Unverified and Unjust: The ACLJ Exposes the U.N.'s False Accusations Against Israel

Against an unrelenting barrage of false accusations – the ACLJ, through our international affiliate with consultative status at the U.N., the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ), continues to fight at the U.N. on behalf of the State of Israel. The latest lies about Israel came on April 21, when the U.N. Secretary-General released his report entitled Conflict-Related Sexual Violence, which ridiculously added the State of Israel to the "blacklist" of countries engaged in conflict-related sexual violence.

The report alleges that Israeli forces have committed acts of sexual abuse against Palestinians, including rape, gang rape, rape with objects, attempted rape, genital violence, invasive searches, forced nudity, unwanted sexual touching, and threats of rape.

We dug deeper into the report and found serious flaws and ethical violations by its authors in compiling the report. The allegations it makes against Israeli forces are labeled as “verified” acts of sexual violence by Israel against Palestinian detainees. However, after the report was released, Pramila Patten, the U.N.’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict and author of the report, admitted that she did not conduct any independent investigations to ascertain the veracity of the absurd allegations against Israeli forces.

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Patten said: “That’s not my job . . . I receive information from the U.N. human rights monitors . . . it’s not the responsibility of my office to do any verification.” The human rights monitors she was referring to include the Commission of Inquiry (COI). This is the same COI that lobbs false accusations against Israel in its reports. Patten simply regurgitates the false and baseless allegations made by the COI in the Secretary-General’s Report.

Shamefully, the COI falsely accuses Israeli soldiers of committing sexual violence by ridiculously labeling instances of destruction of Hamas utilized hospitals or the roads leading to them, the scarcity of maternity equipment, the shortage of menstrual pads and healthy food for pregnant women as reproductive violence. It further labels strip searches of detainees (a lawful action during war) as egregious gender-based violence. According to the COI, Gazan women having to use children’s diapers instead of sanitary pads during menstruation; eating canned tuna instead of bread, milk, and eggs during pregnancies; and having to wear a veil due to the conflict are serious examples of sexual, reproductive, and gender-based violence.

In our recent letter to the U.N. Secretary-General, which was also sent to the U.N. Security Council and the Human Rights Council, we reiterated that, while these instances are a sad consequence of armed conflicts, they do not constitute sexual or reproductive violence. What is more alarming is that the Secretary-General’s report relies on the COI’s mislabeling, false information, and its so-called “findings” to place the Israeli military on par with terrorists from Gaza who gang-raped Israeli women, shot them while still assaulting them, shoved foreign objects into reproductive organs, cut their genitals, and left hundreds of nude bodies after assaulting them – all of which is actual and egregious sexual violence, and all of which is documented, even by the terrorists themselves.

When dealing with Hamas, the Secretary-General’s Report truly shows their cards by dedicating only a couple of sentences to atrocities committed by Hamas and other terrorist organizations against innocent Israelis (and others), despite a plethora of publicly available evidence supporting these atrocities. The report fails to include specific details of the allegations against Hamas, and even calls them mere unverified “allegations.” In other words, this report, like so many other U.N. documents, is an absolute farce.

Interestingly, the report states that the validity of claims against Hamas could not be verified because Israel continues to deny access to U.N. officials to conduct investigations. Israel denies these claims, stating that the U.N. was invited to review the allegations in Israel. Pramila Patten also confirmed the receipt of the invitation from Israel and her refusal to visit detention facilities.

Responding to questions regarding Ambassador Danny Danon’s invitation to visit Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention facilities, Patten responded: “And even throughout the engagement to the permanent mission, I made it clear that I will not visit detention facilities even if they offered because that is not my mandate and that’s not my role, and relevant U.N. entities need to have access.”

In light of this evidence, we have asked the Secretary-General to reconsider his decision, retract the recent report containing the false allegations, launch a proper investigation, and pursue truth and justice instead of blindly relying on the COI’s unreliable “findings.”

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