fool of itself again. Credibility dead in the water. Will anyone believe them again?”
• “Interested to find out more about UN Watch’s political and financial affiliations since its establishment. Can anyone advise?” 
https://t.co/xH6jODHtL7

This was their response — to smear the messenger. They are not interested in finding out the root problem of incitement to terrorism.

In June 2022, when under pressure from the U.S. they had to suspend six out of 10 of their employees whom we had exposed, UNRWA Deputy Commissioner-General Leni Stenseth — who’s now the Director General of the Norwegian Foreign Ministry — informed donor states, and put it on her website, that “the real intent of UN Watch, is to destroy and not build and to invite conflict, not build a lasting peace.” https://t.co/YMWhiGNvff

Now, the U.S. and other donors have asked UNRWA to investigate and to ensure accountability. I can tell you, for a decade, UNRWA has shown itself to be unwilling, unable, and unfit.

Today I wish to present our new report, called “UNRWA’s Terrorgram” which I’ve handed to each of the members and it’s on our website: https://t.co/YViSSRhn62

In this report, we document a telegram chat group of over 3,000 UNRWA teachers in Gaza that is replete with messages, photos, and videos cheering and celebrating the massacre of October 7th.

It includes, for example, Safaa Mohammed Al-Najjar, on the morning of October 7th — she’s an UNRWA teacher of computers in Gaza, an administrator of this Telegram group — she celebrated the massacre, posting videos. She praised the Hamas “mujahideen,” the holy warriors, as they massacred, mutilated, and raped Israelis. https://t.co/xkDdM3nRdc

UNRWA English teacher Abdallah Mehjaz shared a message from Hamas urging Gazans to stay put, to ignore Israeli messages asking them to evacuate for their safety, effectively doing the work of Hamas, to ask Gazans to be human shields. This is an UNRWA teacher.
https://t.co/vAOBkTPj25

Israa Abdul Kareem Mezher, an elementary school teacher, celebrated the Hamas terrorists saying: “May Allah keep their feet steady and guide their aim.” When a group member wondered what these “heroes,” the terrorists, as they were perpetrating the massacre, were brought up on, Mezher replied, “They imbibed jihad and resistance with their mother’s milk.” And a few days later, this UNRWA teacher asked Hamas to execute their Israeli hostages. https://t.co/JaicTjX48F

When Stéphane Dujarric, the UN spokesman, was asked about our information, he replied on January 11th: “I mean, UN Watch, they have a track record. And I think from our end it speaks for itself.” He tried to disparage us. https://t.co/FCUXUvpV2f

Just to conclude: We have massive incitement to terrorism.

Prominent people have said, “Well, bad apples... It’s just a few bad apples.” No. We’re talking about 1,200 UNRWA staff who actually belong to the terrorist organizations; 3,000 UNRWA teachers in this Telegram group; 6,000 UNRWA employees whose family members belong to Hamas or Islamic Jihad. This is not a problem of “bad apples”; UNRWA is rotten to the core.

So we’ve talked about incitement; we’ve talked about acts of actual violence; finally, let’s get to the core problem, and with that I conclude.

The core problem of UNRWA, the very purpose of the agency, is to perpetuate the war of 1948, to send the message to Palestinians that the war of 1948 is not over. Don’t use cement to build homes, hospitals, and schools here in Gaza. Use it to build hundreds of miles of terror tunnels, to tunnel into Israel, to invade Israel, to go back to where your true homes are. That is the message of UNRWA.

So we should not be surprised by what happened on October 7th because that is the message that these Palestinians got for more than 70 years in UNRWA schools.

UNRWA is a failure. We have to recognize what the Swiss Foreign Minister Ignacio Cassis said. And Switzerland is a country that historically supports the UN. He said the following: “UNRWA has become part of the problem. It supplies the ammunition to continue the conflict. By supporting UNRWA, we keep the conflict alive. It’s a perverse logic.” https://t.co/0t44HVKmLB

And I’m here to say: If the United States and other governments that fund UNRWA truly care about helping Palestinians and Israelis, it’s time to put an end to this perverse logic.

We are asking Congress to take the lead in dissolving this agency.

Thank you very much.

[Andrew Lundy @Landru12]

This is what the end of 19 years of frustration looks like. Go #Leafs!

[Andrew Lundy @Landru12]

@cselley Have you read this, Chris?

[Andrew Lundy @Landru12]

@cyn_simpson It's part of the picture but it's not the whole story by far. Once again journos fail to look at the work they're doing and the biases they bring to reinforce the tribalism that's killing civil discourse.

[Andrew Lundy @Landru12]

@Chris_Bittle @mgeist "I'm certain you haven't a racist bone in your body."

And yet you just accused him of racism in the most cowardly and despicable way. You're a disgrace and I hope the voters in St. Catharines remember this.

[Andrew Lundy @Landru12]

@ChicaChica109 @DanieWilson2 @ddale8 Just looking at recent history: of the past 23 fact checks, Biden/White House accounted for only four.

[Andrew Lundy @Landru12]

@DanieWilson2 @ChicaChica109 @ddale8 How will we know there aren't enough lies if he's rarely fact- checked? Maybe I'm just too upset and should take your word for it.

[Andrew Lundy @Landru12]

@ChicaChica109 @ddale8 If I did a content analysis I'd wager the Biden fact checks are vastly outnumbered by the others. Biden is the one in power right now.

And I've followed Daniel since his legendary confrontation with Rob Ford. Seems like 100 years ago.

[Andrew Lundy @Landru12]

@PtboGreenVoice

[Andrew Lundy @Landru12]

@MSNBC https://t.co/Ilgv3I5cBs

[Andrew Lundy @Landru12]

@CTVToronto CTV, you're spreading misinformation. Para 5 notes "the substantial financial base that amounted to millions of crowdfunding dollars in support of the Freedom Convoy..."

2 months ago the head of GoFundMe told a HoC committee 88% of donated funds were Canadian.

[Michael Geist @mgeist]

When I wrote my first response to @pablorodriguez Bill C-18, I warned the bill threatened press independence, noting that I knew of cases where opinion pieces were spiked because they criticized Canadian Heritage, who was the primary lobbying target. 1/4 https://t.co/jGMQzoSbX2

[Peter Menzies @Pagmenzies]

In case anyone is following @pablorodriguez Bill C-18, it is by far the most radical, most invasive, most innovation-suppressive, parochial internet-based regulation any country in the world has even contemplated let alone introduced. Lots more to come. It’s really bad.

[Andrew Lundy @Landru12]

@VoiceOfFranky Frank, I'll never block you. You are the King of Bad Takes. This might top them all.. but please, keep 'em coming.

[Andrew Lundy @Landru12]

@KarynMulcahy Karyn, you have no idea how much this means to me. ❤️

[Andrew Lundy @Landru12]

@GraemeGRoy @benFsinger Reported numbers have always been a subset of the total infected population. Estimates are 4-5x as many people are infected vs clinically confirmed. Most don't get tested or exhibit no symptoms or have symptoms that aren't worth medical attention.