Is the UN Biased Against Israel?

Just four years after the UN’s founding, on May 11, 1949, Israel was formally declared a member of the United Nations (UN). Since then, the UN Security Council has adopted seventy nine resolutions directly related to the Arab-Israeli conflict (as of 2010). Yet, over the course of its seventy-one year history with this national organization, Israel has been the target of one-sided condemnations by the UN that criticize the Jewish state more than any other country in the world. In 2017 alone, there were 21 resolutions singling out Israel’s “denial” of human rights, while there were only six resolutions condemning the rest of the world (combined).

The UN has unjustly criticized Israel for violating Palestinian human rights, which include women’s rights and freedom of speech. This unjust, unfair, and disproportionate criticism of Israel makes it antisemitic.

Women’s Rights

Just three years ago in 2017, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan helped to pass a UN resolution singling out Israel for violating Palestinian womens’ rights. However, Israel could not be a better supporter of women’s rights. Her Declaration of Independance ensures complete equality of social and political rights irrespective of sex. Furthermore, Israeli law prohibits discrimination based on gender in employment and wages and places no restrictions on the way women can dress. 

Here, women are protesting the subjugation of their gender in Iran.

Unlike Israel, the countries of Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan deny equal rights to their own women citizens. In Iran, women are not equal under the national Constitution and are severely discriminated against. Married women can’t leave the country or work without their husband’s permission, and women who fail to wear the proper attire can be harassed by the morality police, detained, or fined. Furthermore, they are sent to jail for publicly speaking out in favor of equal rights for women. Saudi Arabia’s treatment of women is just as bad. No country restricts the movement of its female population more. Women cannot apply for a passport or travel outside the country without their male guardian’s approval. Moreover, women who attempt to flee an abusive spouse or family can be arrested and returned to their families and they have no right to unilateral divorce. In Pakistan, violence against women and girls—including rape, so-called honor killings, acid attacks, domestic violence, and forced marriage—remains a serious problem. 

Freedom of Speech

In a written statement (dated January 8, 1999) submitted by the International Commission of Jurists to the UN Secretary General and published on the UN website, it was written that Israel’s “restriction of [] freedom of expression… is untenable.” Yet, this couldn’t be farther from the truth. In Israel, freedom of speech has been ruled by the Israeli Supreme Court to be a “fundamental human right.” A US Department of State report stated that Israel had an “independent press, an effective judiciary, and a functioning democratic political system combined to promote freedom of speech and of the press”. 

The situation in Iran is very different. The 1985 press law prohibits “discourse harmful to the principles of Islam” and “public interest”, as referred to in Article 24 of the constitution, which according to Human Rights Watch provides “officials with ample opportunity to censor, restrict, and find offense.” Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have similar laws which make blasphemy against Islam illegal, under punishment of death.

Here, a cartoon is depicted displaying Arab countries’ restrictions on free speech.

Time and time again, the UN criticizes Israel while not paying as much attention to the actions committed by other countries. Iran, Saudia Arabia, and Pakistan are only three of the many countries that commit crimes many times worse than the crimes Israel is accused of. And while these other countries may have had some UN condemnation against them, the ones targeting Israel far outweigh the others.

By specifically targeting only the Jewish state, the UN has shown itself to be prejudiced and hostile against Jews, the dictionary definition of antisemitism. And a statement or resolution that targets the actions of Israel or the Jews that fails to mention its worse counterparts is antisemitic. 

It is apparent that with respect to Israel, the UN has strayed from its original purpose of maintaining world peace, security, and equality. In disproportionately targeting Israel, the UN contradicts Article 2(1) of the UN Charter which proclaims that the UN is based on “sovereign equality of all its Members.”

Specific UN Resolutions

In a November 2019 resolution entitled, “Work of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories,” the UN “deplore[d] th[e] policies and practices of Israel that violate the human rights of the Palestinian people and other Arabs of the occupied territories.” However, much like the aforementioned UN resolution criticizing Israel’s treatment of women, this one is also a blatantly biased mandate. The resolution examines only Israeli actions, whilst ignoring the human rights violations committed by Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Fatah terrorism. It welcomes the election of Hamas, and contrary to international law and resolution 242, it claims that Israli occupation is in itself a violation of international law (when in fact, it is not).

In another 2019 resolution entitled, “Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem,” the UN stated that they were, “gravely concerned by the tensions and violence in the recent period throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and including with regard to the holy places of Jerusalem, including the Haram al-Sharif.” However, once again, this resolution is clearly biased against Israel. In addition to only referring to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem by its Islamic name, “Haram al-Sharif,” this resolution ignores the 2015-2016 wave of terror attacks against Israeli civilians within Israel, referring to it only as “tensions and violence” in the “Occupied Palestinian Territory.” The resolution also negates the numerous deadly attacks that occurred in Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities and seeks to strip Israel of its right to self-defense by classifying every defensive measure its taken as a violation of international law. 

Conclusion

The UN has obviously criticized Israel unfairly. They have discriminated against them, and they have brought forth disproportionate accusations against them, while not bringing them against other countries that really do deserve them. This is blatantly antisemitic, and as can be seen from another one of our articles, it is purposefully done to discriminate against Jews and their Jewish state.