Israel deserves better: The UN’s hypocrisy must end - opinion

The UN continues to remind us of a reality that has long tarnished its reputation.

This body, founded to uphold peace, human rights, and international cooperation, is instead a forum for scapegoating Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East. 

The obsessive, disproportionate focus on Israel and the shocking double standards applied to the Jewish state by the UN General Assembly and Human Rights Council are impossible to tolerate any longer.

A year into the war that began on October 7, as Israel’s enemies have become more emboldened and escalated their assault on multiple fronts, the UN has not only failed to promote peace and tolerance – as its mandate calls for – but it has doubled down on its shameful actions and rhetoric against the Jewish state.

The latest development in this outrageous saga is a Palestinian effort to suspend Israel from the UN General Assembly, either through a non-binding vote of its body or by stripping Israeli diplomats of their credentials through a committee process (or both). 

These efforts only gained speed when the Knesset voted overwhelmingly – coalition and opposition – to suspend UNWRA from the country, based on the participation of UNRWA employees in the Hamas terror army and in perpetrating the October 7 massacre. 

Instead of understanding why a country would not want a group within its borders that murdered and raped its civilians and reflecting on its own processes that allowed that outcome, UN actors view this as confirmation that Israel does not belong in the league of nations. 

The United States and other friends of Israel must make clear that they will not accept this ostracization of Israel. We call on US Ambassador-designate to the UN Elise Stefanik to lead the charge in defending Israel from these malicious efforts.

Simultaneously, efforts are underway to admit the Palestinians as a full member state of the United Nations. In the aftermath of October 7, this is not just an affront to Israel, it is a clear endorsement of terror. 

It sends the message that violence, not diplomacy, will be rewarded. 

That the path to international legitimacy lies not through peaceful negotiation, but through violence and bloodshed directed at the innocent citizens of a UN member state. 

Funding terrorism 

The Palestinian Authority continues to fund terrorism through its notorious “pay-for-slay” program, which offers financial rewards to those who murder Israeli civilians. 

And yet, in the halls of the UN, it is Israel that is treated as the villain while Palestinian leadership is rewarded for its complicity in terror.

In another affront, Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories, who has a long history of denigrating the Jewish state, recently compared Israel to Nazi Germany, mocked the tragic deaths of four IDF soldiers and demanded that Israel be stripped of its seat at the UN. 

This came after she claimed that the Hamas pogrom was not an act of antisemitism, which drew the condemnation of several governments, including the United States. 

Many prominent Jewish organizations subsequently called for her removal on the grounds that she repeatedly violates her obligations under the Charter and code of conduct of the UN, and we maintain that demand today. 

And before that, during the 2024 session of the UN General Assembly in September, the UNGA adopted a new Palestinian resolution brought on the basis of the egregious ruling of the International Court of Justice, demanding that Israel end its “unlawful presence” in Gaza and the West Bank within a year and calling for UN member states to carry out sanctions and an arms embargo against Israel. 

No mention of the atrocities of October 7, Hamas as a terror organization, Israel’s right to defend itself, the 100 hostages still being held in Gaza, or the need for direct negotiations between the parties.

The UN’s double standard is not just a moral failure; it is a betrayal of its founding principles. Since its inception, the UN General Assembly adopted more than 500 resolutions targeting Israel, more than any other country. In 2023 alone, the UNGA passed 15 resolutions condemning Israel with only seven condemning every other country in the world combined. 

These resolutions, often championed by regimes with abysmal human rights records, do not advance peace nor human dignity. Instead, they serve to demonize Israel, the only country in the region that offers true democratic freedoms to its citizens, both Jews and Arabs alike.

While not legally binding, the goal of this resolution and other UNGA actions against Israel is to turn the Jewish state into a pariah and encourage the global community to isolate it politically and financially.

Not only do these actions leave Israel undoubtedly more vulnerable when the next terror attack comes, but they also reward the polities who are the very perpetrators of that terror.

In a just world, the UN would take action to hold Hamas accountable for its crimes and remove bad actors like Albanese. 

It would demand the immediate release of all hostages at every single meeting. It would stand with Israel in its fight against a terrorist organization that seeks nothing less than the annihilation of the Jewish people and the Western world. 

But instead, the UN chooses to look the other way. It chooses to draft one-sided resolutions condemning Israel for daring to defend itself, while giving a pass to Hamas. 

International law is clear. Responsibility for the deaths of Gazan civilians falls squarely on Hamas, which uses human shields and launches rockets from schools and hospitals. There is a deep irony that the UN, which is supposed to uphold international law, so flagrantly undermines its actual enforcement.

As Jews, as supporters of Israel, and as defenders of human dignity, we must stand up against this injustice. We demand that the UN return to its founding principles of fairness and equality.

Let us remember that the UN itself called for the birth of the Jewish state in 1947, cognizant of the national aspirations of the Jewish people and the need for a haven in a post-Holocaust world. The obsessive targeting of Israel at the UN must end. The disproportionate number of resolutions condemning Israel, while real human rights atrocities are ignored, must cease.

Stop rewarding terror

We also demand that the world stop rewarding terror. To remove Israel and admit Palestine as a full member of the UN at this moment is to endorse this strategy of violence and obstruction.

It is to abandon any hope of a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel, like any other nation, has the right to defend itself. And the UN, if it is to have any relevance in the future, must recognize this. It must stand with Israel in its fight against terror, and it must hold accountable those who commit unspeakable crimes against humanity. 

Until the UN does this, it will continue to be a body that fails not only Israel, but the entire world.

The writer is CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Follow him @Daroff.