U.N. Human Rights Council Accuses Israel of War Crimes, Ignores Hamas Atrocities
The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) passed a non-binding resolution on Friday demanding Israel be held accountable for potential war crimes and crimes against humanity. It was the first resolution UNHRC has passed since the beginning of the war in Gaza.
The resolution, introduced by Pakistan on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, passed with 28 votes in favor, 13 abstentions, and 6 votes against, including the United States. The Palestinian delegation and its supporters cheered and applauded when the resolution was passed.
The Palestinians were not magnanimous in victory, complaining that too many Western states still voted against the condemnation of Israel. Germany joined the United States in voting against the resolution, while France and Japan abstained.
“There have been calls for accountability across the world, but that position changes when we’re talking about Israel,” complained Palestinian U.N. Ambassador Ibrahim Khiraishi.
Israeli Ambassador Meirav Eilon Shahar, on the other hand, denounced the resolution as “a stain for the Human Rights Council and for the U.N. as a whole.”
Shahar said UNHRC has “long abandoned the Israeli people, and long defended Hamas.”
“According to the resolution before you today, Israel has no right to protect its people, while Hamas has every right to murder and torture innocent Israelis. A vote ‘Yes’ is a vote for Hamas,” she said.
“I don’t know if any of you counted, but Israel appears in the resolution 59 times. 59 times. Hamas does not appear at all,” she told reporters before leaving the U.N. for the day.
The UNHRC resolution astonishingly did not mention Hamas by name nor condemn it for the October 7 atrocities or its subsequent activities in Gaza — including its now-proven use of hospitals as weapons depots and command centers.
WATCH — EVIL: See the Aftermath of Hamas Attack on an Israeli KINDERGARTEN
Joel B. Pollak / Breitbart NewsThe resolution’s sole acknowledgement of the brutal tactics employed by Hamas were a mild condemnation of rockets fired at civilian targets in Israel — a war crime Hamas and its Iran-backed allies perpetrate on an almost daily basis — and a call for “the immediate release of all hostages,” without mentioning who they are, or who is holding them prisoner.
U.S. Ambassador Michele Taylor said these omissions were the reasons why the Biden administration could not support the resolution, although she still went out of her way to criticize Israel, in keeping with the administration’s increasingly critical posture after the airstrike by Israel that killed seven foreign aid workers in Gaza in Monday.
“The United States has repeatedly urged Israel to de-conflict military operations against Hamas with humanitarian operations, in order to avoid civilian casualties and to ensure humanitarian actors can carry out their essential mission in safety,” Taylor said.
“That has not happened and, in just six months, more humanitarians have been killed in this conflict than in any war of the modern era,” she claimed.
The text of the UNHRC resolution originally accused Israel of “genocide,” language the Palestinian delegation to the U.N. constantly uses, but those references were softened to an expression of “grave concern at statements by Israeli officials amounting to incitement to genocide.”
The resolution demanded an “immediate ceasefire,” called on Israel to refrain from “any large-scale military operations against the city of Rafah,” and urged U.N. member states to “prevent the continued forcible transfer of Palestinians within and from Gaza.”
The text called for all countries to “cease the sale, transfer and diversion of arms, munitions and other military equipment to Israel,” in order to “prevent further violations of international humanitarian law and violations and abuses of human rights.”
The resolution accused Israel of using “starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in Gaza,” without mentioning Israel’s allegations that Hamas terrorists have been looting aid trucks.
The resolution additionally demanded Israel “immediately lift its blockade on the Gaza Strip and all other forms of collective punishment.”
Sanders: Hamas Using Civilians as Shields ‘Is, Perhaps, a Part of the Problem,’ ‘Not the Real Problem’
On Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Lead,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) stated that Hamas hiding among civilians is “perhaps, a part of the problem, but it’s not the real problem.” And starvation in Gaza “is Israel’s responsibility, not Hamas’.”
Host Jake Tapper asked, “What do you say to people who say, this is not fair, it’s a double standard, Hamas started this on October 7, Hamas wants to destroy Israel, Hamas wants to kill Jews, Hamas hides behind their own people, Hamas doesn’t care how many Palestinian civilians die — all of which, in my opinion, is true — what’s your response when people say that that –?”
Sanders cut in to answer, “I would agree with you. Hamas is a terrible, terrible terrorist organization that started this war. And what I have said from the beginning, Jake, Israel has a right to defend itself and go to war against Hamas. That’s what I believe. I think most people believe. But you do not have a right to damage or destroy 70% of the housing units in Gaza. You don’t have a right to displace 80% of the population, throw them out of their homes, put them into this area, put them into that area, deny them food, water, medical supplies, and fuel. That, you don’t have a right to do. So, the answer is, of course, Hamas began this war, they are a terrorist organization, but the United States is not funding Hamas. We are funding Israel. And what has got to be made clear to Israel, you can go to war against Hamas, but you cannot continue these horrific actions which are causing, literally, the worst humanitarian disaster we have seen in a very long time.”
Tapper then asked, “What do you say to people who say the reason that so many innocent people are dying in Gaza is because Hamas embeds with the Palestinian people, they build tunnels under their homes, they hide under people, they want the civilian death toll, they consider them martyrs, and it makes Israel look bad?”
Sanders responded, “I think that is, perhaps, a part of the problem, but it’s not the real problem. The real problem right now is, we are looking, as I mentioned a moment ago, [at] massive starvation. That is not caused by Hamas. That is simply caused by Israel not allowing the hundreds and hundreds of trucks that are lined up at the border to get in and go to the areas that it is needed. That is Israel’s responsibility, not Hamas’.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
He Hailed Hamas as a 'Liberation Organization.' Harvard Invited Him To Speak on Campus.
Tareq Baconi says Israel's 'regime of oppression' to blame for Hamas's Oct. 7 attack
Harvard University invited a Hamas apologist, who has described the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack as "anti-colonial violence" that was "inevitable" and motivated by "oppression," to speak on its campus.
The event, slated to take place on April 18, is hosted by Harvard's Center for Middle Eastern Studies and will feature Tareq Baconi, a Hamas scholar and the president of the board of Al-Shabaka, a Palestinian think tank. Baconi is the author of Hamas Contained: The Rise and Pacification of Palestinian Resistance, in which he claims that Hamas is not "a terrorist group" but instead "a multifaceted liberation organization."
Just three days after Hamas murdered 1,200 Israelis and abducted hundreds more, Baconi argued that Hamas's Oct. 7 attack, which he calls "the Al-Aqsa Flood operation," wasn't "driven by hatred and bloodlust" but rather brought upon by Israel's "regime of oppression."
A month later, in November, he labeled Hamas's Oct. 7 attack "an unprecedented display of anti-colonial violence" and wrote that "the Al-Aqsa Flood operation was an inevitable response to Israel's relentless and interminable provocation."
"What is clear is that Western leaders are willfully refusing to acknowledge Hamas's attack for what it was: an unprecedented display of anti-colonial violence," wrote Baconi. "The Al-Aqsa Flood operation was an inevitable response to Israel's relentless and interminable provocation through land theft, military occupation, blockage and siege, and the denial of the fundamental right to return to one's homeland for more than 75 years."
Harvard's decision to host Baconi comes as the Ivy League institution faces criticism over its response to campus anti-Semitism. The university risks losing more than half a billion dollars in federal funding as it obstructs a congressional investigation into widespread anti-Semitism, according to the top lawmaker handling the probe.
Baconi's Apr. 18 talk is titled "Gaza as Epicenter: An Alternative Reading" and is open only to Harvard ID holders. Baconi and Harvard did not respond to requests for comment.
In a Monday op-ed in the New York Times, Baconi argued that "the two-state solution is an unjust, impossible fantasy" that has "normalized the daily violence meted out against Palestinians by Israel's regime of apartheid." Instead, he argued for a single state "from the river to the sea" but offered no solution that included the existence of Israel.
"All policymakers should heed the lesson of Oct. 7: There will be neither peace nor justice while Palestinians are subjugated behind walls and under Israeli domination," Baconi wrote. "A single state from the river to the sea might appear unrealistic or fantastical or a recipe for further bloodshed. But it is the only state that exists in the real world—not in the fantasies of policymakers."
At a November teach-in on "Palestinian Resistance" at the City University of New York, Baconi argued that calls to destroy Hamas are calls to genocide and that "Jews, Israeli Jews, [can't] feel safe while apartheid persists." During the event, he encouraged attendees to support "the resistance that's happening in Palestine."
"This is why the resistance that happens here is just as important," Baconi said. "This becomes a front for liberation that's just as important as what's happening on the ground."
He was joined by Charlotte Kates, a member of the Israeli-designated terror group Samidoun, who has praised Hamas's Oct. 7 attack, and Within Our Lifetime founder Nerdeen Kiswani, who has called for Israel to be "wiped off the map." Both Kates and Kiswani were featured at a similar event at Columbia University last month.
When speaking to CounterPunch—a far-left socialist magazine—in February, Baconi cast doubt on allegations that Hamas raped Israeli women. A March U.N. report later confirmed evidence of Hamas terrorists committing acts of sexual violence during the Oct. 7 attack on Israel and against hostages whom the terrorist group captured.
"As a scholar of the movement, I would be surprised if Hamas employed rape or sexual violence systematically as a weapon of war," Baconi told the magazine.
During a May 2021 interview, Baconi claimed that Hamas has "very legitimate political grievances." According to an online bio, he is working on a book about decolonization in the 21st century.
Published under: Anti-Semitism , Hamas , Harvard , Israel , Palestinians , Terror Attack
State Department Hosted Qatari Official Who Praised Hamas Terrorism
Qatari foreign ministry spox Majed Al-Ansari voiced support for armed struggle and massive rocket attacks on Israel in 2021 column
The State Department last month held high-level talks with a Qatari delegation that included an official who has praised Hamas terrorists and called for missile strikes on Israel.
Majed Muhammad Al-Ansari, the spokesman for Qatar's foreign ministry and an adviser to its prime minister, joined a high-level delegation for a March meeting with senior State Department officials. Al-Ansari, a one-time newspaper columnist, "expressed total support for armed struggle against Israel and for massive rocket attacks on it" as recently as 2021, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), a watchdog group that tracks extremist rhetoric.
Al-Ansari was photographed standing next to Bill Russo, an assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of Global Public Affairs. The Qatari official’s participation in high-level diplomatic talks with the United States signals that Doha’s ongoing support for Hamas—whose senior leadership lives in the country—is not viewed as an obstacle to the U.S.-Qatar relationship. The Biden administration continues to rely on Qatar to ink a hostage negotiation deal between Hamas and Israel, even as Doha’s neutrality in the conflict is questioned on Capitol Hill.
Al-Ansari, in a 2021 column published after a spate of missile attacks by Hamas, celebrated "victory" over "the Zionist enemy," Israel, and said that armed resistance against the Jewish state is the only way to ensure "the disappearance of the occupation," according to a translation of the article by MEMRI.
The Qatari diplomat went on to express hope that he lives long enough to witness "the liberation of Al-Aqsa Mosque and all the blessed land," referring to the Muslim landmark in Jerusalem.
Discussing the May 2021 conflict between Israel and Hamas, Al-Ansari wrote, "the entity [Israel] was entirely under the threat of the Palestinian missiles. Even the interior [the Arab citizens of Israel] joined the confrontation against the occupier, and the international arenas were set ablaze with discourse against the aggression, adopting the narrative that described the Tel Aviv regime as an apartheid regime."
"The entity," he added, "was in a state of great political embarrassment, and was forced to end its aggression with no compromise on the part of the Palestinians."
Al-Ansari declared the "victory celebration in this latest battle" as a sign of "continued progress toward victory in the struggle, since there is a great difference between resistance with stones and bare chests and resistance in which 3,000 missiles are launched into the entity's cities in 10 days."
A State Department official declined comment when asked whether Al-Ansari’s participation in the Qatari delegation’s recent meetings with the Biden administration drew internal concerns.
"We do not comment on private diplomatic discussions," a State Department spokesman told the Washington Free Beacon, adding that "Qatar is an indispensable mediator in the current conflict between Israel and Hamas and has already helped secure the release of more than 100 hostages, including American citizens."
The Biden administration, the official said, continues "to work with Qatar to pursue an agreement for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire to enable the release of all hostages, safeguard civilians, and expand the provision of critical aid to Gaza." U.S. officials also continue to make clear to Qatar that "there can be no business as usual with Hamas."
During the U.S.-Qatar Strategic Dialogue in March, Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Qatar’s foreign affairs and prime ministers. It was the sixth meeting of the working group and discussion centered around "the breadth and depth of the 50-year U.S.-Qatar relationship, from economic and security cooperation to emerging technology and fostering connections among cities and communities between both countries," according to the State Department.
Since the Oct. 7 terror attack by Hamas, Qatar and its state-controlled media outlets have praised Hamas and called for greater attacks on Israel, calling into question its role as a top mediator in the conflict with Israel.
"The Qatari press regularly prints articles, reports, and cartoons expressing hope for Israel's demise, which refer to the country as a ‘Western product’ or as a ‘Zionist-Crusader’ and ‘imperialist’ enterprise and contend that only more operations like the October 7 attack will stop it from realizing its plan to expand ‘from the Nile to the Euphrates,’" according to MEMRI, which has published multiple reports about incitement in the Qatari press.
Lawmakers raised concerns about Qatar’s failure to secure a hostage deal and financial ties to Hamas earlier this year, urging the Biden administration to "make clear to Qatar that it will be held accountable for every hostage not brought home. Qatar's failure to deliver on its commitments will harm bilateral relations."
Nigeria, World’s Most Dangerous Place to Be Christian, Prepares for Easter
Nigeria’s police chief on Thursday ordered around-the-clock enhanced security at public venues across the country throughout the Easter weekend, fearing religious violence in a country where Christians are under almost constant attack.
Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Kayode Egbetokun said through a spokesman that extra resources would be devoted to maintaining security at “worship centers, train stations, highways, motor parks, airports, waterways, recreation centers, banks, and other financial institutions, as well as other critical infrastructures and public spaces.”
“The IGP also assures all travelers who will be visiting their hometowns and other places within the country for the festivities of adequate security irrespective of the medium of such travels whether by road, air, waterways, or rail, as deployments have been increased and visibility patrols intensified in all areas including aerial patrol and surveillance,” Egbetokun’s office said.
“As we commemorate the crucifixion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, let us come together in unity and vigilance to ensure a safe and peaceful environment for all,” the statement said.
The Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC) said on Thursday it would deploy 35,000 personnel to protect both Easter crowds and “critical national assets and infrastructure,” including operatives from its anti-vandalism, special intelligence, special female, and special forces squads.
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) pushed back against an informal curfew proposed for the Ifeland region to minimize the risk of violence during the Easter holiday. CAN said it had received assurances from Muslim and tribal leaders that the weekend would be peaceful.
Speaking at the dedication of a new church last weekend, Plateau state governor Caleb Mutfwang made an appeal for peace in the “Middle Belt” or central Nigeria, where Muslim herders from the Fulani tribes have slaughtered hundreds of Christians.
“My prayer as I have trusted God for the people of Plateau State, trust God that all of us that God has deposited in the Middle Belt of Nigeria will come together,” Mutfwang said.
International Christian Concern (ICC) listed Nigeria as the most dangerous place in the world to be Christian in its 2023 “Persecutors of the World” report.
ICC noted that Nigerian Christians face violent persecution from the Fulani in the Middle Belt and from the ISIS-aligned terrorists of Boko Haram in the north. As for the Nigerian government, 12 of its northern states have adopted Muslim sharia law, while the national government often “turns a blind eye” to Christian persecution.
“The government’s inaction on the matter is inexcusable and the violence will only worsen unless the international community steps in,” ICC president Jeff King said when the 2023 persecution report was released in November.
Despite the grim state of religious freedom in Nigeria, the Biden administration removed it from the State Department’s list of oppressive countries in 2021, prompting outrage among human rights groups and Christian leaders.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) wrote a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken in early March to ask why Nigeria was not restored to the list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) for religious freedom after a horrifying massacre of Christians during the Christmas season.
“As you know, violence against Christians in Nigeria runs rampant. Reports estimate that roughly 5,000 Nigerian Christians have been murdered in religiously-motivated violence in each of the last two years,” Hawley wrote in the letter, which was also signed by Sens. Mike Braun (R-IN) and Marco Rubio (R-FL).
“Apparently, your Department believes these repeated, violent attacks against Christians can be attributed to climate change. That is absurd,” Hawley wrote.
Two Nigerian clerics, Bishop Wilfred Chikpa Anagbe of the Makurdi diocese and Rev. Remigius Ihyula, were similarly outraged in February when the Biden administration dismissed anti-Christian persecution as “eco-violence” driven by a shortage of fertile land.
“Tell me, how does climate change drive someone to hack a person to death with a machete?” Father Ihyula asked. “How do you say because you have issues of climate change or economic inequalities that you go killing people in this manner? Butchering people and destroying everything. Does that make sense?”
Ihyula said the true cause of the violence against Nigerian Christians is “Islamic jihad,” and the region’s Islamic extremists are not shy about admitting it. He pointed out that if the problem was a climate-driven scramble for resources, the Fulani Muslims would be negotiating for grazing and watering rights with Christian farmers, not slaughtering them and burning their villages down.
Bishop Anagbe asked how Nigerian leaders could “sit and watch others killing us” without taking action.
“All these years, over a decade now, nobody has been arrested, nobody has been prosecuted,” he complained.
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