UN Adopts Eight Resolutions Condemning Israel, Not Hamas

Fox News reports that a United Nations watchdog has criticized the organization for passing multiple resolutions this week condemning Israel for various alleged human rights violations, but making no condemnation of Hamas or other groups or nations, at a time when antisemitism is on the rise.

“The U.N.’s assault on Israel with a torrent of one-sided resolutions, just one month after the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, and on the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht, is surreal,” Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, said in a press release. “The only purpose of these eight lopsided condemnations is to demonize the Jewish state. The world should not be deceived that these annual resolutions advance the cause of peace or human rights in any way.”

The U.N.’s Second Committee, which focuses on Economic and Financial issues, announced the passage of three such resolutions, including one demanding that Israel cease the “exploitation, damage, cause of loss or depletion and endangerment” in the Golan Heights region of Syria.

Syria drafted and co-sponsored the resolutions, which passed with a vote of 151 in favor to six against — only Canada, Israel, the Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Palau and the U.S. opposed the measure, and 11 members abstained from voting.

“These are Arab lands,” the representative of Syria said after the vote. “They will return to their original legitimate owners sooner or later.”

Neuer called the Syrian-backed resolution “obscene,” adding that it is “astonishing” that the U.N. would support a call for “more people to be handed over” to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, which has killed “half a million of its own people.”

“The text is morally galling and logically absurd,” Neuer said in a strong rebuke of the U.N., noting that Assad’s forces have killed “more than 3,000 Palestinians” in its conflicts.

“Today’s farce at the General Assembly underscores a simple fact: the U.N.’s automatic majority has no interest in truly helping Palestinians, nor in protecting anyone’s human rights; the goal of these ritual, one-sided condemnations is to scapegoat Israel,” said Neuer.

United Nations (UN)

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On November 28, 2012 — the 65th anniversary of the vote to divide the former British mandate of Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab — 138 member countries of the UN General Assembly voted in favor of upgrading Palestine to a nonmember observer state of the UN. Only 9 members opposed the measure, and 41 abstained. The vote was considered to be a triumph for Palestinian diplomacy and a sharp rebuke to the U.S. and Israel. The new status was expected to give the Palestinians more leverage in challenging Israel in international legal forums for its settlement-building activities in the West Bank and its blockade of Gaza.

On November 29, 2012, UN Watch reported that the United Nations General Assembly, in its 67th session, planned to adopt a total of 21 resolutions singling out Israel for criticism in one form or another (click here to see draft texts) — and only 4 resolutions for all the other nations of the world combined. Those included one resolution each on Syria, Iran, North Korea, and Burma.

To learn more about the United Nations, click here.

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