Anti-Semitism at the UN

United Nations (UN) - Anti-Semitism in 2007

Part of the Anti-Semitism (2007) Report on PaulaSays. For more information, see 2007 List of Anti-Semitic Attacks

For the first time (but probably not the last), we include the United Nations in our annual survey of anti-Semitic incidents. Their yearly diatribes against Israel, and only Israel, for so much of what is wrong with the world, cannot, in all honesty, be seen as anything but veiled hatred against Jews.

The record of bias is unassailable. The current 61st U.N General Assembly has passed 22 anti-Israel resolutions and condemned only a handful of the 191 other U.N. member states. Every year the body passes about 19 anti-Israel resolutions, while not once censuring systematic human rights violators such as Cuba, Zimbabwe, Uzbekistan, Syria, China and countless others. U.N. Watch reports that at the 2005 annual assembly of the World Health Organization only one country was singled out by special resolution. Israel was found to violate the health rights of Palestinians. Similarly, that same year, at the annual meeting of the International Labor Organization, only one country-specific report was made part of its agenda. Israel was charged with violating the rights of Palestinian workers.

Some examples of United Nations sponsored/allowed anti-Semitism:

• The Holocaust is a “historical claim”, “the number of perished” is a particularly “legitimate question,” and there are “serious opposing ideas over the issue.”  — Iranian Ambassador Alireza Moayeri, in letter circulated Jan. 11, 2007 by Secretariat of the Human Rights Council
• “Hezbollah is everyday simple people resisting, resisting an occupation...” — Cuban Ambassador Juan Antonio Fernández Palacios, Oct. 4, 2006.
• “The one who has monopoly on the violation of human rights is Israel... the darling of the High Commissioner.”  — Palestinian Ambassador Mohammad Abu-Koash, Dec. 1, 2006, mocking Louise Arbour, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, for daring to cite Palestinian obligations to stop terrorism in addition to her regular criticisms of Israel.

And more...

The UN’s new Human Rights Council is about to wrap up a year-long negotiation over reform with—what else?—an escalation of its attacks on Israel. The new body was supposed to remedy the defects of its predecessor, the discredited Commission on Human Rights, which became paralyzed by its obsession with condemning the Jewish state half of the time, and otherwise ignoring most of the world’s abuses.  Amazingly, the new Council went further. In the past year, 100 per cent of its condemnations have targeted Israel.

This week, however, things will only get worse. Contrary to assurances made last year by proponents of the supposed reform, the majority of the council—dominated by repressive regimes—is now threatening to eliminate the independent experts who report on violations in Cuba, Belarus, Burma and North Korea, and impose new restrictions that will make it even harder to scrutinize abuser governments.

At the same time—again, contrary to what was promised—the council is expected to adopt a special agenda item that will single out Israel, placing it under permanent indictment.