Leaked emails appear to show that Yahav Lichner, a UN official who now heads UNICEF’s Washington office, repeatedly supplied Israeli diplomats with confidential UN documents, private meeting accounts, and information about internal deliberations during 2014 and 2015.
The correspondence comes from a hacked database belonging to Ron Prosor, the Israeli regime’s permanent representative to the UN from 2011 to 2015, American outlet Drop Site reported on Wednesday. The emails were obtained by the pro-Palestinian hacking group Handala and later published by Distributed Denial of Secrets, a US-based whistleblower.
At the time, Lichner was working for the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), having previously worked at the regime’s UN mission. The material shows him continuing to communicate with former Israeli colleagues while providing information concerning UN discussions on the Palestinian territories.
In February 2015, Lichner sent Prosor and Israeli diplomat Ronny Leshno-Yaar a confidential report on a Washington trip by then-UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein.
“For your eyes only. Do not forward,” Lichner wrote, describing the document as a “classified internal summary of Zeid’s meetings in Washington.”
The report detailed al-Hussein’s meetings with White House officials, senators, congressional staff, the pro-Israeli lobby in the United States, Zionist lobby group J Street, and human rights organizations. It also mentioned congressional opposition to a UN inquiry into the regime’s 2014 war on Gaza.
Lichner said al-Hussein had met members of Congress, including “our friend,” the late senator Lindsey Graham, and was “trying to do damage control and distance himself from the report.”
Leshno-Yaar responded that he intended to use the information in discussions with Congress. “Thank you Yahav. I have no choice and of course without addressing this information I must act with members of Congress to make them understand,” he wrote.
The archive contains numerous other examples. In November 2014, Lichner forwarded Israeli diplomats a UN Operations and Crisis Centre report explicitly marked “UN STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL – NOT FOR FURTHER DISSEMINATION,” adding, “For your eyes only.”
In July 2014, he sent Israeli diplomats a confidential UN report on Jordan and, shortly after the regime launched the war on Gaza, provided them with a letter from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to former UN chief Ban Ki-moon and an unpublished draft of Ban’s response.
“For your eyes,” Lichner wrote. “I am working with our friend on improvements to the Secretary-General’s letter, as much as possible.”
He also supplied internal accounts of Ban’s meetings with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and others, as well as the agenda for a closed senior UN meeting concerning a draft Security Council resolution on Palestine.
Advance warning on UN investigations
The emails also show Lichner providing information concerning UN human rights proceedings.
In May 2014, he warned Israeli diplomats that UN departments were preparing to discuss the deaths of two Palestinian teenagers in the West Bank and relayed arguments against an independent investigation.
In February 2015, he forwarded an internal UN email revealing the planned publication date of a Gaza commission-of-inquiry report, warning that the information “was not intended for distribution.”
The correspondence also included internal UN communications concerning a Guardian investigation into Israeli pressure on a UN process involving the listing of the Israeli military over human rights violations against children.
Career support from Israeli officials
The emails show that Prosor had previously supported Lichner’s appointment to UNFPA. In 2014, Prosor privately asked then-US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power to support Lichner’s candidacy, describing him as the “best and most professional candidate.”
After Lichner joined UNFPA, the emails show him continuing to provide information to Israeli diplomats.
In 2015, Prosor praised one of Lichner’s reports as “amazing and first-hand information.” In another exchange, Prosor promoted Lichner for a prospective UN position, describing him as having “very good political and analytical skills” and as an “intelligence officer in training.”
UN rules prohibit representatives from passing information obtained through their official positions.
Former senior UN diplomat Charles Petrie told Drop Site News that the conduct documented in the emails was prohibited, saying UN officials are “bound to confidentiality and serving the interests of the organization” rather than a member.
Lichner, Prosor, and Power did not respond to requests for comment, while UNICEF also did not respond.
In April 2015, after Lichner thanked Prosor for the “tailwind” surrounding his career advancement at UNFPA, Prosor replied, “Glad we had an influence.”
