In keeping with the automatic majority enjoyed at the world body by Arab, Muslim and aligned states, the United Nations General Assembly has again repeated an annual ritual of adopting multiple resolutions and reports blindly reflecting only Palestinians’ narrative of their ongoing conflict with Israel. B’nai B’rith condemns those member states, oblivious to grave Palestinian misdeeds and to the most basic rights of Israelis, that accepted these texts replete with glaring falsehoods, omissions and political invective.
The resolutions mimic Palestinian rhetoric inimical to peace and coexistence – referring to the creation of Israel as “the Nakba” (or “Catastrophe”), referencing alleged “acts of terror” by individual Israelis but never by Palestinian jihadist groups, calling for a “contiguous” state of Palestine that would by definition end the contiguity of Israel, and decrying the detention of violent Palestinian extremists but not the continuing hostage-taking by Hamas terrorists of Israeli civilians and service-members. Yet again, the resolutions commit the outrage of repeatedly referring to the holiest site in Judaism, Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, by its Islamic name alone, and even demand the transfer of the strategically vital Golan Heights, a haven of stability and intercommunal coexistence under Israeli sovereignty, to the brutal regime of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad.
The decisions also perpetuate permanent bureaucratic bodies, including the Division for Palestinian Rights, the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and the Special Information Programme on the Question of Palestine, exclusively dedicated – at the annual cost of millions of dollars to global taxpayers, and with the imprimatur of the U.N. – to advancing Palestinian political propaganda and objectives worldwide.
B’nai B’rith strongly commends the United States, Australia, Canada, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Nauru, along with Israel, for their brave and principled opposition to all of these motions, and also takes note of a substantial number of member states that declined to support the resolutions, through abstention, and those that opposed individual motions.
The predictable adoption of the batch of anti-Israel texts came on a day formally testifying to systemic U.N. prejudice against the world’s only Jewish state and the Middle East’s only democracy: the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. Palestinians alone enjoy exceptional privileges and expressions of automatic support at the world body, even though the occasion marks the day in 1947 when the General Assembly endorsed Jewish statehood in Israel – a vision rejected by Palestinian and other extremists then and still today.
The day itself was observed with a customary litany of one-sided and often defamatory statements by the representatives of authoritarian governments hostile to Israel, and a keynote U.N. speaker on the eve of the General Assembly proceedings. CNN personality and Temple University instructor Marc Lamont Hill, made blatant his bigoted position by calling for the effective erasure of Israel, justifying all Palestinian “resistance” tactics and endorsing economic pressure campaigns that single out Israel for targeting. B’nai B’rith called yesterday for Hill’s immediate dismissal by his employers, after which CNN rightly ended its relationship with Hill.
Until U.N. bodies demonstrate an unvarnished awareness of actual realities in the Middle East, and genuine commitment to equality and to fairness, they will be in no position to contribute to peace in the region – or to improve the circumstances of Israelis and Palestinians alike.
B’nai B’rith strongly urges member states to be mindful of this when voting next week on a U.S.-sponsored resolution set to provide for critical General Assembly condemnation, for the first time, of Hamas, the Palestinian jihadist group that controls the Gaza Strip and vows Israel’s destruction.
B’nai B’rith International has advocated for global Jewry and championed the cause of human rights since 1843. B’nai B’rith is recognized as a vital voice in promoting Jewish unity and continuity, a staunch defender of the State of Israel, a tireless advocate on behalf of senior citizens and a leader in disaster relief. With a presence around the world, we are the Global Voice of the Jewish Community. Visit www.bnaibrith.org