Recently, a video clip that shows an individual questioning the number of Jews in certain Arab countries is circulating on social media. “Today Israel took everyone’s pants off at the UN!” reads the post’s description. The clip is accompanied statements calling for India to similarly question the number of Hindus in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh. This fact-check article aims to check the veracity of this claim.
Claim: This video shows a recent confrontation wherein Israel exposed a report by Arab nations about the Jewish population in their countries.
Fact: The viral clip is an excerpt from a speech delivered by Hillel Neuer, the Executive Director of UN Watch, during a UN Human Rights Council debate in March 2017. Thus, the claim made in the post is Misleading.
Our investigation into the viral video started with a basic keyword search on the internet, which led us to the full speech from which the viral clip was excerpted. The speech is available on the UN Watch’s YouTube Channel, Facebook page, and official website.
The video dates back to March 2017, of the UN Human Rights Council debate held under an agenda item targeting Israel. Several countries have expressed their perspectives on Israel’s alleged acts of terrorism against Palestinians.
Hillel Neuer, the executive director of UN Watch, provided a counter-narrative to these opinions starting at the timestamp of 2:43 in the clip. Neuer questioned a report by a commission on the population of Jews in countries like Egypt, Algeria, Syria, Iraq, and others. The viral video is a snippet of this section of Neuer’s speech.
The post accompanying the video misattributed Neuer’s speech to Israel and manipulated the timing of the event to make it appear recent.
To sum up, the viral video is an extract from a 2017 speech by Hillel Neuer of UN Watch, not a recent event involving Israel.
