Elliott Abrams: UNRWA Again: UN Employees Incite Hatred
This is our tax money at work: the United States is by far the largest contributor to UNRWA, at over $400 million.Dexter Van Zile: Will Chris Gunness ever be held to account?
This discovery is a test both of the UNRWA and United Nations leadership, and of the Obama administration. This kind of behavior is absolutely intolerable, right? So now what happens? Does UNRWA discipline or fire these individuals? Does Ban ki-Moon step in?
Nope, not so far. The only reaction has been–you probably guessed it–attacks on UN Watch by UNRWA’s spokesman. Not a word about these postings or the employees.
The next step should be action by the State Department and by Samantha Power, our UN ambassador, demanding that the UN wake up. The State Department actually has an assistant secretary whose sole duty is supervising the United Nations, and even a Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism. The next step should be simple: to contact top officials at UN headquarters in New York, and the head of UNRWA, Commissioner-General Pierre Krähenbühl. Either such conduct is tolerated or it is not. Either UNRWA’s reaction is disciplinary moves against these individuals, or it attacks UN Watch. If the latter–UNRWA defends these acts inciting and celebrating violence and terror, defends those who are responsible for them, and assaults UN Watch for finding the truth–the United States should suspend payments to UNRWA. We should not be financing the spreading of hatred by UN employees.
It ought to be simple.
Take a look at Gunness’s Twitter feed, which is followed by anti-Israel journalists throughout the world. There is little, if any condemnation of Hamas in his Tweets, but there are regular denunciations of Israeli policy and actions.UNRWA’s Chris Gunness Offered Lucrative Job as Pro Wrestling Referee (satire)
For example, Gunness posted a Tweet calling on Israel to “lift the blockade.” How about asking Hamas to stop endangering Palestinian children with its reckless attacks on Israel? How about asking Hamas to stop teaching children to hate Jews?
Gunness’ behavior is a clear and obvious violation of UNRWA’s stated policy regarding neutrality, which declares that, “neutrality is .. a core obligation and value of UN staff.” (Gunness himself wrote about this policy for the Huffington Post in 2011.)
Recently, UN Watch drew attention to antisemitic Facebook postings of a number of UNRWA employees, some of whom appear to be members of Hamas -- a clear violation of UNRWA’s so-called policies regarding neutrality.
How did Gunness respond? By attacking UN Watch and asking for information about UN Watch’s funding.
In response to these outrages, an activist from California has started a petition on Change.org calling for Gunness to be investigated for his violations of UNRWA’s policies on neutrality.
Somebody needs to do something. Gunness’ use of UN resources to assist in Hamas’s cognitive war against the Jewish state is simply intolerable.
Based on the keen situational awareness and managerial oversight that he has exhibited at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), World Wrestling Entertainment, Incorporated has extended an offer of employment as a referee to Mr. Christopher Gunness. Mr. Gunness, who has lately been busy investigating where his critics get their money from, was unavailable for comment, but World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) spokesperson Robert C. spoke with the Daily Freier earlier today. “A lack of situational awareness and organizational leadership like Mr. Gunness provides day in and day out…….that doesn’t come around evey day. If WWE wants to continue to build its brand, it needs to jump on talent like this.” When the Daily Freier asked the WWE if there was one event that convinced the organization to extend an offer to Mr. Gunness, Robert noted “When Chris was presented with evidence from UN-WATCH of UNRWA employees calling for the death of Jews on Facebook, and countered with a call to investigate UN-WATCH.……he just exhibited exactly what we look for in a good referee: focus on ‘the Big Picture’…….Either that or he’s full of crap and simply hates Israel. Hard to tell.”