B’nai B’rith leaders met with ambassadors and other senior diplomats in Geneva and Paris to advocate on issues critical to the Jewish community.

Read more in Iton Gadol in Spanish, or below in English.

A delegation of B’nai B’rith International leaders, led by President Robert Spitzer and CEO Daniel Mariaschin, met with more than 60 ambassadors and other senior diplomats in Geneva and Paris to advocate for the priorities of the Jewish community: supporting Israel’s right to security and self-defense, and the right of the Jewish people to live in safety and freedom amid the alarming rise in antisemitism around the world.

The meetings coincided with the current session of the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and took place just ahead of the upcoming session of the Executive Board of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

For years, the Palestinians and other hostile actors have used both of these U.N. bodies to launch political attacks against Israel.

In Geneva, the problem extends beyond the UNHRC itself to the biased “investigation” mandates granted to individuals who have openly engaged in antisemitic behavior—such as Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese.

Albanese is seeking a new three-year term during this session, and we strongly urge the Council to reject her reappointment.

At the meetings, B’nai B’rith called for recognition of Israel’s ongoing right to self-defense and for the immediate and unconditional release of Israeli hostages, who have been held in brutal conditions by Hamas and other terrorists in the Gaza Strip for more than 500 days.

While in Geneva, B’nai B’rith also met with leaders of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) at its headquarters to address the plight of the hostages.

The B’nai B’rith delegation included more than two dozen leaders from eight countries, who met with high-level representatives from five continents.

Separately, B’nai B’rith, a U.N.-accredited organization, issued official statements to the U.N. Human Rights Council, which routinely condemns Israel more than any other country and uniquely singles out the Middle East’s only democracy for scrutiny under Item 7, a standing agenda item.

Interventions included remarks by Cochav Elkayam-Levy of Israel’s Civilian Commission on Hamas’s October 7 Crimes Against Women and Children, who condemned the U.N. for exploiting Hamas’s Israeli victims to create a false moral equivalence, and David Michaels, Director of U.N. and Intercommunal Affairs at B’nai B’rith, who called out the Council’s silence on the real source of regional instability: Hamas and its backers in Iran.