Hillel Neuer calls on Australia to end funding for UNRWA and confront UN bias

“Your tax dollars are funding hate.”

Visiting Sydney this week, Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch, a Geneva-based NGO that promotes universal human rights and holds the United Nations accountable to its founding principles, called on Australia to end its funding of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

He accused the agency of enabling extremism and failing its humanitarian mission. Neuer said UNRWA plays a central role in radicalising Palestinian youth and protecting Hamas operatives. His remarks come amid rising international scrutiny of UNRWA’s activities following the October 7th attacks.

“Australia is giving twenty million dollars a year to an agency that, in many cases, is run by people affiliated with terrorist groups,” Neuer stated. “Your tax dollars are funding schools where children are taught that their home isn’t Gaza or Lebanon, but Israel; and that they’ll get it back through armed resistance.”

Neuer presented detailed case studies to support his claims, including Suhail al-Hindi, a senior UNRWA official in Gaza and member of Hamas’s political bureau. Neuer showed evidence that al-Hindi took part in a Hamas meeting just five days before the October 7 massacre. “He worked for UNRWA for 30 years. He was a school principal, the head of the teachers’ union, and a top Hamas official. And UNRWA reinstated him after he was exposed. Why? Because Hamas shut down their schools and UNRWA caved.”

 

“UNRWA’s mandate isn’t to solve the refugee issue,” Neuer said. “Their mandate is to preserve it, and that means perpetuating the conflict.” He contrasted this with the UNHCR, which he praised for resettling millions of refugees globally. “UNHCR resettles refugees. UNRWA has resettled none. Not one.”

Neuer also described a case from Lebanon involving Fathi Sharif, another UNRWA staffer with longstanding ties to Hamas. After his death in an Israeli airstrike, Hamas released a video hailing him as a martyr and educator of jihad. “He was the head of the UNRWA teachers’ union, responsible for 2,000 teachers,” Neuer said. “And yet, every public appearance showed him side-by-side with terror chiefs. UNRWA gave him a certificate of appreciation for his work with children. This is who Australia is funding.”

Neuer also criticised the International Criminal Court for what he described as a “collapse of credibility.” With ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan under investigation for alleged sexual misconduct, Neuer questioned the timing of his decision to indict Israeli leaders. “When he knew the scandal was about to break, he suddenly cancelled a planned trip to Israel and Gaza and instead issued an indictment. Many suspect it was an attempt to divert attention.”

Karim Khan was succeeded at the International Criminal Court by Najat Shamim Khan who was previously a senior official at the UN Human Rights Council. In that role, she repeatedly shut down criticism of Hamas and UNRWA. During council sessions, she interrupted Neuer and other speakers who attempted to expose antisemitic content shared by UNRWA teachers, claiming their remarks were “inflammatory” and “out of order.” As chair of the Human Rights Council, Khan appointed a commission of inquiry on Israel composed of individuals with clear anti-Israel bias, including one member who had publicly referred to the “Jewish lobby” controlling social media. Her actions, Neuer argued, reveal a pattern of ethical lapses and political bias that cast strong doubt on her impartiality in her current ICC role.

Neuer also highlighted the release of UN Watch’s new report, “Nothing to Hide”, which he will be delivering to officials in Canberra. The report focuses on the conduct of Francesca Albanese and raises broader questions about accountability within the United Nations system. Neuer said the document exposes how UN oversight mechanisms fail to function properly, describing the internal review that cleared Albanese as a “whitewash,” led by colleagues with clear conflicts of interest. “This isn’t just about one official,” Neuer said. “It’s about a UN culture that enables bias, ignores complaints, and punishes truth-tellers.”

He also accused Albanese of antisemitic remarks, accepting travel funding from pro-Hamas lobby groups, and violating UN ethical guidelines. “She said the United States is ‘subjugated by the Jewish lobby’ and Europe by ‘Holocaust guilt.’ She publicly defended the October 7 massacre as ‘resistance.’ And she told Hamas leaders they have the right to fight Israel.”

Multiple Western democracies have condemned Albanese, including the U.S., Canada, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Argentina. “And yet, not a single word from Australia. Not one statement. I’m here to ask: Why the silence?”

He outlined how Albanese misled the public about her 2023 trip to Australia and New Zealand, initially claiming the UN paid for it. “She said again and again that the UN funded her trip. Then finally, buried in a report, the UN admitted that external groups funded her; groups that publicly praise Hamas and justified the October 7 atrocities.”

Neuer warned that her actions reflect a broader pattern of misconduct within the UN system. “She was reappointed not because she was cleared, but because the people assigned to investigate her were her own friends. One of them even called me ‘evil scum, white man’ on Twitter. That’s who cleared her.”

He called on Australia to take a principled stand by cutting ties with UNRWA and publicly condemning Albanese’s rhetoric. “If decent democracies don’t speak up, then we are complicit. Australia should say one thing: We do not support hate, and we will not fund it.”

“The world is watching,” he said. “This is not about politics, it’s about principle. It’s about whether we continue to pour money into agencies that educate children to admire Hitler and slaughter civilians, or whether we find another way.”

Neuer concluded by urging democratic nations to confront corruption and politicisation in international institutions. “UNRWA is not irreplaceable. What’s irreplaceable is integrity. That’s what’s at stake here.”