Free Republic

A senior United Nations official defended the decision by President Joe Biden to limit his response to the Yemen Houthi terrorist organization to a weak “global terrorist” branding, claiming the move can help “safeguard many transactions necessary for our humanitarian activities.” The official – Edem Wosornu, the director of operations at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs – added, however, that even this minimal action could hurt the destitute economy of Yemen and thus elevate the humanitarian needs of civilians. Biden’s administration announced that he would brand Ansarullah, the official name of the Houthi terrorist gang, a “Specially...

The interim ruling of the UN International Court of Justice on Friday, coming a day before International Holocaust Remembrance Day, shames the memory of those who fought against genocide and of the 6 million Jews on whose ashes the Genocide Convention was built. The ruling entertains the notion that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. That assertion is not only absurd, but malicious — and purposely so. The Convention defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.” Any moral person knows this is not what is happening...

The United Nations on Tuesday demanded an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war after more than three-quarters of the 193-member General Assembly backed the move, which had been vetoed by the United States in the Security Council last week. Washington does not have a veto in the General Assembly. It voted against the draft resolution, along with Israel and eight other countries. The text garnered 153 votes in favor, while 23 countries abstained from the vote.

Iran will take the chair of a United Nations human rights social forum on Thursday, with many critical of the appointment due to Tehran’s decades-long record of human rights abuses and terrorism. "The United States finds it absurd that an official from the Iranian regime will assume the role of Chair for the Human Rights Council’s one-day ‘Social Forum,’" U.S. Permanent Representative to the Human Rights Council Ambassador Michele Taylor wrote in a statement ahead of the forum. "It is unacceptable that any body associated with the promotion and protection of human rights be chaired by a representative from a...

Anne Bayefsky speaking at the United Nations, New York, on September 8, 2014. Why couldn't the UN... sponsor a conference on combating global antisemitism? In theory the UN Charter demands equality of... nations large and small. In reality the UN mass-produces inequality for Jews and the Jewish nation. The UN has launched a "legal" pogrom against the Jewish state. A "legal" pogrom is a license to kill. Modern antisemitism targets Israel's exercise of the right of self-defense because self-defense is the essence of sovereignty. My time is short, too short to try to emulate the diplomatic sophistry that passes for...

According to Robert Serry, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, the so-called reconciliation deal reached by rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas to form a “unity” government in the coming weeks may be a good development that is consistent with continued peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. He reached this conclusion based on the word of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Mr. Serry said President Abbas assured him, during a meeting he held with President Abbas in Ramallah, that the reconciliation agreement will be implemented under President Abbas’s leadership and on the basis of...

Israel’s security forces have been accused by a United Nations monitoring group of torturing and tormenting Palestinian children. The Committee on the Rights of Children, a body of independent legal experts charged by the UN with the task of monitoring the protection of children’s rights in signatory states, has urged Israel to honour its responsibility to prevent the torture and ill-treatment of children. “The Committee expresses its deepest concern about the reported practice of torture and ill-treatment of Palestinian children arrested, prosecuted and detained by the military and the police, and about the State party’s failure to end these practices...

A United Nations human rights body accused Israeli forces on Thursday of mistreating Palestinian children, including by torturing those in custody and using others as human shields. Palestinian children in the Gaza and the West Bank, captured by Israel in the 1967 war, are routinely denied registration of their birth and access to health care, decent schools and clean water, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child said. "Palestinian children arrested by (Israeli) military and police are systematically subject to degrading treatment, and often to acts of torture, are interrogated in Hebrew, a language they did not understand,...

The United Nations says Israel must withdraw all of its citizens from the regions of Judea and Samaria. The recommendation came in a report issued Thursday by the U.N. Human Rights Council, which has a history of passing numerous biased resolutions condemning Israel for various alleged "crimes" each year. "Israel must, in compliance with Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, cease all settlement activities without preconditions," the report said in part. "It must immediately initiate a process of withdrawal of all settlers from the occupied Palestinian territories." Israel"s Foreign Ministry responded in a fiery statement immediately to the report,...

The Washington Free Beacon has obtained a report soon to be released by the United Nations that calls for an international campaign of legal attacks and economic warfare on a group of American companies that do business in Israel, including Hewlett-Packard, Caterpillar Inc., and Motorola Solutions Inc.

Hezbollah personnel prevent Lebanese security forces from arriving at scene of blast in Siddiqin; UNIFIL says it will investigate incident. A explosion occurred overnight in the Hezbollah stronghold of Siddiqin in southern Lebanon. The blast apparently occurred at a large Hezbollah weapons depot. The explosion took place in an area where Hezbollah is prohibited from having weapons under the terms of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 which ended the Second Lebanon War in 2006. United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said that blast would be investigated. Last year, there were a number of large explosions at weapons depots in...

The New York Times ran a banner front page headline on September 14, 2011 titled “U.S. Scrambles to Avert Palestinian Vote at U.N.” The Times headline should have read, “The Obama Administration Scrambles to Avoid Its Own Self-Fulfilling Prophesy.” Next week, the United Nations General Assembly will almost certainly approve an upgrade of the status of the Palestinian Authority from nonvoting “observer entity” to “observer state,” placing it on par with the Holy See. This will happen whether or not the Palestinians try for full UN member state status, which would first require approval by the Security Council. President Obama...

(IsraelNN.com) An advertisement featuring anti-Semitic imagery bearing the UNICEF logo was placed by an NGO that enjoys the United Nations agency's support.The advertisement was placed by a Palestinian Authority youth organization, PYALARA (Palestinian Youth Association for Leadership and Rights Activation), which is funded by UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund. The ad is for a PA television show produced by PYALARA. According to Palestinian Media Watch's Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik, the advertisement is “another example of the misuse of UN funding.” The ad shows an axe destroying a Star of David. The large Star of David that has...

Does building homes threaten peace? Or does holding a ceremony honoring as a hero and role model a terrorist who murdered dozens of civilians? Last week, Israel announced it would be doing the former. Palestinians did the latter. The Obama Administration condemned the Israeli words; it ignored the Palestinian deeds. What could be wrong with building 1,600 homes for Jews in eastern Jerusalem? Nothing, except for Palestinians who do not accept Israel’s existence and intend as a first step towards ending it to set up their own Jew-free state and divide Israel’s capital in the process. What could be wrong...

(IsraelNN.com) United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on Saturday for an end to all Jewish growth in the areas of Judea and Samaria. The UN chief, who was accompanied by the American-backed PA Prime Minister Salaam Fayad