Antizionist Organizations – Unreliable Sources – UN Organizations : From Blog Posts to Book
The purpose of “Antizionist Organizations – Unreliable Sources – UN Organizations” and these blog posts is to combine them into a published book entitled Safe Schools for Jewish Students: An Educator’s Guide to Preventing Antisemitism and Strengthening Belonging.
Go here for the full Table of Contents.
Chapter 6 – Antizionist Organizations: Unreliable Sources – UN Organizations
Unreliable Sources – United Nations
The United Nations General Assembly is a good example of demonstrating double standards.
Though Alice Wairimu Nderitu, the United Nations (UN) Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide stated that Israel’s war against Gaza was not a genocide and that Hamas’ attack on October 7th had genocidal intent, her contract was not renewed because of her stance.
Nderitu stated that she was “hounded, day in, day out” and “bullied” by internal and external UN factions, including other UN officials and staff, who pressured her to use the term “genocide” to Israel’s actions in Gaza.
UN Resolutions Against Israel
Within ten years there have been UN resolutions against the following countries:
China – 0
Cuba – 0
Qatar – 0
Turkey – 0
Pakistan – 0
Venezuela – 0
Libya – 0
Zimbabwe – 0
Yenmar – 9
Syria – 12
North Korea – 10
Iran – 9
Israel – 173
Israel has been condemned more times than all other countries combined. Though not all UN-sponsored organizations are harmful to Israel, there are specific UN councils and organizations that ignore the crimes of countries and put their attention on the question, “How can we blame Israel?”
Affiliated UN Organizations
Affiliated UN organizations harmful to Israel include:
- United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC)
The UNHRC has a permanent agenda item, Agenda Item #7, that reviews how Israel is mistreating Palestinians. No other country has a permanent agenda item.
In 2016, the committee started a blacklist of Israeli companies promoting a Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions-type movement against Israel and only Israel.
The recent Special Rapporteur, Francesca Albanese, filed her conclusion that Israel was committing genocide based on Israel’s actions from October 8th onward, ignoring the attack against Israel on October 7th saying the events that day were “beyond the geographical scope of her mandate.”
She and her husband have a history of posting antisemitic statements, including telling Hamas, “You have a right to resist.”
- UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization)
The organization has a history of denying the Jewish connection to Israel, refers to ancient holy sites by their Arabic names, including Hebron which was a centuries-old Jewish village attacked by Arabs and evacuated by the British colonized in 1929.
UNESCO has put forth more resolutions against Israel than against any other country.
- UNRWA (UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees)
Many of UNRWA’s staff members took part in the October 7th attack against Israeli citizens. Over 10% of the agency are members of Hamas or the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. UNRWA schools were used by Hamas for military purposes.
UNRWA vs. UNHCR
UNRWA and UNHCR are the world’s two UN agencies that work at helping refugees. Originally, UNRWA helped both Israeli and Arab-Palestinian refugees of the Arab-Israel War of 1948, but in 1952 Israel took direct control over assistance to Israeli refugees. UNRWA is now for Palestinians only. UNHCR is for all other refugees in the world. Compared to UNRWA, UNHCR has fewer employees, more refugees, and a larger success rate at providing durable solutions.
Full Name & Nature
UNRWA: United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East — a UN General Assembly-mandated agency focused specifically on Palestinian refugees.
UNHCR: Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees — a global UN refugee agency that protects and assists refugees, stateless people, and other forcibly displaced persons worldwide.
Established
UNRWA: 1949 by UN General Assembly Resolution 302; operational from 1950.
UNHCR: 1950 by UN General Assembly; mandate expanded with the 1951 Refugee Convention and 1967 Protocol.
Primary Mandate
UNRWA: Provides humanitarian aid, direct services (education, health care, relief/social services, microfinance, infrastructure) to registered Palestinian refugees within its fields of operation. It does not have a mandate for durable solutions like resettlement.
UNHCR: Protects and assists refugees and other displaced persons globally through legal protection, humanitarian aid, and support for durable solutions (repatriation, local integration, resettlement).
Who Qualifies as a Refugee
UNRWA: Refugees are Palestine refugees: people whose normal residence was in Palestine during June 1946–May 1948 and who lost their homes and livelihood due to the 1948 Arab-Israel War. Refugees include their descendants, often through the male line.
UNHCR: Refugees are individuals meeting the 1951 Refugee Convention definition:
“As a result of events occurring before 1 January 1951 and owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.”
The definition has been updated: Refugees are people who have fled their countries to escape conflict, violence, or persecution and have sought safety in another country.
UNHCR also works with stateless persons and asylum-seekers.
Refugee Numbers
UNRWA: There are about 6 million Palestinian refugees registered with UNRWA: 1.6 million in Gaza, 1 million in the West Bank, 600,000 in Syria, 500,000 in Lebanon’s camps, and 2.4 million in Jordan.
UNHCR: By the end of 2025, UNHCR served 28.5 million refugees globally, covering more than 130 countries and territories.
Employees / Staff
UNRWA: The organization has over 28,000 staff, mostly local hires.
UNHCR: UNHCR employed around 11,000 staff worldwide as of March 2026.
Success in Ending Refugee Status
UNRWA: There’s no mandate to permanently end refugee status through resettlement or local integration. No Palestinian has been resettled, always retaining their refugee status.
UNHCR: The organization promotes durable solutions through voluntary repatriation, local integration, and resettlement. From 2016 to 2021, they resettled 224,000 refugees with an average of 37,000 people a year having their refugee status resolved.
Compared to UNRWA, UNHCR has fewer employees, more refugees, and a larger success rate at providing durable solutions.
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Author Biography of Safe Schools for Jewish Students
Ezra Barany, son of a Bronx father and a Dutch mother from Nazi-occupied Netherlands, loves riveting readers with Jewish thrillers. His first two books in The Torah Codes series were award-winning international bestsellers. In his free time, he has eye-opening discussions on the art of writing novels with his wife and book coach Beth Barany. A high school physics teacher, Ezra lives in Oakland with his beloved wife and two cats working on the next book. Ezra, not the cats.
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