JERUSALEM (RNS) — Two pro-Israel evangelical Christian organizations are suing the United Nations’ human rights monitor for Palestinian affairs, saying she defamed them by “knowingly spreading malicious lies” about the nonprofits and accusing them of contributing to a wide range of alleged crimes by Israel in its war against Hamas.
The nonprofits — Christian Friends of Israeli Communities and Christians for Israel — filed the joint lawsuit in federal court in Colorado, where CFIC is based, on Monday (Sept. 8) in response to what they called “threatening letters” sent to the two nongovernmental organizations by Francesca Albanese, the United Nations’ special rapporteur for Palestinian rights, in April. Many other nonprofit organizations and corporations received similar letters, alleging that their ties to Israel are enabling illegal activity and punishable by law.
Those accusations have sullied the organizations’ reputations, the NGOs’ leaders told RNS, and harmed fundraising efforts, in addition to subjecting them to abuse from pro-Palestinian activists.
Willem Griffioen, chairman of Christians for Israel International and Christians for Israel USA, said, “They have put a target on our organization, our leaders and our donors,” particularly churches that support the nonprofit. He called any claims that Christians for Israel is engaging in illegal activity “utterly baseless and ridiculous.”
Willem Griffioen. (Courtesy photo)
Albanese accused Christians for Israel of financially supporting Jewish settlements in the West Bank; funding organizations that train settlers in how to use firearms; financially supporting immigration to Israel, “including in the West Bank”; and launching an emergency fund for Israelis immediately after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre in southern Israel.
Griffioen said that his organization offers humanitarian aid to prospective immigrants and new immigrants to Israel, elderly Holocaust survivors and people in need, and that any claims of military assistance are untrue. “We support a number of Arab Christians in the Bethlehem area,” he said. “We send food parcels to Ukraine. We educate Christians about Israel.”
The Christian Friends of Israeli Communities supports projects for Israeli children, disabled Israelis and elderly Israelis who live in the West Bank (what the organization calls “Judea and Samaria,” the ancient Hebrew names for the region).
Albanese’s letter accused the group of providing “project-based assistance to illegal settlements across the occupied West Bank” and contributing to the “construction and expansion” of West Bank settlements. She also accused the nonprofit of funding “military and security equipment for illegal Jewish-only settlements and the Israeli military operating in the West Bank,” which the organization denies.
The organization faces “a serious risk of being implicated in international crimes” that may result in “criminality liability,” Albanese warned.
Albanese called out the two organizations in a report titled “From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide,” released at a June session at the United Nations General Assembly. It urged member states to “promptly cease all business activities and terminate relationships directly linked with, contributing to and causing human rights violations and international crimes against the Palestinian people.”
Kimberly Troup. (Courtesy photo)
Kimberly Troup, director of the U.S. office of Christian Friends of Israeli Communities, said the organization co-initiated the lawsuit because “we needed to make a stand, instead of letting evil win and allowing others to spread lies about us. We are doing humanitarian work in the Land of Israel because we support Jewish communities.”
Troup said she has received “extremely threatening and violent” messages from strangers who read Albanese’s report. “It’s definitely been a hindrance in fundraising. Some are questioning whether to publicly stand up for Israel. If I can be falsely named as complicit in crimes, can’t they be named as well? It makes one hesitate.”
The lawsuit comes as international calls to boycott and isolate Israelis in fields ranging from academia and science to sports and entertainment are escalating, and physical and verbal violence against Jews around the world is increasing.
Marc Zell, a member of the National Jewish Advocacy Center’s legal team that filed the lawsuit, said Albanese falsely accused the two nonprofits of war crimes and “genocide enabling” for their support of Israel.
Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, a human rights watchdog organization, said Albanese has been waging “economic lawfare” against Israel for years. He called the lawsuit “an important step in showing that those who spread defamatory lies under a false U.N. banner, whipping up anti-Jewish hatred and violent attacks worldwide, will finally face accountability.”
Israel and the U.S. have long accused the U.N. of anti-Israel bias and, more recently, empowering Hamas, something U.N. officials deny. In a recent Fox News op-ed, Yair Lapid, a former Israeli prime minister and current leader of the parliamentary opposition, said “the U.N.’s treatment of Israel is the diplomatic equivalent of a psychotic episode. Israel makes up 0.1% of the world’s population yet accounts for more than 60% of the U.N.’s condemnatory resolutions in the past decade.”
Francesca Albanese. (Photo courtesy of Wikimedia/Creative Commons)
Albanese has been regularly cited as among the most strident anti-Israel voices at the U.N., telling The Associated Press in June that Israel and its supporters have “also morphed into an economy of genocide.”
In July, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on Albanese for waging an ongoing “campaign of political and economic warfare” against the U.S. and Israel. The measures ban Albanese, an Italian lawyer, from entering the United States and allow the U.S. to freeze assets she holds in the country.
Despite U.S. pressure, the U.N. renewed her six-year mandate. The lawsuit by the nonprofits, however, contends that Albanese’s diplomatic immunity ended on April 30, when her first term ended. Neuer agreed, saying the global body did not follow the proper procedure needed to extend her mandate, putting an end to her diplomatic immunity. “It is very clear that she was never lawfully reappointed,” he said. The U.N. has said that her immunity is still intact due to her reappointment.
The NGOs’ lawsuit is one of a growing number of legal challenges against perceived antisemitic or anti-Israel actions by private companies, public institutions and universities, especially since the Hamas massacre in October 2023 and subsequent Israel-Hamas war. Students at several American universities have sued their schools for discrimination, citing Title VI.
Griffioen believes it is more important than ever to support Israel.
“It’s our job and responsibility as Christians to stand up for the truth, even if we’re the ones being attacked,” he said. “Our faith informs our decisions.”
