Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Washington DC to be greeted by two “gifts” from President Donald Trump. The first is the president’s plan, believed due to be signed into law today (February 4), to withdraw American engagement from the United Nations Human Rights Council, and to extend a funding freeze to UNRWA, the main agency dealing with Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
The second “gift” is the announcement of the setting-up of a federal Task Force on Antisemitism, under the aegis of the US Justice Department.
It is not the first time that President Trump has left the UN Human Rights Council: he did so during his first term in the White House, but President Joe Biden reversed the decision. However, animus against both bodies has been a high point of Mr Netanyahu’s argument that Israel is being treated unfairly on the world stage, and Mr Trump clearly agrees with him.
Reports from a number of freed Israeli hostages that they were held in UNRWA facilities in Gaza will not have helped the agency’s case, added to earlier claims that UNRWA staffers had taken part in the 7 October 2023 murders in southern Israel. Several people were fired by the UN last summer in the wake of an internal investigation which found they may have been involved in the attack.
Protesters are seen during a demonstration outside the Gaza City headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine Refugees.
UNRWA is the main agency providing aid for Gaza’s population.
Explaining President Trump’s decision to pull out of the UNHRC, the White House said the council had ‘not fulfilled its purpose and continues to be used as a protective body for countries committing horrific human rights violations” and condemned its stance on Israel.
“The UNHRC has demonstrated consistent bias against Israel, focusing on it unfairly and disproportionately in council proceedings,” it added. “In 2018, the year President Trump withdrew from the UNHRC in his first administration, the organisation passed more resolutions condemning Israel than Syria, Iran, and North Korea combined.”
On Monday the US Justice Department announced the formation of a multi-agency task force to fight antisemitism in schools and universities across the country. At the same time the Education Department said it was investigating five universities for alleged antisemitic harassment. The campuses concerned are Columbia University, Northwestern University, Portland State University, University of California, Berkeley; and University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.
The decision follows another executive order from President Trump in which he warned “resident aliens who joined in pro-jihadist protests” that they would be deported, referring to pro-Palestinian protests on US college campuses.
Trump also pledged to revoke the student visas of those he called “Hamas sympathisers.”
The formation of the task force has been welcomed by ISGAP, the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy. Its executive director, Dr Charles Asher Small, said: “Antisemitism on campus is completely out of control and institutionalised within the university culture. So far, the response at the federal level has been totally unacceptable, weak, and lip-service at best. We welcome this new Task Force and its stated goal of rooting out antisemitic harassment in schools and on college campuses. This phenomenon of course is not a new one, but it’s abhorrent, dangerous, and demands urgent attention.”
