Thursday
a United Nations interpreter, unaware that her microphone was on,
uttered words of truth in reaction to the General Assembly’s adoption of
nine politically-motivated resolutions condemning Israel, and zero resolutions on the rest of the world.
Under the mistaken impression that she was
speaking only to a colleague, the interpreter uttered the following
words into the headphones of every UN delegate, and before a live
webcast audience worldwide:
“Isn’t it a little weird? There are nine
or ten resolutions against Israel. And I know there’s a problem with the
Palestinians. But there’s other bad shit going on and they’re spending
so much time on this.”
Laughter erupted among the delegates. “The
interpreter apologizes,” said the unfortunate truth-teller, moments
later. I sincerely hope she won’t get fired.
Because the one who should really apologize
today is the UN. Founded on noble ideals, the world body is turning the
dream of liberal internationalists into a nightmare.
For by the end of its annual session next
month, the General Assembly will have adopted a total of 22 resolutions
condemning Israel—and only four on the rest of the world combined. The
hypocrisy, selectivity, and politicization are staggering.
Today’s nine resolutions, adopted by the GA’s
4th committee, which is comprised of all 193 UN member states, condemned
Israel for violating the human rights of Palestinians in the West Bank
and Gaza, of Palestinian refugees, and even of Syrians in the Golan
Heights.
That’s right: the UN adopted a resolution
today that mentions the word “Syria” no less than 10 times—yet said
nothing of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s massacre of over 100,000
his own people.
Entitled “Occupied Syrian Golan,” the
resolution condemned Israel for allegedly mistreating Syrian citizens in
the Golan Heights. Israel was also condemned for violating the rights
of Syrian citizens under international humanitarian law. The UN found no
time today, however, to comment on the international legality of
President Assad gassing his own citizens to death.
As it will soon do again by a second,
redundant resolution on the Golan, the General Assembly today called on
Israel to hand over the Golan Heights, and its citizens, to Syria.
Now, whatever one’s view on who rightfully
owns the Golan, for the UN at this particular moment to call for anyone
to be handed over to Assad’s rule—even as his massacres continue
unabated—is both logically absurd and morally obscene.
The interpreter was right: there are indeed
problems in the Palestinian territories, and Israel should be held to
account, just like every other nation.
Yet something is wrong when not a single word
in today’s Palestinian-themed resolutions mentioned the genocidal
anti-Semitism expressed regularly by Hamas organs in Gaza, or the
dangerous incitement by the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, whose
official schools, mosques, newspapers, and TV stations continue to
glorify the murderers of Israeli civilians as heroes worthy of
emulation.
Word is father to deed. Yet none of today’s UN
resolutions concerning the West Bank said a word on the outburst of
Palestinian terrorist attacks over recent weeks, such as the brutal
murder of Shraya Ofer outside his Jordan Valley home, as his wife
managed to escape. The murder of Ofer by axes and iron bars was “a gift
to the Palestinian people and Hamas prisoners, in honor of Eid al-Adha,”
the two suspects said under questioning.
By turning a blind eye to Palestinian
incitement and terrorism, the UN resolutions promote a one-sided
narrative that gives a free pass to Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the
Palestinian Authority, encouraging intransigence instead of compromise.
It is the UN, therefore, who should apologize
for misusing the world body’s precious time and resources to produce
politicized and polarizing texts that do nothing to advance Arab-Israeli
peace, or to further the genuine protection of human rights. On the
contrary, the selective and one-sided resolutions undermine the core
principle that human rights standards are universal, and they push the
parties further away.
It is the UN who should apologize for using
Israel as a scapegoat, for demonizing and delegitimizing the Jewish
state as a meta-criminal to be blamed for all of the world’s ills.
And, above all, it the UN who should apologize
for ignoring the cries of the world’s millions of genuine human rights
victims—and for mocking them.
Last week I was at UN headquarters in New York
with courageous human rights dissidents from China, Cuba, Russia and
Saudi Arabia. UN Watch helped organize a press conference to plead for
UN member states to oppose those repressive regimes’ cynical candidacies
for seats on the UN Human Rights Council. Yet despite their abysmal
records, these serial human abusers were all elected by the UNGA, to
become the world’s newest judges on human rights.
Needless to say, this same UN assembly will
not be passing any resolutions this year on China’s subjugation of the
Tibetan people or its imprisonment of pro-democracy activist Wang Bingzhang,
on Cuba’s violent harassment of journalists and bloggers, on Russia’s
persecution of gays, or on Saudi Arabia’s laws banning women from
driving and non-Muslims from practicing their religion.
Nor does the UN plan to say a word on
religiously-motivated attacks on civilians in Iraq, Nigeria and
Pakistan, or on the persecution of political dissidents in Uganda,
Vietnam, and Zimbabwe.
As the interpreter noted today, the UN is so busy targeting Israel, it simply has no time for anyone else.
"UN anti-Israel votes are indeed ‘a little weird’"
