Last month, the United Nations’ Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel (COI), issued a report falsely accusing Israel of intentionally killing Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip. True to UN form, this anti-Israel screed provides not a shred of evidence that Israel deliberately harmed any innocent civilians, nor does it mention Hamas’s use of human shields nor Israel’s unparalleled success at limiting civilian casualties in a treacherous urban war.

Just last September, the same COI issued a report slanderously accusing Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza—also without an iota of proof. In fact, the COI’s latest report on targeting children fails to produce a single case of an IDF soldier deliberately killing a Palestinian child.

Furthermore, the report largely removes Hamas from the battlefield, not mentioning that the terrorist group deliberately uses innocent Palestinians in schools, hospitals and mosques as cover for their military actions. Moreover, the COI claims that Israel violated laws of war by attacking military targets where civilians are present, though in fact the Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC), permits targeting bona-fide military objectives even if civilians are present.

In short, a rebuttal of the recent COI report by UN Watch reveals that the COI “constructs an entire narrative of intentional killing through stacked assumptions rather than verified facts, transforming uncorroborated allegations into definitive findings of criminal conduct.”

This COI report simply offers just one more glaring proof that many major UN agencies are irredeemably corrupt—openly ignoring factual and moral reality in order to make the world safer for tyrannical governments and more dangerous for the weak, dispossessed and wronged. Indeed, rot throughout the UN is so pervasive, it’s no exaggeration to assert that the organization itself does more harm than good.

Examples of pervasive, day-in, day-out UN corruption abound—almost never covered by news media—which these three examples demonstrate:

• The UN’s Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) has welcomed such notorious actors as Iraq (the third-worst country in the world’s gender equality ranking), Iran and Saudi Arabia—all of whom have laws brutally suppressing women. While the world’s worst violators of women’s rights attract virtually no CSW condemnation, democratic Israel receives critical resolutions nearly every year.
• Many UN “independent” monitors (“rapporteurs”) take unauthorized pay-outs from member nations, plus push blatant lies based on unverified facts and anonymous sources. The recent re-appointment of one such rapporteur, the virulently anti-Israel Francesca Albanese, was opposed by the U.S., Argentina and the Netherlands, but the UN renewed her anyway. The U.S. has enacted punishing financial sanctions against her.
• The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, issued arrest warrants for Israeli politicians to distract from confirmed evidence that he sexually harassed a court employee.

But such pervasive instances of corruption are just daily background noise to much larger UN schemes to support the world’s most oppressive regimes, hide massive injustice to poor and dispossessed peoples, and incessantly attack Israel, the Middle East’s only democracy. The most egregious such corruption and injustice takes place in four notorious UN agencies:

1. The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).
2. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
3. The World Health Organization (WHO).
4. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The details of how these UN agencies undermine—and pervert—the mission of the UN are enough to justify the withdrawal of financial support by nations that truly stand for world peace, justice for the oppressed and the universal rule of law.

How the UNHRC protects human rights violators while attacking Israel. Outrageously, the Human Rights Council’s membership has historically consisted of serial human right abusers, including China, Cuba, Pakistan and Sudan. Furthermore, the Council adopts few or zero resolutions on many humanitarian travesties while obsessing over Israel. Indeed, the UNHRC has passed more condemnatory resolutions against Israel than all other countries combined, while downplaying or ignoring evidence of abuses by Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, and other authoritarian regimes.

UNRWA functions as an arm of Hamas terrorists. Recent investigations by parties such as UN Watch have found that numerous UNRWA staff members participated in the October 7^th massacre and many more have ties to Hamas and other terrorist groups. UNRWA has responded by firing dozens of employees for terrorist ties, but still won’t admit its operational links to Hamas. Furthermore, instead of working to end Palestinian refugee status as intended, UNRWA has perpetuated it, offering the Palestinians no option for resettlement with prospects for better lives other than the mythical “right of return”—the meaningless promise that Palestinians will one day return to a “Palestine” there never was.

The WHO serves as a propaganda agency for oppressive regimes. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus praised China’s response, despite the communist dictatorship’s documented suppression of COVID’s source, whistleblower silencing, and delays in transparency. The WHO also relies on data from authoritarian sources, refusing to investigate data origins rigorously, including in conflict zones like Gaza, where the agency made uncritical use of faked casualty figures from Hamas-run health authorities.

Instead of promoting world historical sites, UNESCO corrupts history. Indeed, UNESCO has a long history promoting a political agenda, especially against Israel. The agency has designated sites such as the Temple Mount, Hebron’s Old City, and Rachel’s Tomb as Palestinian heritage sites, ignoring historical Jewish connections to them. In 2011, UNESCO even gave non-existent “Palestine” full membership. The agency has also passed more resolutions against Israel than against all other countries combined. UNESCO’s latest, and possibly gravest, sin: Condemning Israel for killing seven journalists, who were in fact Hamas terrorists masquerading as journalists.

The UN is hopelessly corrupt and irredeemable. Even so, Western democracies continue to fund most of the organization’s annual budget of approximately $3.72 billion. The U.S. alone contributes about 22% of this budget, making it the largest donor to the UN.

Please make the point when speaking with family, friends, colleagues—or in letters to the editor—that American taxpayers may well ask why they, or taxpayers in any Western democracy, should continue footing the bill for such a politically biased and corrupt organization.

If you agree we need to spread this truth, please use your email browser to forward this Hotline issue to fellow lovers of Israel—and encourage them to join us by subscribing to the Hotline at no charge.

Best regards,
James Sinkinson, President
Facts and Logic About the Middle East (FLAME)

P.S.      As you know, we at FLAME are constantly fighting to defeat our enemies’ slanders against Israel. But I hope you agree that it’s just as important for us lovers of Israel to spread the word about the amazing triumphs of Zionism. I believe that in addition to defending Israel from media and politicians’ lies, we need also to help the world understand Israel’s righteous cause and its power for good—we need as well to trumpet Israel’s miraculous achievements. God knows, Americans will never learn about Israel’s good deeds in mainstream media, like the New York Times, CNN or NPR! I believe we need to stand tall because of who the Jewish people are . . . be proud of what Israel does for the world. For this reason, I hope you’ll approve of FLAME’s new hasbarah—our explanatory message called “How Zionism’s Miracle Benefits Us All.” With your agreement and support, FLAME will soon begin running this message as a paid editorial ad in major mainstream newspapers nationwide. This ad tells the truth about Zionism’s unmatched power to create economic prosperity, global security, world health and democratic freedoms. It also explains why the enemies of Zionism are not just foes of Israel, they are also the enemies of human progress. Please review this convincing, fact-based editorial, which FLAME is about to publish to millions—in leading social media, as well as in the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, Houston Chronicle, Denver Post and Los Angeles Times. This piece will also be sent to all members of Congress, the President and Vice President. If you agree that this kind of public relations effort on Israel’s behalf is critical, I urge you to support us with a donation.