Defending Israel on the World Stage

In March, a B’nai B’rith International sent its annual leadership delegation to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, where top staff and volunteer leaders advocated on important human rights issues and challenged the body’s relentless bias against Israel.

The delegation then continued on to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris, where the group advocated on important historic and cultural issues and challenged the body’s growing exploitation as a political tool against Israel.

More than 25 B’nai B’rith leaders and supporters, including four student representatives from the national Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi), met with senior diplomats at the UNHRC from some 40 countries, including the United States, Brazil, Egypt, Germany, Greece, Japan, Russia and the United Kingdom. At UNESCO, they met directly with UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova, as well as senior diplomats from some two-dozen countries.

B’nai B’rith International President Gary P. Saltzman and CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin led the delegation. ​

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B’nai B’rith Delegation Advocates For Israel At U.N. Educational, Scientific And Cultural Organization In Paris

“UNESCO bodies have become, over the past few years, more and more complicit in an ill-conceived and politicized Palestinian campaign that seeks to erase the connection between Jews and their holiest sites—beginning with the Temple Mount and the Western Wall,” Saltzman and Mariaschin said from Paris. “Reversing this negative and destructive trend is not only important for Israel and the Jewish people, it’s vital to UNESCO itself if the organization wants to credibly speak on cultural or educational matters in the future without the tainted reputation of a politicized U.N. organ.”

B’nai B’rith International President Gary P. Saltzman and CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin from Paris

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B’nai B’rith Delegation To U.N. Human Rights Council Advocates For Israel And Global Human Rights   ​

​“We meet in Geneva every year to stand up for global human rights and for Israel, and let the United Nations Human Rights Council—let the world—know that the nation-state of the Jewish people is a vibrant and remarkable democracy that does not warrant the slew of shameful condemnatory resolutions the UNHRC passes every year,” Saltzman and Mariaschin said from Geneva.

B’nai B’rith International President Gary P. Saltzman and CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin from Geneva