The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is a UN program that is supposed to provide humanitarian and developmental assistance to children around the world. While UNICEF does do valuable work on behalf of children, it is not the same organization that I remember collecting money for on Halloween decades ago. In more recent times, UNICEF has partnered with radical organizations pursuing pro-Palestinian and Islamist agendas. NGO Monitor produces and distributes critical analyses and reports on the activities of the international and local non-governmental organization (NGO) networks. It has just issued a scathing report claiming that UNICEF’s Occupied Palestinian Territory (oPt) branch is working with radical anti-Israel NGOs to add the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to a UN blacklist of “grave” violators of children’s rights.
Each year, the UN Secretary General publishes a report on “Children and Armed Conflict,” which, since 2001, has included an “annex” listing “parties to armed conflict” that engage in certain practices that fundamentally violate the rights of children. This annex is regarded as a blacklist of villainous entities that harm children. Palestinians and their advocates are seeking to abuse the process by enlisting UNICEF to do their dirty work in demonizing Israel yet again.