Thursday, March 07, 2024

Is the United Nations against Israel?

Profile photo for Angus McFarlane

This cartoon sums up anti-Israel attitudes at the UN.

UN should mean ‘United Nations’, but it seems that today it means nations united against Israel. There is a campaign at the UN to demonize and delegitimize Israel at every turn and in every forum. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), a 57-member pan-Islamic body, operates a powerful voting bloc at the UN, and has an automatic majority of Third World regimes to call on for support.

The propaganda is relentless and everywhere. For example, In the busiest corridor of the Palais des Nations, the European headquarters of the UN in Geneva, there is a series of giant panels devoted to the ‘Palestinian’ cause. Every day, the visual message is that the Palestinians are the world’s greatest human rights victim – and, by implication, that Israel is the world’s worst human rights abuser. This message is pumped subliminally into hundreds of UN country delegates, employees, and non-governmental activists, as they pass to and from the cafeteria! It’s a public disgrace.

Even the interpreters at the UN in New York notice the anti-Israel bias. On November 14th, 2013, when the UNGA Fourth Committee adopted nine draft resolutions against Israel, a UN interpreter made the following remarks to her colleagues in the booth, unaware that her microphone was switched on for the world to hear:

“I think when you have…like, a total of ten resolutions on Israel and Palestine, there’s gotta be something — c’est un peu trop, non? [It’s a bit much, no?] I mean…it’s not the only …., there’s other really bad sh-t happening, but no one says anything about the other stuff.”

Apolitical organizations can also be affected by outbursts of Jew-hatred. The purpose of the World Health Organization (WHO), a multi-billion dollar agency in Geneva, is to address health. It should not concern itself with political issues. But where Israel is concerned, the temptation is too great. On January 21st, 2009, for example, during the period of an intense Israel-Hamas conflict, the 34-member WHO Executive Board adopted a transparently one-sided resolution, entitled “The grave health situation caused by Israeli military operations in the occupied Palestinian territory, particularly in the occupied Gaza Strip.”

The WHO resolution’s partisan findings completely ignored the effects on the health of Israelis caused by Hamas firing 10,000 rockets at civilian centers, the cause of Israel’s anti-terrorist Operation Cast Lead.

However, the anti-Israel bias can become totally surreal. Recently, a UN resolution named Israel as only country violating women's rights! Among the 54 countries on the UN council to vote in favor of the resolution were Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Pakistan, Venezuela and Egypt. Seven European countries also voted in favor: Norway, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg and Malta.

The question asks why is there anti-Israel bias at the UN? Simple, hatred of Jews is global and the UN is a global organization. What is really remarkable, however, is that the UN members don’t see how prejudiced their behavior is. And if and when they do, they do nothing to hide it!

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