What's New

Resources updated between Monday, November 4, 2019 and Sunday, November 10, 2019

November 9, 2019

An Iranian official speaking at the U.N. "Universal Periodic Review" on the human rights record of Iran (Screenshot)

U.N. meeting on human rights in Iran degenerates into lavish praise of the regime responsible for state terror and oppression

Dry Bones comic on UNRWA

Healing UNRWA, in Six Easy Steps

A UNESCO building in Paris (File photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

"The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf were among the books featured at a book fair in Sharjah, UAE sponsored by The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The Simon Wiesenthal Centre exposed the book fair on Thursday and the Centre's Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, wrote a letter to UNESCO Director-General, Audrey Azoulay, condemning the book fair.

'Sadly, the name of UNESCO is abused as appearing to be complicit in validating for young Arab readers, the bigoted stereotypes of Jews - as expounded by Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran. This is particularly damning at a time of reconciliation between Gulf States and Israel, now facing common enemies,' Samuels wrote in a letter to Azoulay.

In the letter, Samuels added, 'the organizers are known to carefully vet all titles on display for Islamophobia, but leave Jew-hatred in pride of place!'
...
Samuels noted UNESCO's efforts against antisemitism and how the book selection at the fair negated the organization's efforts saying, 'Madam Director-General, UNESCO appears in Sharjah to endorse this travesty, thus vitiating your educational booklets campaign on antisemitism and Holocaust denial as meaningless.'"

UNESCO BOOK PROGRAM PUTS ANTISEMITIC MATERIAL ON DISPLAY Article

Images displayed on the Iranian Foreign Ministry Twitter account of the display at the United Nations in Geneva

Iran, the world's premier state sponsor of terrorism, debuted a five-day exhibit on its 'human rights achievements' at the United Nations this week. 'The promotion of human rights [is] the Islamic Revolution's raison d'être,' declared Iran's foreign ministry in a statement published Thursday, highlighting a five-day exhibition of slides and posters celebrating its 'human rights achievements' at the United Nations (U.N.) Office in Geneva, Switzerland.
...
The exhibition reportedly drew attendance from representatives of Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, China, Estonia, North Korea, Oman, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.
...
According to Amnesty International, Iran arrested over 7,000 dissidents in 2018, killing at least 28 of them. Death row inmates in Iran have their organs harvested 'voluntarily' before or after execution. In April, Iran sentenced an award-winning female human rights lawyer to 148 lashes and 38 years of imprisonment for defending Muslim women's prerogative to remove the Islamic Republic's mandatory hijab in public.

The U.S. is the largest single-state donor to the U.N., with Congress having approved $5.8 billion across the regular budget for 2018-2019, or $2.9 billion per year. This does not include additional 'peacekeeping' funding of $6.51 billion across the same time frame, or $3.25 billion per year..."

U.N. Hosts Exhibit on Iran's 'Human Rights Achievements' Article

November 8, 2019

Pierre Krahenbuhl (File photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons)

Trump administration to Post: White House was right about UNRWA corruption Article

November 7, 2019

The outgoing head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Pierre Krahenbuhl (File photo)

Head of U.N. Palestinian agency resigns amid ethics probe Article

Hamas terrorists (File photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons)

Rare protest against 'Hamas murderers' erupts in Gaza Document

Iraqi police (File photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Iraqi security forces shot dead at least four anti-government protesters in central Baghdad on Thursday, police and medical sources said, as weeks of deadly unrest showed no signs of abating.

Another 35 people were wounded in the clashes near Shuhada Bridge, they said, as mass demonstrations continued for a 13th straight day with thousands thronging central areas of the capital.

In southern Iraq, dozens of protesters burned tyres and blocked the entrance to the port of Umm Qasr, preventing trucks from transporting vital food imports, just hours after operations had resumed, port officials said.

The Iraqi government has failed to find a way out of the biggest and most complicated challenge to its rule in years. The unrest has shattered the relative calm that followed the defeat of the Sunni Muslim extremist Islamic State in 2017.

A crackdown by authorities against mostly unarmed protesters has killed more than 250 people since unrest broke out on Oct. 1 over lack of jobs and an infrastructure wrecked by decades of conflict, sanctions and corruption.

Protesters, mostly unemployed youth, blame a political elite that has ruled Iraq since the toppling of dictator Saddam Hussein in a 2003 U.S.-led invasion, and demand a complete overhaul of the political system.

The country is beginning to feel the fiscal pinch of weeks of the unrest, which started in Baghdad and quickly spread to southern cities.

The new stoppage of operations at Umm Qasr port in the south is likely to compound financial losses a day after the government said that a week-long halt of operations there had cost more than $6 billion.

Meanwhile, ongoing internet outages imposed by the government to try to stem unrest have hit the private sector, a central bank source said.

The source said private banks in Iraq had recorded losses of some $16 million per day since the internet was first shut down at the beginning of October.

FISCAL PINCH FELT

Combined losses by the private banks and mobile phone companies, money transfer services, tourism and airline booking offices had averaged more than $40 million per day, the source said - almost $1.5 billion for Iraq in just over a month.

Umm Qasr briefly resumed operations early on Thursday after most protesters cleared the area. But several dozen activists, relatives of a demonstrator killed during weeks of violence, then returned to block the main gate, port officials said.

Umm Qasr receives most of the grain, vegetable oils and sugar that Iraq depends upon.

Oil and security officials said operations resumed on Thursday at the nearby Nassiriya oil refinery, where protesters had stopped fuel tankers entering or leaving the day before.

Oil production and exports have not been significantly affected by the unrest, oil ministry officials say.

But the halting of fuel tankers that transport fuel from the Nassiriya refinery to regional gas stations caused fuel shortages across the southern Iraqi province of Dhi Qar. The refinery had recently been producing around half its capacity, oil officials said.

Internet returned briefly in most parts of Iraq on Thursday but went out again after 1:00 p.m. local time (1000 GMT). Authorities have heavily restricted internet access during the protests.

The government says it is enacting reforms but has offered nothing that is likely to satisfy most protesters.

Stipends for the poor, more job opportunities for graduates and pledges to punish a handful of corrupt officials have come too late for those demanding an overhaul of state institutions, a flawed electoral process and system of governance that has fueled endemic corruption, many Iraqis say.

Iraqi forces kill four protesters in Baghdad Document

November 6, 2019

Jeanine Hennis, UN Special Representative for the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq, speaking at the UN (Screenshot from UN WebTV)

"The UN Special Representative for the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq slammed protesters for closing roads and disrupting oil on its way to ports, raising the ire of Iraqis who wonder why the UN cares more about oil and roads than people's lives. It came days after the UN Secretary General visited Turkey and appeared open to a plan by Turkey to settle Syrian refugees in an area that 200,000 have been forced to flee from due to fighting, leading to questions about the overall UN blindspot on suffering in the region.

Jeanine Hennis, a Dutch politician who serves as a diplomat and Special Representative of the Secretary General in Iraq tweeted on Wednesday that the protests in Iraq, where more than 200 protesters have been shot by security forces, are disrupting critical infrastructure. "Also of grave concern. Responsibility of all to protect public facilities. Threats, closure of roads to oil installations, ports causing billions in losses. Detrimental to Iraq's economy," she wrote. It was undermining fulfilling the protesters' legitimate demands.

'Losses to whom,' wondered the twitter account Mosul Eye, which is run by survivors of the ISIS occupation of Mosul. 'Most young Iraqis have no work. The schools are bare. The hospitals are completely unsupplied. No electricity. No assurance of clean water,' the writer responded. Another man named Anas asked if the billions will 'return back one innocent boy killed during those protest.' Dozens of other replies said that the UN should send a representative who respects the feelings of the country's citizens.
...
Since early October protesters in Iraq have been shot down by security forces and pro-Iranian militias, called the Hashd al-Shaabi. These militias, some linked to the Badr Organization or Asaib Ahl al-Haq are officially part of the government's security forces but they also have their own leadership structure. Hadi al-Amiri, head of the Fatah Alliance and Badr, has claimed the protesters are supported by the US. Other leaders, such as Qais Khazali of Asaib Ahl al-Haq, have blamed the US and Israel for the protests. They have all claimed the protests are a form of sedition or 'fitna.'..."

U.N. SLAMS BLEEDING IRAQI PROTESTERS FOR CLOSING ROADS, HARMING OIL SUPPLY Article

Pierre Krahenbuhl, UNRWA Commissioner-General (File photo)

UNRWA chief suspended amid corruption probe Article

November 5, 2019

An UNRWA school (File photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons)

It's Time to Close Down UNRWA Article

November 4, 2019

Rockets fired from Gaza (File photo courtesy social media)

Palestinians in Gaza Launch Ten Rockets at Israel Document

Protests in Iraq (Courtesy Wikimedia Commons)

Iraqis pour into streets for biggest protest day since Saddam Document