HuffPost Reporter, UN Staff Appear to Collaborate in Anti-Israel Protest at Security Council

Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations, Zhang Jun, speaks during a meetin
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Joel B. Pollak

An unlawful protest Tuesday at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) by a radical left-wing group against Israel and in favor of a ceasefire in Gaza appeared to have the assistance of a HuffPost reporter, as well as members of the UN staff.

A group claiming to be “rabbis” staged the protest by signing up for a tour, then unfurling banners and chanting once they reached the UNSC gallery. They were allowed to complete their demonstration by UN staff, who ushered others out of the room.

In his coverage of the “surprise” protest, HuffPost reporter Matt Shuham, who described himself as “embedded with the group,” somehow managed to take the same tour the protesters did, and to find a good angle for filming. He called himself an “observer.”

According to former diplomat and long-term UN critic Anne Bayefsky of Human Rights Voices, UN staff also cooperated with the protest, including members of the office of Secretary-General António Guterres, whose spokesperson minimized the disruption.
Bayefsky told Breitbart News:

The UN Secretary-General’s spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, was asked by a Palestinian journalist to comment on what she described as a group who “occupied peacefully” the Security Council. Actually, the extremists occupiers were noisy, singing, blowing horns, and chanting slogans. Meanwhile, UN security officials not only stood by, but ejected onlookers instead of the occupiers. Shockingly, the SG spokesperson referred to the unprecedented mob of more than three dozen people as “a very nice group.” He says “Everything was done, I think, with an extreme level of cooperation and politeness.” He backed his claim with an outright lie about what was going on in his own building, telling reporters that the 40 people in the Security Council chamber merely “sat in the visitors’ gallery.” In fact, the radicals filmed themselves, live-streamed their abuse of the Council chamber, doing the opposite of sitting down. They were rabble-rousing and regurgitating Hamas’ own talking points – and now we know, with the Secretary-General’s stamp of approval.

Protesting while visiting the UN is prohibited: “Visitors are reminded to behave appropriately, [and] to keep noise levels down.”

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the 2021 e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now updated with a new foreword. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

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