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Israel's United Nations Problem
Simon A. Waldman-
Friday 19th Mar 2004
Israel receives discriminatory treatment at the United Nations. In 1975 The UN passed an infamous resolution equating Zionism as racism. UNRWA is a UN organization that seeks the return of Palestinian refugees to Israel’s pre 1967 borders. Israel is the only permanent general assembly member that is denied a place at the UN Security Council. Anti Zionism dominated the UN Conference Against Racism in Durban, Australia in 2001. Israel is the subject of more investigative committees than any other state in the UN. The UN has held “Emergency Special Sessions that focus solely on Israel, but there was never such as session to discuss ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia or genocide in Rwanda. There have been countless anti Israel resolutions passed in the General Assembly and Security Council especially since the start of the current intifada, condemning the construction of Israel’s security barrier, Israel’s “excessive” force against Palestinian terrorists, and Israel’s incursion into the Jenin refugee camp. The list of anti Israel resolutions is extensive.
The question of whether the UN could be impartial towards the Israel-Palestinian conflict was put to the test last November. Israel’s permanent mission to the UN drafted its first General assembly proposal since 1976.
The draft resolution, “The Situation of and Assistance to Israeli children” highlighted the suffering of Israeli children from Palestinian terrorism. It came as a response to a similar Palestinian resolution entitled “The situation of and assistance to Palestinian children.” The latter called for the protection of Palestinian children from violence in the current conflict. The Palestinian draft resolution was passed by a vote of 88 to 4, with 58 abstentions on the 6th November 2003. The Israeli resolution, facing heavy opposition was eventually scrapped later in the same month.
The decision to withdraw the Israeli resolution came after a group of states led by Egypt and the “Arab/Muslim bloc” recommended amendments that would have included the terms “occupation”, and Israeli “excessive use of force”. More importantly, “Israeli children” would have been replaced with “Middle Eastern children”. In short, the changes would have made the resolution anti Israel.
The failure of the proposed Israeli resolution reflected the United Nations’ inability to be impartial. The proposed changes to the Israeli draft resolution demonstrated how prevalent anti Israel attitudes have become in the UN. There are several reasons why anti Israel attitudes run rampant.
Israel is strategically at a disadvantage because it does not have the representation that other member states have. Member states in the United Nations are divided into regional groupings such as the Western Europe group, Eastern Europe group, the African Group, and the Latin American Group. Israel is the only member state of the General Assembly that is denied membership in a regional grouping. Israel is geographically part of Asia but is barred from membership of the Asian Group because of pressure from the Arab/Muslim bloc. These groupings are important as they act as a diplomatic group in most issues discussed. They also propose candidates for UN bodies. Recently Israel has been invited to take part in discussions with the Western Europe and Others Group (i.e. Canada, U.S. Austria) but is not entitled to stand for election for candidacy and its role is severely limited.
The United Nations is dominated by the Arab/Muslim bloc. There are 190 member states in the general assembly, 54 are Arab or Muslim which vote as a unit especially concerning motions about Israel or the Palestinians. The Third world bloc, often comprised of former colonized nations, is often supportive of the Arab/Muslim bloc, viewing Israel as a colonial state they sympathize with the Palestinians. The General Assembly abides by a one country, one vote system that enables the Arab/Muslim bloc and its alliances to form a majority and have a strong influence. Abba Eban, the late Israeli diplomat and Israel’s first ambassador to the UN commented that, the Arab/Muslim in the General Assembly could get a majority for a resolution declaring the world to be flat.
The United Nations is not an anti-Semitic institution. However, anti Semitic attitudes and stances are common. The United Nations has condemned every kind of racism, including xenophobia. It was not until November 1998 that a resolution was passed that included the condemnation of anti Semitism.
During the 1991 Commission on Human Rights, the Syrian Ambassador made a reference to the 1840 Damascus Blood Libel, that Jews had killed Christians to use their blood for Matzoth. According to the December 1997 UN Watch report, the U.S. challenged the comments on record, but months later a Syrian representative insisted, “it’s true, it’s true, it’s true”. On March 1997, the Palestinian representative, speaking at the UN Commission on Human Rights 53 claimed that Israel had injected 300 Palestinian children with the H.I.V. virus. This modern day blood libel has still been unchallenged on record.
Before the establishment of the state of Israel, Jews were persecuted and isolated from the rest of society. Recently, the Jewish state has been made to look like the cause of the world’s ills, and a threat to stability. Israel has become a persecuted state, condemned and isolated from the international community. The demonization of the state of Israel is a manifestation of the classic fear of a Jewish conspiracy to dominate the world.
The creation of the state of Israel was ratified as a result of the 1947 United Nations Partition plan. The Security Council accepted Israel’s membership to the UN in 1949. Fifty-five years later, the United Nations is yet to defend or promote these decisions. The Palestinian Permanent Mission to the United Nations together with the Arab/Muslim bloc continuously remind the UN of its original sin; its part in the establishment of Israel.
Simon Waldman is the editor of The Zionist Standard, a monthly publication.
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