Critics have expressed outrage at the United Nations for allocating funds to a controversial anti-Israel Commission of Inquiry amidst a severe financial crisis. This decision involves creating four new positions with a combined potential worth of up to $750,000.
Anne Bayefsky, who directs the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust and is the president of Human Rights Voices, criticized the U.N., stating, “When it comes to funding actions that spread antisemitism, the U.N. appears to have no spending cap,” as reported by Fox News Digital.
On June 4, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Palestinian Territory, Including East Jerusalem (COI), chaired by South African Navi Pillay, advertised four senior-level job opportunities in Geneva. These roles include two P-2 level associate interpreters, one P-3 level human rights officer, and a more senior P-4 level human rights officer.
To the question of whether the council is in greater need of personnel or funds to fulfill its current workload, Sim said that “Member States of the U.N. are currently continuing consultations on this matter.”
In a press conference on July 1, U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Policy Guy Ryder updated reporters on U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres’ cost-cutting UN80 Initiative.
Ryder said that the U.N. recognizes “that we have a difficult task of untangling the undergrowth of decisions and resolutions and mechanisms that we put in place to implement them, and we wonder if we’re going to be able to advance significantly.”
Ryder also admitted that “When a similar review was undertaken 20 years ago, it ran rather quickly into the sand. It did not produce the results that were hoped for and expected at that time. We’re looking at that experience of 20 years ago, and we hope we can avoid some of the pitfalls.”
However, Bayefsky said, “For decades, the U.N. has engaged in phony cost-saving measures while their actual expenditures have ballooned,” she said, noting that the U.S. “has always been satisfied by moving around the deck chairs on the Titanic.”
The exterior of the State Department complex in Washington, D.C. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Bayefsky said that “it’s our government’s job to put an end to this devious calculus by immediately withholding the entire U.N. budget until such time as the dangerous lesions are removed. It’s our job to deny visas to the COI members planning to come to the United States in the next couple of months.
“Contrary to popular belief, it is not required by the U.S.-U.N. host agreement to allow international travelers into the U.S. to fan the flames of antisemitism, and vandalize our fundamental values and the Constitution from the middle of New York City,” Bayefsky said. “We need a new boat, not new deck chairs.”
A budget proposal from the Trump administration leaked in April announced the intention to eliminate all expenditures to the U.N. and international organizations.
In response to questions about whether a decision about U.N. funding has been finalized, a senior State Department official told Fox News Digital that “President Trump is ensuring taxpayer dollars are used wisely. Any announcements regarding funding to international organizations will come from the President or the administration.”
The U.S., through its taxpayers, is the single-largest contributor to the U.N. In 2022, the U.N. reports that $18.1 billion, or 26.8%, of its $67.5 billion in expenditures came from the U.S.
