B’nai B’rith President Seth J. Riklin and CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin have issued the following statement:

B’nai B’rith International strongly condemns the U.N. General Assembly’s (UNGA) passage of the first resolution officially sponsored by Palestinians days after they became the first non-member state group further upgraded to many member state privileges at the UNGA, despite the world body’s own rules and practices.

Coming from an assembly in which Arab and other pro-Palestinian governments wield an automatic majority to annually condemn Israel more than all other countries combined, the motion is unprecedented in its shamelessly one-sided endorsement of Palestinian claims and political demands, and further erodes the U.N.’s credibility as a serious contributor to promoting conflict-resolution and universal human rights.

With the start of a new General Assembly session—and, extraordinarily, in advance of the arrival of world leaders for the session’s high-level segment next week—Palestinians sought to swiftly exploit their further boosted UNGA status to hurt Israel and dominate the global agenda at the expense of countless other critical needs and priorities. Labeled “the State of Palestine” even while bemoaning a lack of statehood as their leaders consistently reject bilateral agreements with Israel and while a key part of Palestinian-claimed territories, the Gaza Strip, has been roiled by the brutal control and terrorism of Hamas—a jihadist group pledging Israel’s destruction—the Palestinian delegation drafted a resolution seeking to act upon a non-binding recent International Court of Justice advisory opinion, solicited by the UNGA in a request that singled out Israel for scrutiny and convicted it in advance, on the legality of Israel’s presence in the territories.

Among much else, the draft resolution demanded that Israeli Jews be completely removed from those territories within 12 months—without any comprehensive final peace agreement between the sides—including Judaism’s holiest places around the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. It called only for Israeli reparations to Palestinians and setting up an “international mechanism” to extract this; it called for travel bans and asset freezes targeting Israelis alone; it rejected the establishment of foreign embassies and diplomatic missions in Jerusalem, Israel’s sole and historic capital; it fully discounted all Israeli security concerns, calling for dismantling a lifesaving defensive barrier that has effectively prevented Palestinian suicide bombings—and outrageously smeared Israeli protective measures as “apartheid”; and it insisted upon boycotting products from Jewish communities in Palestinian-demanded territories, no trade deals with Israel if they don’t exclude those areas and no transfers of crucial arms if that materiel could be used in the territories.

Finally, yet again—nearly a year after the grievous Oct. 7 terrorist atrocities in Israel, and as over 100 Israeli and international hostages remain in unspeakable captivity in Gaza—the UNGA resolution failed to recognize and denounce violence against Israeli civilians of all backgrounds by Hamas, Lebanese Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis and their common patron, Iran.

We thank every responsible member state that opposed this latest outrage at the UNGA.

Shame on all countries that enabled this atrocious affront to justice and peace as part of the latest UNGA “emergency session” on the Middle East that does nothing to help seriously address and settle the emergency.

B’nai B’rith, distinguished by a dedicated Office of United Nations Affairs and an accredited presence at the U.N. since its founding in 1945, will again help lead global Jewish engagement in marathon discussions with heads of state and government on the sidelines of the UNGA next week.