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How the United Nations Enables Hamas
The body of a motorist lies on a road following a mass-infiltration by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip, in Sderot, southern Israel October 7, 2023. REUTERS/Ammar Awad
The United Nations was founded to maintain international peace and security. But the UN subverts that goal when faced with terrorist groups like Hamas.
Hamas has waged war on Israel five times in 15 years, not counting thousands of one-off terror attacks. The group’s genocidal charter envisions the destruction of Israel — and even genocidal assaults on Jews everywhere — to avenge Allah, not to gain self-determination. The Palestinians already have self-determination, thanks to Israeli compromises in the Israeli-Palestinian Oslo Accords.
During each Hamas offensive, the group seizes military advantages through wholesale violations of international humanitarian law (IHL), also known as the laws of war. Most alarmingly, these religious fanatics target Israeli civilians, use Palestinian civilians as human shields, convert civilian buildings such as homes, schools, and hospitals into military positions, and take Israelis hostage. The four-part mixture of war crimes exploits Israel’s compliance with IHL. Specifically, Israeli commanders accept military setbacks because they willingly operate in a manner that protects Palestinian civilians.
To address this deadly IHL imbalance, the UN has a large workshop of disciplinary tools it could use. For example, because Hamas violates Common Article 3 of the Geneva Convention, which prohibits attacks on civilians, the UN Security Council could adopt a legally binding and enforceable resolution ordering Hamas to comply with the law. Alternatively, the UN could refer the IHL violation to its principal judicial organ, the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Similar measures before the UN and ICJ could enforce Article 57 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, which bans the use of human shields, and the International Convention Against Hostage Taking. The anti-terrorist laws already require all UN member states to prosecute terror suspects or extradite them for prosecution.
Unfortunately, the UN and many member states ignore the above mandates. No UN resolution has ever condemned Hamas for designing war strategies based on war crimes. The UN has never even declared Hamas a terrorist organization.
Over time, Hamas has capitalized on its IHL impunity by designing war plans with even more elaborate war crimes. Its fifth war, launched on October 7, 2023, produced an Industrial Revolution of IHL abuse. The primary innovation was to upgrade the Gaza terror tunnels into a complex underground fortress spanning 350 miles, while adding countless more civilian structures as warfighting sites. Essentially, Hamas turned Gaza into a giant human shield. It maximized the killing of Israelis by using drone technology for surveillance, shaped explosive charges to blast multiple holes in Gaza’s border fence, motorized paragliders to supplement the ground-based assault, and used cyberattacks. Consequently, the jihadists killed far more Israelis and captured many more hostages on October 7 than in any prior attack or war.
Individual IHL atrocities also grew more extreme. Babies murdered with bare hands. Decapitations. Rape with female genital mutilation. Families burned alive. Hostages tortured and starved.
Under the shield of UN passivity, Hamas even persecutes its own people. Ordinary Gazans have no voice in their governance and no civil liberties. Perceived dissidents are summarily killed. Because the Islamist gang enlarged the battleground of the current war to include all of Gaza, virtually the entire district is now destroyed. During bouts of combat, the gunmen warned Gazans not to enter Israeli-designated safe zones. Hamas operatives routinely stole humanitarian aid intended for the masses. Recently, crowds of Gazans became so desperate that they staged public protests. Hamas executed some of them and tortured others.
Hamas needlessly prolongs misery on both sides of the blood-soaked conflict, every day that it continues its hopeless military campaign against Israel.
The UN should have responded to Hamas’s fifth war on Israel by punishing Hamas for the lawless slaying of Israelis, the deaths of Palestinian human shields, and the hostage-taking. But ironically, the UN treated Israel as if it were the IHL culprit.
This cynical approach was a typical product of an anti-Western UN voting bloc, called the “automatic majority,” which scapegoats Israel relentlessly. No wonder the ICJ entertained a petition that absurdly accused Israel of genocide. Remarks of the UN rapporteur for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were so antisemitic that she compared Israel to Nazi Germany, claimed the US was controlled by “the Israel lobby,” and implied that the October 7 massacre was justified.
The UN office for humanitarian affairs parroted Hamas’ falsified casualty statistics. The UN agency authorized to give Palestinians humanitarian aid employed members of Hamas and failed, whether through negligence or design, to stop them from looting the aid. Although a few toothless UN resolutions pushed for ceasefires, they falsely branded Hamas and Israel as equally responsible for the violence.
Last year, a world body that cooperates with the UN threatened to restrain Hamas. The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for certain Hamas leaders. However, there was no ICC follow-up when those leaders were subsequently eliminated. The court’s motives were suspect because, even as it failed to act against Hamas, it sought to arrest Israeli officials despite worldwide complaints that it lacked jurisdiction over Israel.
Had the UN done its job, Hamas might be disarmed today. Israelis would not be suffering in captivity. Gaza would still be intact. If the UN continues to countenance IHL-exploiting war plans, Hamas and/or other terrorists will continue to make a mockery of IHL. At some point, the systemic criminality may force countries like Israel to adjust their IHL compliance strategies by doing more to protect their own civilians and less to protect others, something a fair reading of IHL would permit. This race to the bottom would only erode the value of IHL.
Joel M. Margolis is the Legal Commentator, American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists, US Affiliate of the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists. His 2021 book, The Israeli-Palestinian Legal War, analyzed the major legal issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
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US Clamps Sanctions on Israel-bashing UN Rights Monitor Albanese
Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, attends a side event during the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, March 26, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
The Trump administration has imposed sweeping sanctions against Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, citing the UN official’s lengthy record of singling out Israel for condemnation.
In a post on X, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the sanctions under a February executive order targeting those who “prompt International Criminal Court (ICC) action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives.” He accused Albanese of waging “political and economic warfare” against both nations and asserted that “such efforts will no longer be tolerated.”
“Today I am imposing sanctions on UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese for her illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt [International Criminal Court] action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives,” Rubio announced on X/Twitter.
“Albanese’s campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated,” declared the Trump administration’s top foreign affairs official. “We will always stand by our partners in their right to self-defense.”
Rubio concluded: “The United States will continue to take whatever actions we deem necessary to respond to lawfare and protect our sovereignty and that of our allies.”
The decision to impose sanctions on Albanese marks an escalation in the ongoing feud between the White House and the United Nations over Israel. The Trump administration has repeatedly accused the UN and Albanese of unfairly targeting Israel and mischaracterizing the Jewish state’s conduct in Gaza.
Albanese, an Italian lawyer and academic, has held the position of UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories since 2022. The position authorizes her to monitor and report on alleged “human rights violations” by Israel against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
Last week, Albanese issued a scathing report accusing companies of helping Israel maintain a so-called “genocide economy.” She called on the companies to cut off economic ties with Israel and warned that they might be guilty of “complicity” in the so-called “genocide” in Gaza.
Critics of Albanese have long accused her of exhibiting an excessive anti-Israel bias, calling into question her fairness and neutrality.
Albanese has an extensive history of using her role at the UN to denigrate Israel and seemingly rationalize Hamas’ attacks on the Jewish state.
In the months following the Palestinian terrorist group’s atrocities across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Albanese accused the Jewish state of perpetrating a “genocide” against the Palestinian people in revenge for the attacks and circulated a widely derided and heavily disputed report alleging that 186,000 people had been killed in the Gaza war as a result of Israeli actions.
The action comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Washington, where he has received a warm reception from the Trump administration. Netanyahu has been meeting with US officials to discuss next steps in the ongoing Gaza military operation.
Gideon Sa’ar, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Israel, commended the Rubio announcement with his own post on X/Twitter, exclaiming: “A clear message. Time for the UN to pay attention!”
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Hardball: Trump Administration Reports Harvard to Accreditor Over Antisemitism Allegations
US President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, July 8, 2025. Photo: Kevin Lamarque via Reuters Connect.
The Trump administration escalated its showdown against Harvard University on Wednesday, reporting the institution to its accreditor for alleged civil rights violations resulting from its weak response to reports of antisemitic bullying, discrimination, and harassment following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 massacre across southern Israel.
The US Department of Education (DOE) announced the action on Wednesday. Citing Harvard’s admitted failure to treat antisemitism as seriously as it treated others forms of hatred in the past, the DOE called on the New England Commission of Higher Education to review and, potentially, revoke its accreditation — a designation which qualifies Harvard for federal funding and attests to the quality of the educational services its provides.
“Accrediting bodies play a significant role in preserving academic integrity and a campus culture conducive to truth seeking and learning,” said Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “Part of that is ensuring students are safe on campus and abiding by federal laws that guarantee educational opportunities to all students. By allowing anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination to persist unchecked on its campus, Harvard University has failed in its obligation to students, educators, and American taxpayers.”
The DOE, McMahon added, “expects the New England Commission of Higher Education to enforce its policies and practices, and to keep the Department fully informed of its efforts to ensure that Harvard is in compliance with federal law and accreditor standards.”
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, Harvard’s Presidential Task Force on Combating Antisemitism has acknowledged that the university administration’s handling of campus antisemitism fell well below its obligations under both Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and its own nondiscrimination policies.
In a 300-plus-page report, the task force compiled a comprehensive record of antisemitic incidents on Harvard’s campus in recent years — from the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee’s endorsement of the Oct. 7 terrorist atrocities to an anti-Zionist faculty group’s sharing an antisemitic cartoon depicting Jews as murderers of people of color. The report identified Harvard’s past refusal to afford Jews the same protections against discrimination enjoyed by other minority groups as a key source of its problem.
Coming several weeks after President Donald Trump ordered the freeze of $2.26 billion in federal research grants and contracts for Harvard, the task force report found it was “clear” that antisemitism and anti-Israel bias have been fomented, practiced, and tolerated not only at Harvard but also within academia more widely.”
The university is now suing the federal government over the funding halt.
President Trump has spoken scathingly of Harvard, calling it, for example, an “Anti-Semitic, Far Left Institute … with students being accepted from all over the world that want to rip our Country apart” in an April post to his Truth Social platform.
In recent weeks, however, both Trump and McMahon had commended Harvard’s constructive response in negotiations over reforms the administration has asked it to implement as a precondition for restoring federal funds. The requested reforms include hiring more conservative faculty, shuttering diversity, equity, and inclusion [DEI] programs, and slashing the size of administrative offices tangential to the university’s central educational mission.
The administration has since changed its tone in the wake of a report by The Harvard Crimson that interim Harvard President Alan Garber has said “behind closed doors” that he has no intention of doing anything that would make Harvard more palatable to conservatives.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration’s Joint Task Force to Combat Antisemitism issued Harvard a formal “notice of violation” of civil rights law. Charging that Harvard willfully exposed Jewish students to a flood of racist and antisemitic abuse both in and outside of the classroom, it threatened to strip whatever remains of Harvard’s federal funding.
“Failure to institute adequate changes immediately will result in the loss of all federal financial resources and continue to affect Harvard’s relationship with the federal government,” wrote the federal officials comprising the multiagency Task Force. “Harvard may of course continue to operate free of federal privileges, and perhaps such an opportunity will spur a commitment to excellence that will help Harvard thrive once again.”
In Wednesday’s announcement, US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Harvard’s conduct “forfeits the legitimacy that accreditation is designed to uphold.”
“HHS and Department of Education will actively hold Harvard accountable through sustained oversight until it restores public trust and ensures a campus free of discrimination,” he said.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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IDF Strikes Hezbollah Sites in South Lebanon as Terror Group Pushes to Rebuild Amid US Disarmament Talks
IDF operating in southern Lebanon. Photo: IDF Spokesperson
Israeli forces uncovered and destroyed Hezbollah weapons caches in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, as a new report indicated that despite ongoing U.S.-led efforts to secure a disarmament deal, the Iran-backed group is making repeated, largely concealed attempts to rebuild its military presence in the area.
Troops carried out several operations targeting Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon on Wednesday morning, destroying weapons depots, explosives and multibarrel launchers concealed in forested terrain, the IDF said, in violation of the November ceasefire, which requires Hezbollah to withdraw its forces 20 miles from the Israeli border.
A new report released this week by the Alma Research and Education Center found that Hezbollah is focused on rebuilding in three areas: operational deployment, weapons acquisition, and financial recovery.
“Hezbollah didn’t give up its resistance narrative and motivation,” Alma’s director, Lt. Col. (Res.) Sarit Zehavi, told The Algemeiner.
“It wants to rebuild its capabilities and infrastructures, whether it’s the villages that will be used as human shields or the military infrastructure in South Lebanon and in Lebanon in general.”
According to Zehavi, Hezbollah is attempting to return Radwan fighters to positions south of the Litani River as part of a wider plan to restore its elite forces to operational readiness. The IDF on Monday killed Radwan commander Ali Abd al-Hassan Haidar in a targeted strike. The action came hours after US Special Envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack met with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri in Beirut to discuss a long-term deal that would include an Israeli withdrawal and complete disarmament of Hezbollah.
Barrack described the Lebanese response to the proposal as positive. Later, he issued a blunt warning to Hezbollah in response to a vow by the terror group’s leader, Naim Qassem, not to lay down its arms. “If they mess with us anywhere in the world, they will have a serious problem with us,” Barrack said in an interview with Lebanese news network LBCI. “They don’t want that.”
Zehavi said it was premature to predict the outcome of the diplomatic efforts. She warned that the challenge of disarming Hezbollah remains enormous and emphasized that the Lebanese Armed Forces have not demonstrated the capability or willingness to confront the group.
“It’s too soon to be optimistic or pessimistic,” she said, noting that no firm commitments have emerged from the Beirut talks.
Hezbollah’s efforts to smuggle and manufacture weapons have been complicated by both Israeli strikes and the regional realignment over recent months. While Israeli strikes have disrupted many supply routes, according to Zehavi, Syrian authorities have intercepted far more Hezbollah-bound weapons than the Lebanese Army, which claims to have uncovered 500 arms caches but has provided no evidence.
The financial front marks the third aspect of Hezbollah’s rebuilding effort. Last week, the group halted cash payments to Shiite civilians whose homes were damaged in the war, citing liquidity problems. Zehavi attributed the shortfall to disruptions in Iran’s funding networks — an outcome of the 12-day war against the regime in Tehran — and said the constraints would likely hamper Hezbollah’s ability to compensate its base and sustain operations.
“I hope they will continue to have problems with the cash flow, that way it will be very difficult for them to recover,” she said.
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