The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) cut the sound from the microphone when a couple of speakers criticized the anti-Israel bias permeating the body on March 18.
Activist Anne Bayefsky was rebutting a prior speech from United Nations Special Rapporteur Michael Lynk in which he used “Nazi and anti-Semitic tropes” against Israel; her microphone was frequently cut off throughout the speech. On two occasions UNHRC President Coly Seck told her to stop using “insulting comments.” Eventually Bayefsky’s microphone was cut altogether and she had to end her speech early.
Bayefsky told Arutz Sheva, “I attempted to draw attention to the horrible murder of Ori Ansbacher because she was a Jew, and the absence of any mention of her by the UN’s Israel investigator who claimed he was reporting on the ‘current human rights situation.’ The Council President’s response? He cut my mic! He interrupted me twice, calling my remarks naming the Council ‘expert’s’ analogies of Israelis to Nazis ‘insulting.’”
“I ‘insulted’ anti-Semites by attempting to draw attention to their anti-Semitism,” Bayefsky said. “As I would have ended my statement – if I had been allowed to speak – at this UN, anti-Semitism is not a problem. It’s a human right.”
https://twitter.com/AnneBayefsky/status/1107633947624816641
Additionally, Hillel Neuer, executive director of U.N. Watch, tweeted that his microphone was cut off shortly after he started speaking after he “tried to simply read out the names of the countries that spoke today in the debate against Israel.”
For 1st time that I can remember (and I've been here for 15 years) the Chair of the @UN_HRC just ended my speech after a few seconds, on a point of order from Cuba & PLO, because I tried to simply read out the names of the countries that spoke today in the debate against Israel. pic.twitter.com/jDwLQzrl0D
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) March 18, 2019
The UN official who shut me down just now was Nazhat Shameem Khan of #Fiji, Vice-President of the @UN_HRC, who chaired their debate this afternoon under Agenda Item 7, “Human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories.”
Turns out, not so much of a debate. pic.twitter.com/72uVzQP4Ul
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) March 18, 2019
In protest of the UN Human Rights Council's unprecedented censorship of my speech below, I have formally withdrawn my speaking slot in the next UNHRC debate today. I urge UN rights chief @mbachelet & monitor @davidakaye to speak out for freedom of speech with the UN itself. https://t.co/JDBWjuuw7h
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) March 18, 2019
But if you dare to speak this truth @UN_HRC—as I learned the hard way today—VP @NazhatsKhan of @FijiGeneva will abruptly cut you off & deny your basic right to freedom of speech.
We didn't think it possible, but I fear the UNHRC as reached a new low.https://t.co/G9wGGXSGvj https://t.co/zPONQnV0xC
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) March 19, 2019
United States Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt tweeted in support of Neuer:
https://twitter.com/jdgreenblatt45/status/1107780433469673478
https://twitter.com/jdgreenblatt45/status/1107780434149195777
The United States left the UNHRC in June, then-United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley said the move was due to the body’s anti-Israel bias.
