โ The UN General Assembly yesterday condemned Israel in five separate resolutions, for a total of 15 resolutions targeting the Jewish state by 2022, compared with 12 for the rest of the world combined. (Click here for texts and voting sheets.)
โThe latest UN attack on Israel with a spate of unilateral resolutions is surreal,โ said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, a Geneva-based non-governmental watchdog. "Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East, but instead the UN is empowering the region's despots."
โIt is absurd that out of a total of 27 UN General Assembly resolutions criticizing countries this year, more than half focus on just one nation: Israel. Make no mistake: the purpose of these twisted texts is not to promote human rights, but to demonize the Jewish state," Neuer said.
Five new resolutions against Israel
Three of yesterday's resolutions perpetuate the UN's decades-old anti-Israel infrastructure, ensuring continued UN funding and staffing for agencies, committees and programs that seek to demonize, delegitimize and isolate the Jewish state and undermine peace. .
One text, renewing the mandate of the UN's Palestinian staff division dedicated to spreading anti-Israel propaganda around the world, institutes an event in 2023 to "commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Nakba." This will give the UN nod to the rejection narrative that Israel's independence constitutes a "catastrophe."
Another of the resolutions adopted yesterday renews the mandate of the 25-nation โCommittee for the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian Peopleโ, which produces one-sided reports that only examine Israel, turning a blind eye to terrorism by Hamas and others. Palestinian groups. It is the only human rights committee in the General Assembly dedicated to a single cause.
"Why isn't there a 25-nation UN committee dedicated to gross and systematic violations of human rights by regimes in Iran, China or Russia?" Neuer asked.
One of the resolutions officially co-sponsored by the Syrian Assad regime โ determines that Israel's โcontinued occupation of the Syrian Golanโ constitutes โan obstacle on the way to achieving a just, comprehensive and lasting peace in the regionโ, and demands that Israel withdraw from โthe entire occupied Syrian Golanโ .
โIt's amazing,โ Neuer said. "After the Syrian regime has killed half a million of its own people, how can the UN call for more people to be handed over to the Assad government, even as it turns a blind eye to Iran's aggressive military buildup in the area? , which includes By arming Hezbollah terrorists? The text is morally irritating and logically absurd.
Another resolution blames only Israel for the lack of peace, giving the Palestinian Authority a free pass.
โThe General Assembly has adopted a series of resolutions on the Palestinians who name and shame Israel every time, but who never once name the Palestinian Authority, Hamas and Islamic Jihad for their acts of terrorism and other serious abuses against them. human rights,โ Neuer said.
For example, although one of the resolutions includes a clause in the preamble with an indirect and generic condemnation of the rockets fired at Israelis, none of the texts makes any explicit condemnation of Islamic Jihad for having bombarded Israeli civilians with more than 1100 rockets fired from Gaza over a three-day period in August, even as each missile fired amounts to a war crime under international law."
โThere was also no mention of at least 29 Israelis killed in Palestinian terror attacks in 2022, including three dead in a stabbing and car-ramming attack just two weeks ago, the two killed and 21 wounded in synchronized bombing attacks in Jerusalem last week, or from 300 significant terrorist attacks against the Israelis this year.โ
โThese resolutions claim to care about Palestinians, but completely ignore more than 3,000 Palestinians who have been killed, maimed, and driven out by Assad's forces, and they don't even attempt to promote democracy, accountability, and the state of right to really help the Palestinians who live in the areas governed by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas.โ
โThe latest charade of justice in the General Assembly underscores a simple fact: the UN automatic majority has no interest in truly helping the Palestinians, nor in protecting anyone's human rights. The goal of these ritualistic and one-sided condemnations is to make Israel the scapegoat,โ Neuer said.
โThe UN's disproportionate attack on the Jewish state undermines the institutional credibility of what is supposed to be an impartial international body. Politicization and selectivity undermine its founding mission, eroding the UN Charter promise of equal treatment for all nations, large and small,โ Neuer added.
Several shift votes towards Israel, Australia moves away
comprehensive UN Watch databasedocumenting the UN bias against Israel, shows that from 2015 to the present day, the General Assembly has passed 125 damning resolutions against Israel and just 55 against the rest of the world combined.
following our world campaign to get countries to shift votes to be more pro-Israel, UN Watch welcomes modest but notable progress in waning country support for annual resolutions discriminatory against Israel.
Compared to votes on similar texts in previous years, several countries shifted the vote to Israel yesterday, including Albania, Costa Rica, Croatia, the Czech Republic, India, Italy, Romania, Slovakia, Sweden and the United Kingdom. However, Australia moved in the other direction by one vote.
The resolution on thePalestinian Rights Divisionโ, was adopted by a vote of 90 to 30, with 47 abstentions. Perhaps because of the new clause creating a โNakbaโ commemoration for next year, several more countries voted against it this year than in 2020, the last time the text was tabled. Albania, Croatia, Italy, Romania, Sweden and the United Kingdom are among the countries that changed their votes to No this year. India also improved its vote by changing it from Yes to Abstain.
The resolution on theSpecial information program on the question of Palestineโ was adopted by a vote of 149 to 11, with 13 abstentions. Three more countries, including the Czech Republic, voted No this year compared to 2020, the last time the resolution was tabled.
The resolution on theCommittee for the Inalienable Exercise of the Rights of the Palestinian Peopleโ was adopted by a vote of 101 to 17, with 53 abstentions. Albania and Slovakia improved their votes by changing from Abstention to No. Likewise, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic changed from Yes to Abstention.
Regrettably, yesterday Australia changed its vote from No to Abstain on the resolution entitled โPeaceful settlement of the question of Palestineโ, which was approved by a vote of 154 to 9, with 9 abstentions.
