United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is stepping down at the end of the year, acknowledged in a departing speech that there is “disproportionate” bias against Israel at the world body.
“Over the last decade I have argued that we cannot have a bias against Israel at the UN,” Ban said in an address to the UN Security Council. “Decades of political maneuvering have created a disproportionate number of resolutions, reports and committees against Israel. In many cases, instead of helping the Palestinian issue, this reality has foiled the ability of the UN to fulfill its role effectively.”
Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon commended Ban’s statement and noted the disproportionate number of anti-Israel resolutions passed at the U.N. in recent years.
“The secretary-general admitted the clear truth—the U.N.’s hypocrisy towards Israel has broken records over the past decade. During this time the U.N. passed 223 resolutions condemning Israel while only eight resolutions condemning the Syrian regime as it has massacred its citizens over the past six years. This is absurd,” said Danon.
The Associated Press reported this past June that, while human rights are violated worldwide and thousands have been killed in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, only Israel “has its record inspected at every single session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).” From all the nations in the world, only Israel is subject to a permanent agenda item – Item 7 – that forces the UNHRC to review “the human rights implications of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory” during every session. “The standing item at the 10-year-old council has come to exemplify the spotlight on Israel in a number of UN bodies,” the AP noted.
One of the driving forces behind the UN’s focus on Israel is the influential Organization for Islamic Cooperation, which often spearheads the push for anti-Israel resolutions, the AP explained. Rich nations are also able to use their resources to prevent scrutiny of their behavior, as Saudi Arabia did when blocking UN efforts to investigate its airstrike campaign in neighboring Yemen.
Ban criticized the UNHRC’s singular focus on Israel shortly after assuming his post in 2007, saying that he was “disappointed at the council’s decision to single out only one specific regional item, given the range and scope of allegations of human rights violations throughout the world.”
UNESCO, the UN’s cultural body, adopted two Arab-sponsored resolutions ignoring Jewish and Christian ties to the Temple Mount this past October, prompting Israeli objections.
.Source: JNS/Tower/AP