Unrwa in the running for the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize: “And why not Khamenei? »

Un funny trio of favorites… The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, are among the favorites to win, on October 11, the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize.

A year after the Hamas terrorist massacres in Israel, the hypothesis that one of these three names wins raises questions… The Point contacted Noëlle Lenoir, lawyer, former Minister of European Affairs, who gives her impressions.

The Point: What does this list of favorites inspire you?

Noelle Lenoir: I hesitate between two qualifiers: provocation or joke. And if it is a joke, I find it dismal given the dramatic international context in which we live, and it seems to me that the United Nations contributes to it rather negatively.

Let’s start with Antonio Guterres. His positions are contested to say the least…

The legitimacy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, as well as that of the Organization itself, has been called into question in a very unusual way since the creation of the UN. For what ? Because Antonio Guterres is an avowed anti-Zionist, who has taken sides with the Palestinian cause and who does not hesitate in the current situation to appear with regimes among the most infringing on human rights, which must precisely be defended the UN.

Let us recall that he received with great fanfare the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran. He also had the UN flag lowered to half-mast in May 2024 after the crash of a helicopter taking away this Minister of Foreign Affairs. Did he say a word to publicly condemn the condition of women in this country, where they are repressed, even executed, if they do not observe certain religious rules?

It was he who, personally, accepted that the Taliban return to the table of the Member States of the Organization, and without women, at their request, while women in Afghanistan are deprived of the most basic rights, such as the right to education and health. Antonio Guterres deserves to be written on a blackboard more than favorite for a possible Nobel Prize!

Unrwa also appears among the favorites, while several of its former employees are suspected of being involved in the attack perpetrated on October 7, 2023 in Israel. Surprising…

I am working on appeals against Unrwa in France, before the anti-terrorism prosecution. It is now proven that UNRWA agents were complicit, if not perpetrators, of acts of Hamas terrorism. The UN Office for Palestinian Refugees, which was created in 1949, has not demonstrated, far from it, that it is adequately carrying out its mission of education and pacification. Unrwa claims that the agents in question are black sheep.

In view of the uncontested information available to us, particularly after the death in an airstrike of the leader of Hamas in Beirut, Fateh Sherif Abu el-Amin, who was also a teacher at Unrwa, the responsibility of the Office lies reveals immense. I would add that Mr. Guterres insists today on the immunity that UNRWA personnel would enjoy preventing, according to him, any criminal prosecution against agents of the Office.

For me, far from deserving a Nobel Peace Prize, it is clear that UNRWA could be considered complicit, or at least involved, in terrorist activities in Gaza, as we support in France and as supported by others. lawyers, particularly in the United States where an appeal was filed in Delaware.

And the International Court of Justice?

The judges do their job. I don’t see why we would award them medals simply because they fulfill their jurisdictional mission! This is all the less deserved when it comes to the International Court of Justice. The ICJ advisory opinion of July 19, 2024 is incredible. It declares Israel’s presence in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza “unlawful”. She called on Israel to end its “occupation,” while emphasizing the obligation to compensate the Palestinians.

Three judges, including the French judge, issued a dissenting opinion, criticizing this opinion, the fragility of whose legal bases they underline. The fact that this body is chaired by a Lebanese, Nawaf Salam, former Lebanese ambassador to the UN, who voted more than 200 times in favor of resolutions against Israel, poses a major conflict of interest problem.

I think the UN is sick, because Western countries are weak.

We therefore have an ICJ which has shown itself to be partisan, an Office which has clearly contributed to indoctrinating the youth of Gaza, and even, for certain agents, has been complicit in acts of terrorism, and a Secretary General of the United Nations who is compromising by agreeing to exclude women from Afghanistan, in violation of all international human rights conventions; and these are the same people who would be favorites for a Nobel Peace Prize? Why not Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei!

What does this say about the state of our world?

I think the UN is sick, because Western countries are weak and no longer able to assert their attachment to essential values. The Security Council is paralyzed and the General Assembly composed of a majority of authoritarian regimes has taken control. Also, the UN seems to become the privileged space for questioning the universal values ​​at the heart of its creation in 1945.

Is it reformable?

It depends mainly on the Americans, but also on Europe. Unfortunately, Europe is weakened. It is incapable of voting in solidarity, as we have seen with recent resolution proposals on the Arab-Israeli conflict. I regret it, because there is no alternative to Europe and it is a miracle that it still exists, and we must do everything to ensure that this miracle continues.

Who would you like to see awarded the Nobel Peace Prize?

Without hesitation, I would reward Hillel Neuer, the director general of UN Watch, an NGO which has been fighting for decades, with few resources, to denounce the errors of the UN, in particular through UNRWA and some of its special rapporteurs co-opted by the Human Rights Council, such as Ms Francesca Albanese whom France and Germany condemned for her anti-Semitic comments.