'The UN has been caught red-handed aiding and abetting pro-Hamas anarchists in American cities and streets'
Anti-Israel protests emerge in at least eight American cities
Fox News national correspondent Bill Melugin reports on the protests disrupting traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
FIRST ON FOX — An April 11 edition of the United Nations Division for Palestinian Rights’ NGO Action News, which provides updates about civil society organizations worldwide "relevant to the Palestine issue," linked readers to the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) list of "5 Ways to Take Action for Tax Day."
Included within the list were instructions about how protesters who did not "want [their] tax dollars to fund genocide" could "disrupt for a free Palestine."
The second item on USCPR’s list was a hyperlink for protesters seeking to engage in a "coordinated multi-city economic blockade to free Palestine," an effort organizers noted was "not affiliated with USCPR."
In the destination page, blockade organizers A15 describe efforts to "identify and blockade major choke points in the economy, focusing on points of production and circulation with the aim of causing the most economic impact," effectively "blocking the arteries of capitalism and jamming the wheels of production."
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The demonstrations were largely organized by A15 Action, a newly created group that worked to "coordinate a multi-city economic blockade on April 15 in solidarity with Palestine." (Getty Images/KTVU)
Anne Bayefsky, president of Human Rights Voices and director of the Touro University Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust, told Fox News Digital "the U.N. has been caught red-handed aiding and abetting pro-Hamas anarchists in American cities and streets" by "distributing a newsletter, in multiple languages and to a worldwide network, that contains links to radical anti-American and anti-Israel agitators, their agendas and plans."
Fox News Digital reported on the April 15 blockades when anti-Israel protesters stopped traffic outside Washington’s Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, California’s Golden Gate Bridge and on the I-5 in Eugene, Ore. Gatherings also took place outside the New York Stock Exchange and Philadelphia’s City Hall, at San Antonio’s Valero headquarters and in Los Angeles, Oakland, Tampa and Miami.
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CHICAGO, UNITED STATES - APRIL 15: Chicago police intervene and take pro-Palestinian demonstrators into custody during the protest against Israel's attacks on Gaza on April 15, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois, United States. (Photo by Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu via Getty Images)
At an attempted traffic disruption in Detroit, police told Fox 2 Detroit protesting vehicles "ignored multiple traffic control signals," which led to "traffic obstructions" and "nearly caus[ed] accidents."
During the day’s events, dozens around the country were arrested.
The UN’s NGO Action News site contains a disclaimer warning that third-party links "are not under the control of the United Nations and the United Nations is not responsible for the content of any linked site or any link contained in a linked site."
Bayefsky says the U.N. disclaimer "is totally bogus." She claims "it is U.N. staff who produce summaries of activist plans," and that "the inclusion of any announcement or link to a third party must receive prior approval from the U.N."
Fox News Digital reached out to the chair of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, Ambassador Cheikh Niang of Senegal, for comment about whether U.N. staff approve items within and author summaries for NGO Action News. He did not immediately respond.
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The USCPR’s protest guide contains other inflammatory remarks, including referencing President Biden as "Genocide Joe," and alleging that "Israel is mass murdering Palestinian families with [U.S.] tax dollars." To summarize USCPR’s messaging, NGO Action News pulls from the more measured tones within its guide for action, explaining USCPR "urged the public to pressure for the end of U.S. military funding to Israel’s massive violence."
Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, told Fox News Digital "the secretary-general does not have the legal authority to label an event as ‘genocide.’ For the United Nations, that determination needs to be made by a competent court."
United Nations and Israeli flags (Getty Images)
In its Jan. 26 preliminary ruling, the International Court of Justice did not rule that Israel had committed genocide but urged Israel to allow Gazans access to humanitarian aid and attempt to assist Palestinian civilians.
When asked whether the secretary-general supports NGO Action News’ instructions in an official U.N. publication that protesters engage in civil disobedience, Dujarric stated that NGO Action News "is compiled in accordance with a mandate conferred by the member states of the U.N. General Assembly" and "does not fall under the authority or direction of the Secretary-General."
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - APRIL 15: Pro-Palestinian demonstrators protest near a Macy's while occupying an outdoor shopping mall during a 'Strike for Gaza' protest, calling for a permanent ceasefire in the war in Gaza, on April 15, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. Pro-Palestinian protesters blocked traffic in some major U.S. cities today coinciding with Tax Day. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
"You have all this anarchy on the streets of the U.S.," Bayefsky said, which "ought to be a major wake-up call for American lawmakers and the criminal justice system since we are talking about an operation based in New York City itself. It is also a stunning reminder of the U.N.'s history of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish bias and its vicious post-Oct. 7 campaign to deny Israel its lawful right of self-defense."
On April 16, the Anti-Defamation League released its annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents, which found that antisemitic incidents rose 140% between 2022 and 2023. This included a 45% increase in assaults, a 69% increase in vandalism and a 184% increase in harassment. The ADL noted it "observed explicitly antisemitic and anti-Zionist rhetoric at 1,352 anti-Israel rallies across the United States" after Oct. 7.
When asked if he recognized that anti-Israel protests are among the reasons for the rise in antisemitic incidents in the U.S. following Oct. 7, Dujarric said "the Secretary-General has publicly, and repeatedly, raised his voice against what he believes is the rise of antisemitism in many of our societies, whether that be in Europe, North America and other parts of the world.
"In addition, the secretary-general has also stated publicly that those that call for the destruction of the state of Israel is a form of modern antisemitism."
Both Israel's foreign minister and the United Nations ambassador have called for Guterres to resign over his treatment of Israel.
Beth Bailey is a reporter covering Afghanistan, the Middle East, Asia, and Central America. She was formerly a civilian intelligence analyst with the Department of the Army. You can follow Beth on Twitter @BWBailey85
