The Jewish Chronicle reported his additional remarks: "Israel acts above the law and does not respect UN resolutions, and also we know this aggressive state of Israel is... nuclear armed and a centre of a colonial regime that is based on apartheid against the Palestinian people." Shtayyeh, whose tenure ran from 2019 through 2024, told members of the 202-year-old institution that certain Israeli legislators envision national boundaries stretching from the Nile to the Euphrates. His closing statement declared: "We all should say that Israel is the biggest cause of destabilisation in the region."

In my debate tonight at the Oxford Union, I said that their proposition—"Israel is a greater threat to regional stability than Iran"—struck me as deep satire, but then I recalled that 501 of their members voted to back the student chair who cheered the killing of Charlie Kirk.

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) November 13, 2025

Following the debate, Neuer wrote on X: "In my debate tonight at the Oxford Union, I said that their proposition – 'Israel is a greater threat to regional stability than Iran' – struck me as deep satire, but then I recalled that 501 of their members voted to back the student chair who cheered the killing of Charlie Kirk," The Telegraph noted. The October controversy surrounding George Abaraonye, who held the title of president-elect at the Oxford Union, resulted in his removal following widespread criticism of his apparent approval of Kirk's shooting death, The Telegraph reported.

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Fortunately, the Geneva-based human rights group UN Watch launched a campaign for his release, rallying dozens of organizations worldwide. After months in solitary, during a phone call with his mother, Aman was astonished to hear that UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer had called for his release at the United Nations.

"We called on people to take to the streets"

A few weeks later, he was freed. Today Aman lives in Europe, from where he delivers a grim but compelling testimony about life in Gaza. Until his arrest, he says he had led protests in Gaza that were not covered by the Al Jazeera network.

"The largest protest was in January 2017. We called on people to go out into the streets so Hamas would resolve the electricity crisis and create jobs. They fired live ammunition at us, and no one in the media reported it. Why? Because Hamas controls the media inside Gaza and outside Gaza," Aman said. According to him, "For many Palestinians, Al Jazeera is not a trustworthy news outlet."

"Hamas does not allow demonstrations calling for peace in Gaza – not even ones calling on Hamas to end the war. But Hamas gladly welcomes any protest in Israel.

"You won't see Al Jazeera covering protests in Gaza that call for peace or for ending the war. But you will see Al Jazeera cameras in Israel, because Hamas wants pressure to come from Israel, not from Gaza."

He recalls how after Hamas' violent takeover of Gaza from Fatah in 2007, the terrorist organization began "controlling everything in Gaza – the media, UNRWA, the private sector."

He says Hamas placed many of its members in jobs at the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, mainly because of the relatively high salaries.

Aman sheds light on Hamas' distorted logic: "Hamas loves wars. Hamas loves it when there is no university, no school, no good life for the people. Hamas loves it when all we have in Gaza are tents, just people standing in line waiting for flour and food.

"Hamas loves to control poverty, and to have no kind of real life. In the 2009 war [Operation Cast Lead], I saw it with my own eyes – Hamas celebrated after 1,400 Palestinians were killed and called it a victory. For me, what kind of victory is that?"

"People love life"

He notes that this explains why Hamas can so easily celebrate in the current war the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinians: "What happened in the 2023 war already happened in 2009, 2014 and 2021. Hamas used the same methods – exploiting the people of Gaza, controlling the media, and receiving aid. For Hamas, this is a good way to fight its wars. Every time people die and no one cares. But in the end, for Hamas, the message is 'we are still here,' and that means 'victory.' For us it is different. People in Gaza love life."

Even so, Aman accuses: "Hamas teaches Palestinians how to die, how to marry 70 virgins in heaven – and that is certainly not Islam. It is an easy way to brainwash people in Gaza to achieve their goals."

On humanitarian aid he says: "Thousands of trucks, including humanitarian aid, have entered Gaza since December 2023 until now. But people still get nothing. My sister is in Gaza, my family is in Gaza, so I know the reality from them and from my friends. My sister hasn't received anything from October until now.

"Hamas controls this aid and sells it to the people at very high prices. Can you imagine one cigarette costing $50? And what about a pack?

"I believe Hamas made a lot of money in this war from humanitarian aid. Until now Hamas still controls the aid. Hamas is still asking its partners and associates in Asia, America and England to donate through bitcoin or PayPal or other means. So it is not only about the trucks."

Aman recounts how UNRWA humanitarian aid, clearly marked "Not for sale," is openly sold in Gaza's markets and malls. "It says on it 'Not for sale' – the UN wrote that. But it is sold to people. Who started this? UNRWA and Hamas."

"A vision for a positive future"

"Aman represents the dream of a Gaza freed from Hamas' grip of terror, moving toward a positive future built on a vision that includes peace with the people of Israel", said Neuer.

"Aman shows no fear in his efforts for peace. He risked his freedom and his life. The international community, and all those who care about a Palestinian future, must support Aman and his movement for peace instead of empowering the forces that conspired to put him in prison."

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For three decades, UN Watch has stood as a beacon of light in Geneva, scrutinizing the United Nations' adherence to its founding principles. Founded by Morris Abram – a prominent civil rights lawyer who helped free Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. from prison and won a landmark Supreme Court case for black voting rights – the organization has evolved from its 1993 origins to become one of the most persistent watchdogs of the international body.

At its helm is Hillel Neuer, an Orthodox Jew and Canadian-born international lawyer. From his base in Geneva, where he has been for the last 20 years, Neuer has become a formidable presence in diplomatic circles, regularly testifying in Washington, the Hague, European parliaments, and, of course, the United Nations. Under his leadership, UN Watch has maintained its dual mandate: monitoring the UN's adherence to its charter while combating antisemitism and discrimination against Israel.

Q: How did you get involved in UN Watch?

"I had been active for Israel since I was in college. I studied law and political science and worked for a think tank in Jerusalem called the Shalem Center. When I was in law school, I was writing essays and op-eds for newspapers. When I studied law at McGill University in Montreal, my mentor was Professor Irwin Cotler, who's a distinguished human rights lawyer. He was a lawyer for Natan Sharansky when he was a prisoner in Russia and for many human rights activists who were put in prison. He was my teacher and a very big influence in the work that I've done."

Q: What does your daily schedule look like?

"It varies because I would say there's about three months a year when the United Nations Human Rights Council based in Geneva is in session – September, March, and June. When they're in session, I'm participating in debates. When the UN is not in session, we're constantly monitoring and responding to what's going on at the UN. I'm very active on social media, day and night."

"For example, today, we exposed the UN agency UNRWA, how their top officials routinely meet with Hamas leaders and cooperate with them, and how UNRWA teaches their students to call for the killing of Jews. I was busy preparing the Twitter thread with evidence and making the case about UNRWA's complicity with terrorism. Our work involves a lot of communication. It's writing, whether on social media or writing articles. I do a lot of interviews like this one."

EXPOSED: UNRWA chiefs secretly met top terrorists, telling them: "We are united, no one can separate us." In Feb. 2017, UNRWA's @PKraehenbuehl met Hamas' Ali Baraka & Islamic Jihad's Abu Imad al-Rifai, who sent suicide bombers to kill troops in Iraq. https://t.co/1FucsZBXE7 pic.twitter.com/Ga88XrcVG8

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) November 21, 2024

Q: How did UN Watch find its sources for this case?

"Our research team is just going on the internet and finding things on social media. Most of the material that we're reporting are things that are openly available, which either no one is looking for or no one really cares. We know how to look for things. We're showing screenshots of what they say, linking to their own Facebook pages or their own websites."

Q: Have you experienced personal threats or received threats to the UN Watch?

"We anger a lot of people because we don't just criticize Islamic terrorist groups like Hamas or Hezbollah. Throughout the year, we bring human rights heroes from Russia, China, Cuba, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Belarus, and North Korea. We are a thorn in the side of many of the world's worst regimes. I try not to let it get in the way. They're trying to hold you back and punch you down. You've got to stay focused on the important work and just tell the truth."

Q: Where were you on Oct. 7?

"I was visiting Jerusalem and I first heard an alarm around 8 in the morning. I went into the bomb shelter, grabbed my phone, even though it was Shabbat, and started tweeting there. I normally don't tweet on Shabbat."

Q: How has your job changed after Oct. 7?

"It's been very intense. Many of the things we're doing are the same. We were fighting UN bias for many years, and now, it's just on steroids. The speed has been increased exponentially. If you have one awful UN thing that happens maybe once a week or once a month, you might have multiple awful UN distortions happening in a single day. There's been a tsunami of hate around the world, and the UN is a part of it, unfortunately."

Q: What do you think of Trump's pick of Elise Stefanik as US ambassador to the UN?

"Elise Stefanik is famous for what she was able to do against the heads of Harvard and Penn. She exposed them before the world, asking them simple questions about how they tolerated calls for genocide against Jews and saw how morally bankrupt they were. I think that was extraordinary. We're hoping she's going to bring that same fierce pursuit of justice to the UN. I see her as kind of a B-52 bomber. She's heading into the UN, which, in John Bolton's words, is a 'target-rich environment.' And the job of folks like me who are on the ground, who've been inside the UN for many years, is if she's the B-52 bomber, then our job is just to call in the targets. I hope to be working with her closely."

Q: How does she compare to the current US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield?

"The current ambassador is a career diplomat, so it's just a completely different type of person. I've had no personal interaction with her."

Q: The mission statement of UN Watch is "to monitor the performance of the United Nations by the yardstick of its own charter." How do you feel the UN is faring in this sense today? Is the UN failing to execute its charter?

"The UN is huge. There are numerous agencies, and some agencies perform better than others. But sadly, some of the main agencies are really falling short. Certainly, the Human Rights Council, in which 60% are dictatorships. China is a member. Cuba is a member. Eritrea, which has slave labor, is a member. Qatar, which sponsors terrorism, is a member. So that's a complete failure. The body that's supposed to be the leader of human rights at the United Nations is controlled by dictatorships."

"They appoint experts who are, in fact, enemies of human rights. I'll give you two examples. UN Rapporteur on Palestine Francesca Albanese is openly supporting Hamas. She told Hamas, 'You have the right to resist' at a Hamas conference. She said that 'America is subjugated by the Jewish lobby.' She routinely spreads blood libels against Israel. She often compares Israel to the Third Reich, to the Nazis. It's really the worst form of antisemitism. She's a UN expert of the Human Rights Council."

Francesca Albanese projects antisemitism and support for Hamas terrorism around the globe.

She has arrived in New York to project hate in the UN and campuses across the city. So we decided to project the truth: https://t.co/2XEWJbYm8O#FireFrancesca: https://t.co/6FNaka4tFv pic.twitter.com/cCGuURoUyV

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) October 30, 2024

"There's another expert. Alena Douhan was appointed to advocate against sanctions. Whenever Western countries impose sanctions on a dictatorship like Iran, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Cuba, or Syria, then this UN official will say that those sanctions are themselves a violation. She said if there are problems in Iran, it's because of American, British, and Canadian sanctions. She most recently went to China and said the Uighurs are treated very well. It's a completely inverted Orwellian upside-down situation where you have the worst dictatorships being championed by a UN so-called human rights expert. The UN Human Rights Council, the body that is supposed to be a defender of human rights, is the complete opposite."

"Iran was a member of the Women's Rights Commission of the UN until recently. Thanks to our campaign, we are the ones who helped get them expelled from that body. Now, Saudi Arabia is going to be the chair. Even though Saudi Arabia is improving in many ways, still the situation of women is not the best in the world, let's just say. It's absurd that Saudi Arabia has been made the chair of that body. Iran was elected to certain UN positions dealing with disarmament, which is absurd because Iran is arming terrorist groups and pursuing nuclear weapons illegally."

Q: Do you still support the UN as an institution? Is there still hope for it?

"The UN is huge. It's not going away. And the UN is what the member states make of it. Sadly, too often, democracies do not speak out. They just go along to get along. We need our democracies, Britain, France, Germany, the US, Canada, and Australia, to speak out more, introduce actions against dictatorships, push back against the election of dictatorships, and stop the demonization and singling out of Israel on a repeated basis."

"It's always going to be a problem because half the world's governments are dictatorships, and the UN is so removed from the citizens. The more removed you are from the citizen, the more you'll get a lack of accountability. There's a lot of corruption inside the UN. There's very little oversight."

Q: Many call for the US and Israel to remove themselves from the UN because it has become so immoral and biased. What do you say to that?

"It's complicated. There are a lot of decisions that happen there, and the US wants to be there when those decisions are being discussed. I don't think it's likely that the US is going to pull out. It wouldn't necessarily make the UN go away. Other countries are not pulling out. The UK is not pulling out. France is not pulling out. So even if the US pulled out, the UN would continue to be influential because it is the world's main body. Even if you had no UN, there would be other international gatherings, and the same anti-Israel majorities would appear. So, to some degree, you wouldn't necessarily eliminate the source of the problem."

"I'm not saying that we're obliged to stick with the UN always. But the reality is that it's there. A fair question you could ask is whether the UN needs to be in New York. It could be that President Trump might say, 'We're not leaving the UN. But the UN has other offices. Maybe the main headquarters of the UN should move to Nairobi.' Maybe less people are going to take the UN seriously when it's not based in Manhattan. So I think there are some options."

"If Israel were to leave the UN, that would only make its enemies very happy. To be recognized as an independent country, most people assume that you have a seat at the UN. Israel fought so hard in 1949 to be admitted to the UN. And the truth is that if they would leave, it would only gladden the hearts of its enemies. So I don't think that leaving is necessarily really an effective solution to what is a very difficult problem, namely Israel being targeted in such an extreme way."

Q: Where do you think the UN will be in five years' time?

"It will be very interesting to see with the Trump administration. But I hope that we'll have more democracies in the world, and I hope that the democracies will begin to change their approach and hold the UN accountable. To some degree, the UN reflects the kind of world we have, and we have to hope that we're going to have a better world."

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