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Why Israel Should Close Every UN Office in the Country

In response to the latest UN decision to blacklist Israel, Israel announced that it was cutting all ties with the office of the UN Secretary-General. While this is a step in the right direction, it is insufficient.
UNTSO headquarters in Jerusalem
UNTSO headquarters in Jerusalem. (Hardscarf/CC BY-SA 4.0/Wikimedia)

Table of Contents

Summary

The piece argues that the United Nations has consistently acted unfairly toward Israel and has amplified allegations that damage Israel’s international standing. It claims that various UN agencies have relied on flawed information and have promoted narratives hostile to Israeli interests. The author advocates a far more confrontational response, including the closure of all UN offices operating in Israel. The article presents this as a necessary step to counter perceived institutional bias.

Key Takeaways

  • The argument contends that United Nations bodies and officials have demonstrated systemic bias against Israel through reports, blacklists, and public statements.
  • Several UN agencies operating in Israel are accused of relying on inaccurate, misleading, or politically motivated information regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
  • The proposed policy response is for Israel to close all UN offices operating in the country and potentially reconsider its broader relationship with the organization.

When it comes to the United Nations, Israel needs to take a much more aggressive response. As a preliminary step, and a potential precursor to entirely pulling out of the organization, Israel should immediately and permanently close every single UN office operating in the country.

The events of the last week have again exposed that the UN is an infested cesspit of Jew-hatred.

Distorting fact, truth, and reality, the UN Secretary-General included the Israeli security forces in a blacklist of bodies and countries guilty of “conflict-related sexual violence.”

The basis for the inclusion was a cacophony of baseless allegations that the UN claimed to have “verified,” but provided no actual proof. That claim was coupled with the allegation that Israeli authorities continue to hold over 9,000 Palestinians in detention, “including over 4,000 detained without charges or trial or administratively detained, raising concerns of arbitrary detention.” Never once did they mention the unequivocal fact that the detainees are terrorists, that each is brought before a court, or that thousands of them are convicted offenders.

Placing Israel on the conflict-related sexual violence blacklist, similar to placing Israel on a similar blacklist for abuse of children in armed conflict, has been a long-time goal of the terrorists and their supporters, including UN organizations. In the eyes of the terrorists, the blacklists were perceived to be some of the most effective vehicles through which they could vilify and delegitimize Israel.

The UN actors were more than useful idiots. For decades, the UN actively engaged with a host of NGO’s, many of which were either fronts for terrorist organizations or, at the very least, had close connections to terrorist organizations. The “evidence” provided by the terrorists was then UN-washed and presented to the world as legitimate and reliable information.

Those tried and tested mechanisms, too often ignored by the Israeli authorities, were just exposed by an Israeli governmental report – “Laundering Propaganda: How UN actors manipulated information in the Gaza War” (2023-2025) – that demonstrated how UN officials, with little basis, or no basis whatsoever, were at the forefront of distorting reality and promoting blood libels against Israel.

From referencing Hamas-reported death tolls, sometimes alleged to be exaggerated, to claims such as 14,000 babies could die in 48 hours, the Israeli report cites these as examples of contentious data used by UN agencies against Israel.

The common denominator for both the inclusion of Israel on the blacklists and the report of the government was the work done by the UN organizations operating in Israel.

Over 78 years, Israel has hosted a plethora of UN organizations. Astoundingly, there are no fewer than 22 different UN organizations, devoted to the Palestinian cause of destroying Israel, that operate in Israel. 17 have a physical presence in Israel, including the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid (OCHAoPt) and the UN Children’s organization, UNICEF.

From its offices in the heart of Jerusalem, OCHA coordinates the other UN organizations and leads the unhinged charges against Israel. According to OCHA, it was Israel who bombed the Al-Ahli hospital in October 2023, killing 471 Gazans. It is OCHA leading the global campaign to vilify the “violent Israeli settlers.”

In reality, it was a missile fired by Palestinian Islamic Jihad that landed on the Al-Ahli hospital, killing no more than 50 people. The “settler violence,” according to OCHA, includes Jews defending themselves against homicidal terrorists or visits to the Temple Mount. In both instances, it is irrelevant for OCHA if the Jew being attacked or the Jew visiting Judaism’s holiest site is indeed a settler or not. In the eyes of OCHA, similar to the outlook of the other Palestinian terrorists, every Jew living in Israel is a “settler.”

UNICEF is no better. UNICEF was the first UN organization to falsely accuse the State of Israel of committing crimes against humanity. The charge was made in the context of a report on the arrest and prosecution of Palestinian minors, including those who murdered Israelis. From UNICEF’s perspective, there is no difference between operating the gas chambers in Auschwitz and prosecuting terrorists like Murad A-Dayis, the Palestinian minor who murdered Dafna Meir when he stabbed her to death in her home.

In response to the latest decision to blacklist Israel, the government announced that it was cutting all ties with the office of the UN Secretary-General. While this is, of course, a step in the right direction, it is insufficient.

Government House, situated adjacent to the Haas Promenade and overlooking Jerusalem’s old city, has been occupied by the UN for 78 years. Without any basis whatsoever, the UN treats the compound as its own fiefdom, even building or placing structures without the necessary building permits. The compound is host to a number of useless UN organizations, such as the UN Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO), which, outrageously, supervises the 1948 truce between Israel and its hostile neighbors. Alongside the useless UNTSO sits the Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General on the Middle East conflict.

Israel’s experience in the UN is often characterized as that of a battered wife. Intoxicated by the pro-terror Palestinian propaganda, every day the violent UN will attack and assault Israel. Every day, Israel will barely escape with its life.

To paraphrase the late Menachem Begin, we are not Jews with trembling knees. We are proud Jews with 3,700 years of history. The UN has regularly failed to support Israel. To date, even after the events of October 7, the UN has not designated Hamas as a terrorist organization.

If Israel seeks to survive and avoid the inevitable consequences of the UN attacks, Israel must take the initiative and fight back.

The first step on the way to survival should be to exorcise the cancerous UN-growths. Every UN organization should be permanently closed. The offices of OCHA, UNICEF, and all the UN organizations that occupy the Governor’s Palace should be the first ones closed, and all their UN staffers, together with the Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General, should be the first ones expelled.

It is not enough to complain about the UN bias. It is not enough to make symbolic decisions to cut ties with the Secretary General, who has long suffered from deep-seated Jew hatred.

If Israel can send aircraft to distant targets, then perhaps the time has come to show similar resolve in reconsidering the presence of UN organizations in Israel, especially in Jerusalem.  

FAQ
What is the central claim?
The central claim is that UN institutions and officials have displayed entrenched bias against Israel and have contributed to its delegitimization through reports, investigations, and public actions.
Which organizations receive the strongest criticism?
Particular criticism is directed at agencies involved in humanitarian coordination, children’s welfare, and broader UN operations connected to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
What policy action is being recommended?
The recommendation is to permanently close UN offices operating in Israel, expel associated personnel, and consider a more fundamental reassessment of Israel’s relationship with the United Nations.

Lt.-Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch

Lt.-Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch served as Director of the Military Prosecution for Judea and Samaria. Since retiring from the IDF, Hirsch worked as the Head of Legal Strategies for Palestinian Media Watch, as a Senior Military Consultant for NGO Monitor, an advisor to the Ministry of Defense, and head of an advisory committee in the Ministry of Interior. Hirsch was the architect of the Israeli law that strips citizenship from Israeli terrorists who have been convicted for terror offenses, sentenced to a custodial sentence, and receive a payment from the Palestinian Authority as a reward for their acts of terror.
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