Press Release: Tenured Jewish Teacher Files Civil Rights Lawsuit Against United NationsInternational School

The National Jewish Advocacy Center (NJAC) today announced the filing of a civil action on behalf of Nadine Sébag, a tenured Jewish French teacher who served the United Nations International School (“UNIS”) for more than thirty years. The lawsuit alleges that UNIS failed to address antisemitic harassment by a Muslim non-tenured teacher and instead subjected Ms. Sébag to a prolonged, retaliatory investigation that ultimately forced her to leave her position.

According to the Complaint, the same Muslim teacher who allegedly made repeated antisemitic and anti-French remarks toward Ms. Sébag — including statements invoking stereotypes that Jews “love money” and control institutions — later accused Ms. Sébag of making a negative comment about her religion. Ms. Sébag denied the allegation. The lawsuit further alleges that during a formal meeting, the Muslim teacher acknowledged that Ms. Sébag had not made any such remark. Despite that acknowledgment, UNIS continued investigating Ms. Sébag for approximately nine months. The Complaint states that the overall process spanned roughly fifteen months and culminated in Ms. Sébag’s constructive termination.

Multiple teachers corroborated Ms. Sébag’s account of antisemitic hostility by the Muslim teacher. One teacher reported being physically assaulted by the Muslim teacher after defending Ms. Sébag’s Jewish identity. There is no indication that disciplinary action followed the reported assault, and the Muslim teacher was later awarded tenure.

UNIS retained Dr. Eeqbal Hassim from Australia as a multicultural educational consultant and placed him in charge of mediating the dispute and overseeing the investigatory process. According to publicly available biographical materials, Dr. Hassim’s professional publications and academic work focus on Islamic pedagogy and Muslim education. He does not appear to hold specialized credentials in workplace mediation, human resources investigations, or employment-law compliance. Nevertheless, he was assigned to manage proceedings involving Ms. Sébag and the Muslim teacher.

During a faculty meeting, a teacher questioned why the proceedings were continuing after the Muslim teacher admitted that no negative remarks about her religion had been made. According to the Complaint, Dr. Hassim advised that the Muslim teacher’s statement should not be accepted as conclusive because, in her cultural context, it might not represent her actual position. The investigation thus continued despite the absence of any remaining factual basis for it.

The Complaint further states that Dr. Hassim instructed Ms. Sébag to keep corroborating accounts from another teacher confidential and to “separate” those allegations from her own matter involving the Muslim teacher. Ms. Sébag objected to what she described as a lack of transparency in the investigative process and questioned why she was directed, during a recorded May 3, 2024 Zoom meeting, to withhold corroborating and exculpatory information.

During the same period, UNIS publicly promoted a Ramadan Iftar event and prayer gathering in its Oman Assembly Hall. Routine parent communications, including logistical announcements unrelated to religious observance, were also decorated with overt Muslim religious imagery.

The Complaint also describes an incident in which posters from an organization publicly associated with support for Hamas were displayed on the school’s “Walls of Peace,” including QR codes linking to that organization. According to the lawsuit, students responsible were not disciplined. When concerns were raised, the school’s Executive Director allegedly stated that he was in a difficult position to respond because he himself is Jewish.

The Complaint situates these events within the broader context of UNIS’s financial relationships with foreign governments. Public materials cited in the filing indicate that Oman donated approximately $10 million in 2011, with cumulative contributions reportedly exceeding $55 million by 2020, and that Qatar pledged approximately $60 million in 2023. The Permanent Representatives of Qatar and the Sultanate of Oman to the United Nations serve as Honorary Trustees of the UNIS Board. Public reporting has documented Qatar’s financial support for Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization.

Although UNIS emphasizes its connection to the United Nations—including the appointment of trustees by the U.N. Secretary-General—the school is registered as a New York not-for-profit corporation and operates under New York law. It is not an organ of the United Nations and is not entitled to sovereign immunity. Like any private employer in New York, UNIS is subject to state and city civil rights laws prohibiting discrimination and retaliation.

Against the backdrop of UNIS’s substantial foreign government funding, its governance structure intertwined with United Nations Member States, its visible promotion of Islamic religious programming in a self-described secular setting, and its sustained refusal to investigate corroborated reports of antisemitic misconduct, Ms. Sébag concluded that the institution was incapable of addressing antisemitism impartially. That conclusion ultimately rendered internal reporting futile in her view.

“This case is about the equal enforcement of civil rights laws,” said Lauren Israelovitch, Senior Litigation Counsel at NJAC. “Rather than examine the reported antisemitic conduct, the institution turned its investigatory machinery on the Jewish faculty member who reported it.”

As Ben Schlager, Senior Counsel for NJAC explained, “The United Nations International School is rife with the same anti-Jewish animus as the institution for which it was named. Unlike its namesake, its leadership enjoys no immunity for its actions and now the wheels of justice begin to turn.”

Mark Goldfeder, CEO of NJAC added, “This wasn’t complicated. Antisemitism was reported and corroborated, and UNIS ignored it while putting a teacher through months of ‘process’ until she was forced out. Civil-rights law exists for exactly moments like this: when bad actors try and turn process into punishment.”

For more information, reach out to lauren@njaclaw.org.

UNIS Press Release 2026-02-18.pdf

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