NGO Monitor at the 55th Session of the UN Human Rights Council
NGO Monitor is a project of The Institute for NGO Research, a recognized organization in Special Consultative Status with the UN Economic and Social Council (since 2013). As such, the Institute for NGO Research participated in the 55th Session of the UN Human Rights Council by presenting submissions and giving oral statements.
Table of Contents
Item 2 – High Commissioner’s Report on Occupied Palestinian Territory
Item 6 UPR – Canada
Item 6 UPR – Germany
Item 7
Item 8
Item 9
Item 2 – High Commissioner’s Report on Occupied Palestinian Territory
Item 6 UPR – Canada
Antisemitism in Canada is a growing and highly disturbing phenomenon. This is manifested in repeated violent attacks and systematic intimidation of Jews and Jewish institutions in major cities and on university campuses. Synagogues and Jewish owned businesses have been targeted by raging mobs, and a grocery store in Toronto was firebombed and defaced with “Free Palestine” graffiti. Demonstrators surrounded the Jewish Federation building in Montreal, blocking and harassing participants attending events. In Ontario, a mob shouted, “Go back to Europe.”
After a Jewish legislator in the Province of British Columbia resigned after being harshly harassed, the premier acknowledged the antisemitic experiences of many public service employees.
Police forces and governmental responses are criticized as slow and ineffective in protecting the Jewish community. The antisemitic organization Samidoun, which was recently banned as a terror-linked group in Germany, continues to operate in Canada.
Antisemitism is also manifested in the major campaign in Canada to outlaw the ritual kosher slaughter that has been central to Jewish observance for millenia. A document filed with the Attorney General states that “ending shechitah [the kosher practice] violates the rights of Canadian Jews to practice their faith as guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.” Others have noted the hypocrisy of this policy initiative that singles out the Jewish community.
Although the Canadian government has appointed a special envoy to combat antisemitism, the actions taken are seen as insufficient, and it is important that Canada provide a significant increase in the resources available. In addition, the hesitation of top government leaders to take firm action against antisemitic attacks must be replaced by a clear and consistent response.
Item 6 UPR – Germany
Post-Holocaust antisemitism, including violent attacks and intimidation, remains significant in Germany. It is manifested in different population and political sectors – and numerous antisemitic activities get Federal government support under the banner of “cultural events,” as well as by NGOs claiming human rights and humanitarian aid agendas.
One blatant instance was the high-profile Documenta art festival which featured classic antisemitic iconography — hooked noses, bags of money – and evoked themes from medieval blood-libels to hate aimed at the State of Israel’s very existence.
Such expressions of antisemitism are systematic in Germany. Despite the Bundestag’s resolution endorsing the consensus IHRA working definition of antisemitism, state-funded events continue to compare Israel to the Nazi regime (a form of Holocaust Inversion), and deny the right of the Jewish people to self determination.
The argument that withholding budgets for such events would be a limitation on “free expression” is false – there is no requirement for state funding for hate, even if considered legally acceptable.
Furthermore, German academic institutes for research on antisemitism often understate the manifestations of hatred. Researcher-activists lead the campaign to replace the IHRA working definition with a text that erases the most blatant forms of post-Holocaust hatred.
At the same time, Germany is to be commended for constructive steps, such as ending support to a number of NGOs that promote antisemitism. The activities of another terror-linked group, Samidoun, were prohibited. In addition, Germany’s special envoy on antisemitism is making substantial contributions in combating this hatred. It is important to expand the scope and effectiveness of this activity.
Item 7
This past weekend, Jews across the globe celebrated the holiday of Purim commemorating the defeat of a genocidal threat to wipe out every Jewish man, woman, and child, in a single day, by the evil Haman, advisor to the King of Persia. The Bible describes the world of Purim as upside-down.
Today, Jews are again existing in an upside-down world. On the single day of October 7, the genocidal Palestinian terror group Hamas, butchered, raped, and burned alive 1200 innocent souls – from infants to the elderly, and kidnapped 240 hostages, with 135 still captive in Gaza. This wicked work was supported and paid for by Iran and Qatar.
We have learned dozens of UNRWA staffers and journalists gleefully participated in the Hamas slaughter. On October 8, we began to see an explosion of orgiastic mob violence, outrageous antisemtism, and attacks on Jews in New York, London, Amsterdam, and other Western cities. On campuses we see faculty and students embracing murder and as so-called resistance.
And, in this room, supposedly the leading institution to protect human rights, we hear states, Rapporteurs, and NGOs erasing and denying the Hamas atrocities. And we are subjected to an unprecedented onsalught of propaganda and disinformation intended to blood libel Jews and Israel.
Mr. Vice President, this body should be at the forefront of combatting this upside-down world. Instead, it is complicit in creating it.
Item 8
Mr. President,
My name is Ella Ben-Ami, I am the daughter of Raz and Ohad, who were kidnapped from their home in Kibbutz Be’eri to Gaza on October 7th.
My mom, Raz, was held captive for fifty-four days until released, and my father Ohad is still being held incommunicado by Hamas for one hundred and seventy three days.
My mother has had severe health issues for the last ten years, and returned from captivity a broken woman. Her health deteriorated severely due to lack of treatment. She needs her husband by her side.
Mr. President, although my mother has returned from captivity in her flesh, she hasn’t returned in her spirit. And much like her, the lives of all family members of the hostages have frozen.
On October 7th our lives got ripped apart by the terrorists who took our family members hostage. We won’t be able to heal until all of them return home.
This is not the time to talk about human rights, this is the time for actions.
I’m asking the members of the human rights council to tell me – what have you done to bring my father back to my mom?
What have you done to unite all the hostages with their families?
Bring them home now!
Thank you Mr. President.
Item 9
At the 2001 Durban Conference, antisemitic activity by States, NGOs, and mobs raging down the streets, turned this event into a festival of hate and violence. This frenzy was not in support of human rights. Rather, these destructive actors were emboldened by Palestinian rejection of statehood in 2000 and the concurrent launch of its suicide bombing war against Israelis.
So too, within hours of Hamas’ savage butchery, mass mobs consumed by antisemitic hate and drunk on the violence, took to the streets of Western capitals to support the Hamas massacre.
Like in Durban, these hordes lauded the Hamas killers, adopting the paraglider as their symbol, the weapon used to slaughter more than 360 young people at the Nova music festival. They proudly displayed signs calling for the elimination of Israel and genocide of the Jews.
And like in the aftermath of Durban, this incitement is partnered with atrocity denial and inversion – in some cases led by Rapporteurs in this building, Hiding behind their supposed mandates, many were slow to condemn the violence, if they did at all. Instead, they tried to erase te worst pogrom against the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Only a few signed on to any real condemnation of the atrocities. Dozens of others justified the Hamas barbarism by blaming te victims for their own beheadings, burn8ings, rapes, and kidnappings.
Mr. Vice President, if you are wondering how antisemitic violence and Holocaust denial occurs, one need look no further than what has happened in the aftermath of October 7.