Everyone who pays attention to the UN knows that it has repeatedly condemned Israel but barely goes after countries like North Korea, Russia, or Iran (all UN members), even though it’s pretty clear that these countries violate human rights far more often than does Israel. The UN seems to have an obsession with condemning Israel, and the reasons seem pretty clear. I won’t go into them now.
You can see this “disproportionality” at the UN Watch site, where you can read this summary and see some of the resolutions:
From 2015 through 2022, including the above, the UN General Assembly has adopted 140 resolutions on Israel and 68 on other countries. For texts and voting sheets, see the UN Watch Database, which will include the 2022 UNGA resolutions after they are published by the UN in January 2023.
The UN Watch Database also documents that from 2006 through 2022, the UN Human Rights Council has adopted 99 resolutions against Israel, 41 against Syria, 13 against Iran, 4 against Russia, and 3 against Venezuela.
Isn’t it strange that the number of resolutions against Israel is greater than resolutions about the rest of the world combined? If you look at them, most condemn Israel for “occupation” as well as other bad deeds.
What about the Palestinian territories, which aren’t an official UN country but have “observer status” at the UN? (Note, though that the State of Palestine is recognized as a country by 138 of the 193 United Nations member states.)
Wikipedia has a site called “List of United Nations resolutions concerning Palestine”. Some text (bolding is Wikipedia’s):
The following is a list of United Nations resolutions concerning State of Palestine. From 1967 to 1989 the UN Security Council adopted 131 resolutions directly addressing the Arab–Israeli conflict, with many concerning the Palestinians; Since 2012, a number of resolutions were issued dealing directly with the modern Palestinian State.
Looking at the list, I can’t find a single one that condemns Palestine for anything; most are resolutions about aid to Palestine, and a number of them are also condemnations of Israel. It’s fair to say that the UN has largely ignored human rights violations by Palestine, and you can’t say that there are none! Now I didn’t scrutinize this long list minutely, but it’s clear that there is serious “inequity” in the degree of UN opprobrium of Israel vs. Palestine.
But surely, I thought, there must be a UN condemnation of Hamas’s raid on Israel on October 7. Well, the General Assembly put up such a motion, but an amendment (not a resolution) condemning Hamas’s attack was rejected! Click below to read the article from UN Watch:
Bolding is mine:
The UN General Assembly adopted an Arab-drafted resolution today calling for a “humanitarian truce” in Gaza, after rejecting a Canadian amendment that would have condemned the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas and demanded immediate release of hostages taken by Hamas.
Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan called it “a day that will go down in infamy.”
The [final] resolution was adopted by a vote of 120 to 14 with 45 abstentions.
Outrageously, the resolution failed to condemn Hamas for its October 7th massacre of 1400 Israelis, or for its abduction of more than 200 Israelis including children and babies, or even to mention the word Hamas.
The resolution also failed to recognize Israel’s right to defend itself and its citizens against terrorism.
The resolution calls for “immediate, full, sustained, safe and unhindered humanitarian access…to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid” but, as noted by the Czech Republic, doesn’t provide assurances that this will not be abused by Hamas and other terrorists.
The text also calls on Israel, “the occupying power,” to rescind its order to evacuate northern Gaza.
Prior to taking action on the resolution, an amendment led by Canada did not pass, as it failed to reach the required two-thirds majority. That amendment would have “unequivocally reject[ed] and condemn[ed] the terrorist attacks by Hamas that took place in Israel starting on 7 October 2023 and the taking of hostages.”
Kudos to Canada for a game try, but they abstained from the vote on the final resolution. From the National Post of Canada:
In the end, the amendment failed, unable to garner the required two-thirds majority of votes in the General Assembly. The vote saw 88 members in favour, and 55 against, with 23 abstentions.
I can’t find a list of countries that rejected Canada’s amendment. There’s more:
The resolution itself passed by a margin of 120-14.
Canada was among the 45 nations that abstained from the final vote after the amendment failed to pass. Gilad Erdan, Israel’s UN emissary, left little doubt about his feelings when it was over.
“The spectacle we just saw proves beyond a doubt that the UN is committed — sadly, tragically — not to preventing, but ensuring further atrocities,” he said.
“We saw exactly what (Hamas) dreams of doing to every Israeli and Jew and we will not sit idly by to let them re-arm and commit such atrocities again. We won’t, just as every single other member state in this room wouldn’t.”
Well, so it goes. While I disapproved of Israel’s siege on Gaza, which is now lifted, and am pleased that Gaza is now receiving humanitarian aid (but concerned that much of it will fall into the hands of Hamas), why couldn’t the UN find it in its heart to condemn the butchery of 1400 Israelis, many of them civilians? What happened in southern Israel is beyond belief. You tell me why the UN refused to even address it.
Here’s the final vote on the whole resolution; the U.S. abstained because the resolution didn’t condemn Hamas. It’s interesting to see the countries who joined the U.S. and those, including Great Britain and other EU countries, who abstained. Click on the tweet and then on the black list to see the way the vote went.
LIST OF SHAME: These EU countries just joined 🇮🇷Iran, 🇸🇾Syria and 🇷🇺Russia in voting for a resolution that fails to name Hamas or specifically call for release of hostages.
🇧🇪Belgium
🇫🇷France
🇮🇪Ireland
🇱🇺Luxembourg
🇲🇹Malta
🇵🇹Portugal
🇸🇮Slovenia
🇪🇸Spain+🇨🇭Switzerland, 🇳🇴Norway pic.twitter.com/R1jzMof7vM
— UN Watch (@UNWatch) October 27, 2023
A snarky but true comment:
Proving Abba Eban's timeless observation: “If Algeria introduced a resolution declaring the earth was flat and Israel had flattened it, it would pass by 164 to 13 with 26 abstentions.” This UN text fails to condemn the Hamas massacre or to support Israel's right to self-defence. https://t.co/3FlqAHcdH6
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) October 28, 2023
Kudos as well to the Czech Republic, whose defense minister, shocked by the amendment’s rejection (the country voted “no” on the final resolution along with the U.S,), even suggested that her country leave the UN:
BREAKING: 🇨🇿 Czech Defense Minister Jana Černochová has just called to leave the UN for cheering Hamas terrorists. “Exactly 3 weeks ago, Hamas murdered over 1400 Israelis, more victims for their population than the militant Islamist organization al-Qaeda murdered in the US on… pic.twitter.com/ocfqKmtrQw
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) October 28, 2023
This is a stunning interview…..About Hamas, which is a death-cult terrorist organization:
“I think the following happened: There are two types of war. Conventional war, in which both parties have a similar concept of death. And the other war, in which one party doesn’t share the concept.”
https://quillette.com/2023/10/30/a-different-concept-of-death/?ref=quillette-daily-newsletter
Well, it’s all very complex.
Regular folk couldn’t be expected to fathom the nuance.
We need to rely on the Special Insight that comes with a deep weighing of the complexities, and Profound Discourse of those Knowledgeable of the human dimensions to the Problem, with restraint, those who have had a glimpse of the True Nature of Reality…
… Those with gnosis.
Norway surprised and disappointed me having worked and lived there but then they were complicit in the Arafat fiasco where they basically paid him off and he just took the money and then reneged. I am told that the country is now a bastion of
“woke leftism “and worse by my Norwegian friends. Hard to believe.
The UN is “united” in its position against Israel.
Compare how many “UN resolutions” are issued condemning Israel, with countries like China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, and many others that are far worse than Israel.
It is very revealing!
I’m sure the Columbia and Barnard faculty could provide the relevant context so that those of us of lesser knowledge and intelligence can understand why this is anything other than anti-Semitic bigotry.
https://twitter.com/speechboy71/status/1718818168787845150
I can see The Onion headline now:
“Area Man Issues Statement on Israel/Palestine Conflict”
Or
“East Calder Cribbage Club Issues Statement on Israel/Palestine Conflict”
And so on. Maybe even :
“Metro Gas N’ Shop …”
Etc.
It is a bit funny that Hungary, a country those leadership nowadays often acts as Putin’s lackeys and even started to cozy up with Iran since the start of the Ukrainian war, voted no. For all the wrong reasons of course. A few years ago the mafia controlling Hungary established some kind of business relationship with Netanyahu’s circle (also criminals) and apparently it is important / sensitive enough to go against the wishes of their usual Russian masters in this question (a question that has little importance to Russia, they are doing this just to screw with the USA and pay some lip service to their newly found friend Iran).
Then let the UN go into Gaza, clear the tunnels out, get rid of Hamas once and for all, or they can shut up. In the same vein, any #CeaseFireNow people better be able to show me an actual real plan for ridding Gaza and the world of Hamas – and no Kumbayaism allowed – or they too can shut up.
+1
The United Nations’ cease-fire resolution is a full-throated and on-the-record statement of its hatred of the State of Israel and of its disdain for the Jewish people.
Why not explain why the UN has so consistently condemned Israel! The western powers set up the UN so it would favor the west. U. S. long voted to protect Israel and why?
Why don’t YOU give your explanation, for it sure sounds like you have one!
I am so done with the UN. I see little real value in it.
I was staggered by this Jerry. I’ve not really given the UN a lot of thought in the past, just took at face value that they were generally a force for good. Seems that isn’t the case. I couldn’t find any explanation for why so many countries would vote that resolution down, but with such a disparate list of members and so many competing politics and values I suppose the whole organisation can’t be taken seriously.
One small correction, I couldn’t see North Korea on the list of members. Wikipedia reckons it just has a mission to the UN and observer status after joining the WHO.
“… just took at face value that they were generally a force for good. ”
Same here.
… s’pose it has a lot to do with its origin, though I am hazy on details on the spot.
Their operative organizations do some good. The General Assembly is nothing else than a talking meeting for countries and just as good as those countries are. Also the votes are counted by country, so San Marino have the same “power” as the USA. These votes are simple virtue signaling, and they were this way before virtue signaling was a thing as a term.
This world is a bad place for Jews. I had hoped the world would move beyond this insane anti-Semitism but alas this seems to have been a dream. I fear this the beginning of the end of Israel and potentially the start of a world war. There are so many political bodies in play it is dizzying. BTW good luck to gay/trans supporters of Hamas. I’m sure you will be welcomed with open arms!!