UN General Assembly expected to censure Israel 9 times
UN Watch’s Hillel Neuer says ‘torrent of one-sided resolutions’ against Israel ‘is surreal’ while no criticism of Palestinians for attacks on Israelis
The UN General Assembly was expected to condemn Israel nine times on Friday as “part of its annual ritual of enacting 20 Arab-sponsored resolutions singling out the Jewish state,” an NGO said.
While Israel was being slammed for a variety of alleged infringements, there would be no mention made of “Hamas stabbings, shootings or vehicular attacks against Israelis,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based monitoring group UN Watch.
According to a statement issued from UN Watch, this year’s session will include a total of six condemnatory resolutions for the rest of the world combined —one each on Syria, North Korea, Iran, Crimea, Myanmar, as well as one on the US for its Cuba embargo.
All 193 UN member states were expected to participate in the initial committee vote, with most likely to vote the same way in a second and final vote at the GA plenary in December.
Speaking at a UN committee Friday that was debating some of the anti-Israel resolutions on the agenda, Israeli diplomat Hadas Meitzad said it was unfortunate that the body had devoted so much time on the issue.
“With chaos enveloping more of the Middle East with each passing day, this body has chosen, once again, to demonize Israel and ignore reality,” she said. “Rather than address the unspeakable tragedy in Syria, the rapid escalation of violence and humanitarian crisis in Yemen, Iran’s continued sponsorship of terror across the region, or the instability in Lebanon, this committee has devoted nearly a quarter of its allocated time to make baseless and outrageous attacks against Israel.”
“The UN’s assault on Israel today with a torrent of one-sided resolutions is surreal,” added Neuer.
“Even after Syrian president Bashar Assad has used chemical weapons against his own people within the past year, the UN is about to adopt a resolution — drafted and co-sponsored by Syria — which falsely condemns Israel for ‘repressive measures’ against Syrian citizens on the Golan Heights. It’s obscene,” he said.
Neuer said there will be a total of 20 resolutions against Israel this session at the UN General Assembly, but not a single one is planned for such gross human rights abusers as Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Venezuela, China, Cuba, Pakistan or Zimbabwe.
“At a time when Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his state-controlled media incite to the continued stabbing and shooting of Israeli Jews, the UN’s response is to reflexively condemn Israel in nine separate resolutions, each of them one-sided, each of them utterly silent on Palestinian abuses,” Neuer said.
The resolution drafted annually by Syria condemns Israel for holding on to the Golan Heights, and demands that Israel hand the land and its people to Syria.
“It’s astonishing,” said Neuer. “After the Syrian regime has killed its own people by the hundreds of thousands over six years, how can the UN call for more people to be subject to Assad’s rule? The timing of today’s text is morally galling, and logically absurd.”
“Today’s resolutions claim to care about Palestinians, yet the UN is oblivious to the dozens of Palestinians who have been slaughtered, maimed and expelled by Assad’s forces, and more than 3,000 victims killed since 2011,” Neuer said.
