UN Secretary-General Guterres: On UN International Day for Countering Hate Speech, Help Curb Antisemitic Hate Speech at the UN
The pervasiveness of hate speech online and in the real world is an undeniable reality in 2023. Antisemitic hate speech in particular creates distrust and hostility toward Jews and increasingly inspires and legitimizes intimidation and violence.
FBI Director Christopher Wray recently testified that 63% of all religion-based hate crimes in the US target American Jews—a mere 2.4% of the US population. Antisemitism has finally drawn the attention of the Biden Administration, which recently rolled out a comprehensive, if significantly flawed, national strategy to combat antisemitism.
Now comes the announcement that the UN has set aside June 18 as the International Day for Countering Hate Speech. The chief intergovernmental organization has created an impressive website for the day that explains its global action plan, which includes countering hate speech through sports, education, and raising awareness about disinformation.
We are far from powerless in the face of hate speech. We can and must raise awareness about its dangers, and work to prevent and end it in all its forms.
In an official statement, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called on member states and activists to take action. “We are far from powerless in the face of hate speech,” Guterres said. “We can and must raise awareness about its dangers, and work to prevent and end it in all its forms.” The UN also unveiled an official #NoToHate hashtag.
The International Day for Countering Hate Speech now sits on the UN calendar alongside International Holocaust Remembrance Day, International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Rwandan Genocide Day, International Day for Commemorating Victims of Violence Based on Religion or Belief, Human Rights Day, End Racism Day, and others.
As a UN- and UNESCO-accredited nongovernmental organization, the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) applauds all efforts to encourage UN member states to reject bigotry. We are always seeking new allies who will help world Jewry combat the oldest form of hate—antisemitism.
However, it is difficult to embrace the UN as a partner in the fight against “all forms of hate” when the organization itself so often inspires, validates, and contributes to antisemitism.
The UN, including the UN General Assembly, the UN Human Rights Council, UNRWA, and even UNICEF, has been weaponized against Israel—home to the largest Jewish community in the world.
Anti-Israel double standards are most obvious at the UN General Assembly. According to the Geneva-based UN Watch, from 2015 to 2022, it adopted 140 resolutions on Israel and only 68 on all other countries combined. Last year alone, the General Assembly passed 15 anti-Israel resolutions, compared to 13 against the rest of the world.
At the UN Human Rights Council too, the anti-Israel bias is shocking. From the UN Human Rights Council’s establishment in 2006 until 2022, that body has adopted 99 resolutions condemning Israel since the council’s establishment in 2006. That number is roughly equal to the total number of resolutions condemning all other countries combined.
The UN currently has six formal bodies tasked with investigating Israel: a Division for Palestinian Rights, a Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, an Information System on the Question of Palestine, a Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories, and a Register of Damage Caused by the Construction of the Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
In addition to those six bodies, the UN also employs a special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories. The current special rapporteur, Francesca Albanese, earned the No. 2 spot on the SWC’s 2022 Top 10 Antisemites list. Albanese has described the US as being under the control of “the Jewish lobby.” Speaking at a conference in Gaza organized by Hamas, she told the audience, “You have a right to resist occupation.” She has trivialized the memory of the Holocaust by falsely equating it to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
These are not empty words from a rogue official. On the contrary, they seem to represent an antisemitic and anti-Israel stance that has become widespread at the UN. Recent UN decisions further threaten the legitimacy of the Jewish state and the rights of Israeli citizens and supporters of Israel around the world.
Last month, the General Assembly adopted a shameful resolution marking Israel’s 75th anniversary by convening a “high-level event” to mark the Nakba—the Arabic term meaning “catastrophe” that Palestinians use to refer to Israel’s founding. At the behest of the Palestinians, the UN then asked the International Court of Justice for an opinion on “the legal consequences arising from the ongoing violation by Israel of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.”
But one UN initiative broke new ground when it comes to antisemitism. The recently released Report of the Independent Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel describes a commission that was little more than a kangaroo court.
The three commissioners had a history of deploying antisemitic tropes and denying Israel’s right to exist. Besides endorsing the antisemitic boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement at the commission itself, they also denounced the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, which has been endorsed by 40 nations and more than 1,100 entities around the world.
This basic definition of antisemitism is crucial for holding antisemites accountable. Along with Jewish groups on both sides of the Atlantic, SWC is continuing to lobby around the world for the adoption of the IHRA working definition by universities, states, cities, and sports clubs.
The three commissioners denounced the very definition of antisemitism that Jewish human rights groups like SWC use. They denounced SWC and other groups like us for daring to define antisemitism in such a way that draws the line between legitimate criticism and hate. As Human Rights Voices President Anne Bayefsky put it, the UN report on the commission contains an unprecedented attack on Israel and its defenders, “including private individuals and nongovernmental organizations worldwide.”
Secretary-General Guterres, please help the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Jewish people understand: How can the UN lead the fight against hate speech while simultaneously legitimizing and promoting hate speech against the Jewish nation?
