Ambassador Meirav Eilon Shahar, Israel’s permanent representative to the United Nations and International Organizations in Geneva blasted the Qatari regime on Sunday for sponsoring a UN exhibit that denies the existence of the territory of the Jewish state, including Jerusalem as the capital.
The Swiss news outlet Blick first reported on the latest antisemitism scandal involving Qatar’s regime. The exhibit claims that the Israeli cities Jerusalem, Beersheba, and Jaffa are Palestinian cities, it said.
A blatant erasure of Jewish history
“This is a denial of Israel’s territorial integrity and our right to exist,” Eilon Shahar said, adding that the UN is “spreading propaganda and false information.”The ambassador sent a formal letter of complaint to the UN’s Director General in Geneva, Tatiana Walowaja, Blick reported.
Qatar sponsored the anti-Israel exhibit that shows six cities, including cities within Israel, as Palestinian territory. Eilon Shahar said the Qatari exhibit strips the “Jewish people of their historical connection to Jerusalem” by declaring it a Palestinian city.
Egregious spreading of antisemitic tropes
She also took the UN in Geneva to task for allowing an antisemitic brochure to circulate in the UN building titled “The Story of Fire and Blood.”
The ambassador said the brochure “glorifies terrorism and portrays Jews with big noses and propagates antisemitic conspiracies” and called on the UN to investigate it. The UN told Blick regarding Eilon Shahar’s criticism that “We are aware of this matter.”
Blick wrote that “The antisemitism in Geneva's guise is symptomatic of the double game that the desert state of Qatar has been playing for years, cheerfully adding fuel to the fire.”
Qatar’s regime did not respond to a Blick press query. State-controlled media outlets Al Watan and Al Jazeera have glorified Palestinian terrorism and the Hamas massacre on October 7, according to translations of reports and TV broadcasts conducted by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).