WASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release) — A B’nai B’rith International leadership delegation has conducted a marathon of meetings with ambassadors in Geneva and Paris to advocate for the Jewish people as the United States and Israel press ahead in an unprecedented military confrontation with Iran. The nearly 60 meetings with senior diplomats from around the globe took place during the main yearly session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and in the run-up to a session of the Executive Board of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Over the course of the week, led by B’nai B’rith International President Robert B Spitzer and CEO Daniel S Mariaschin, the organization’s representatives from multiple countries descended on the two European U.N. hubs to underscore the genuine impediments to peace in the Middle East, demand an end to singular mistreatment of the Jewish state at the world body and urge action against a frightening wave of global anti-Semitism.
B’nai B’rith advocates in these and other U.N. settings on communal priorities every year, but the effort has taken on exceptional urgency by the current geopolitical conditions. On this visit, leaders of the delegation met with new UNESCO Director-General Khaled El-Enany of Egypt—who now heads an agency that has been responsible for preserving heritage sites and undertaken efforts, some in cooperation with B’nai B’rith and other Jewish groups, to combat anti-Semitism online and through education, and to promote Holocaust remembrance.
At the UNHRC, B’nai B’rith Director of U.N. and Intercommunal Affairs David J. Michaels also delivered an official oral intervention, highlighting Iran’s longtime malign actions regionally and internationally. The UNHRC singles out Israel alone for scrutiny under a dedicated permanent agenda item, and more excoriating resolutions and reports than those targeting any other country. The council has also just commemorated the 25th anniversary of the notorious U.N. Durban conference on racism—where B’nai B’rith dispatched the largest multinational Jewish contingent, and which earned notoriety for scenes of shocking anti-Semitism and an outcome document that singled out Israel for implied characterization as racist.
Spitzer and Mariaschin said: “With the U.S. and Israel not being members of these high-profile U.N. bodies, it is more critical than ever that B’nai B’rith—which has been present, accredited and uniquely active at the U.N. since its creation—give voice to our community’s values and interests.”
They continued, “Israel and other peace-seeking countries are under acute attack. We will continue to spotlight that intolerable reality, to insist on an end to incessant U.N. bias against the Israeli people and to encourage indispensable education for peace.”
In his statement to the council, Michaels said: “Among Israelis, Arabs and Iranians, peace, pluralism and prosperity would be possible if not for the determination of fanatic elements led by the regime in Tehran… The regime has brutally oppressed, tortured and disappeared millions of its own people, and hijacked their badly needed resources. The regime has consistently been by far the leading state sponsor of global terrorism.”
He added, “The regime has explicitly and obsessively pledged ‘death to America’ and ‘death to Israel’— relentlessly murdering, terrorizing and taking hostage the citizens of those democracies either directly or through its proxies. At the same time, the regime has aggressively pursued a massive offensive missiles program—and an illicit nuclear capability that could carry out its exterminationist, genocidal threats. Can it be said that the U.S. and Israel ‘launched’ a war with Iran? Tehran has been waging that war for 47 years.”
In response, the council president—from Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, which still does not recognize Israel—said speakers should “uphold U.N. standards when referring to countries” like Iran.
While in Geneva and Paris, B’nai B’rith conferred with the lead U.S. and Israeli envoys in both settings. The delegation also included B’nai B’rith Connect young leaders from Columbia University and inaugural B’nai B’rith AEPi Fellows—from Arizona State, George Washington and Stanford Universities—further cementing a long-term strategic partnership with the national Jewish fraternity and empowering students as they face growing anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist animus on campuses.
B’nai B’rith—distinguished by its global scope and a dedicated Office of U.N. Affairs, chaired by Millie Magid and strengthened by full-time volunteer representatives at key hubs of the world body—will continue to advocate both publicly and privately over the period ahead.
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Preceding provided by B’nai B’rith International.