Israel and the UN — An Uneasy Relationship

In the General Assembly and its committees, as well as in the specialized agencies, there exists a long-standing tradition of singling out Israel. The General Assembly devotes seven out of 140 items of its agenda to issues concerning Israel. No other member or issue is accorded such intensive treatment. The General Assembly still adopts 19 anti-Israel resolutions annually. The US votes against 16 of them. Here are some recurring examples of clearly anti-Israel conduct within the General Assembly:

— The automatic majority enjoyed by the Arab-Moslem bloc enables this group to pass any anti-Israel resolution, no matter how one-sided it may be. This same automatic majority blocks the adoption of any resolution that has any hint of criticism against the Palestinians or any Arab state.

— Israel was, until May 31, 2000, the only member-state in the U.N. that was prevented from belonging to a regional grouping and was, therefore, prevented from participating in much of the ordinary work of the U.N. Israel could not vote for or be elected to many of the U.N.'s central organizations and could not be elected as a non-permanent member of the Security Council. For fifty-one years, this situation violated the principle of the "sovereign equality of all Member states" of the UN, under Article 2 of the UN Charter. No other member nation has been so ostracized.

— The Commission on Human Rights routinely adopts totally disproportionate resolutions concerning Israel. Of all condemnations of this agency, 26 percent refer to Israel alone, while rogue states such as Syria and Libya are never criticized.

— Israel is the object of more investigative committees, special representatives and rapporteurs than any other state in the U.N. system.

— The "Special Committees" and "Palestinian Units" of the U.N. spend more than three million dollars a year, essentially to spread viciously anti-Israel propaganda. These bodies are the focus of the worst anti-Israel activity under the aegis of the U.N.

— There are increasingly frequent cases of blatantly anti-Semitic remarks by Arab representatives at U.N. forums. In addition, anti-Semitism as a phenomenon has long been ignored or deliberately omitted in resolutions, forums and events throughout the UN, even in commemorations of World War II. It was only on 24 November 1998, 50 years since the UN's founding, that the word "anti-Semitism" was first mentioned in a UN resolution, appearing near the end of GA Res. A/53/623, "Elimination of Racism and Racial Discrimination."

— The U.N. has repeatedly held Emergency Special Sessions of the General Assembly on Israeli construction in Jerusalem. The Emergency Special Session was originally conceived in 1950 for emergencies like the Korean War. In the last 15 years, these special meetings have only been held regarding Israel. Emergency Special Sessions were not convened over the genocide in Rwanda, ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia, or with regard to the other major world conflicts.

— While the Arab-Israeli peace process that was launched in Madrid in 1991 is structured on the basis of direct negotiations between the parties, the UN constantly undercuts this principle. The Oslo Agreements, as well, establish that differences between Israelis and the Palestinians should be resolved only bilaterally. Nonetheless, the UN General Assembly passes annual resolutions that pre-judge the outcome of negotiations by proposing specific solutions to issues like Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, settlements, and other issues meant to be restricted to bilateral talks. Ironically, it was the UN Security Council that proposed these bilateral negotiations through Resolution 242 (1967) and 338 (1973), but the UN General Assembly undermines these resolutions every year.

Source: The Jewish Student Online Research Center (JSOURCE)
www.us-israel.org/jsource/
Copyright 2000 The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise
Used by permission.