The year 2023 ended with Israel being the main target of resolutions voted at the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN). The data was revealed through a survey released in December by the NGO UN Watch, which monitors the actions of the international entity
According to the survey, the Jewish State, which suffered a terrorist attack perpetrated by Hamas in October 2023, which left more than a thousand people dead in its territory, was the target of 14 resolutions approved by the UN deliberative body.
Most of these resolutions were condemnations related to the Israeli offensive in Gaza, which has been ongoing since the Hamas terrorist attacks and aims to eliminate the terrorist group from the Palestinian enclave and rescue the hostages kidnapped by them on the day they invaded Israeli territory.
The data from UN Watch is worrying when one observes that North Korea, Iran, Myanmar and Syria were targets of resolutions voted on in the body only once each. All of these countries have in common the fact that they are controlled by dictatorial regimes, which are accused by several international organizations of systematically violating basic human rights in their territories.
Russia, which still continues its invasion of Ukrainian territory, which has already killed several people and caused a humanitarian crisis in Europe, has received only two convictions. Countries like Venezuela, Lebanon, China, Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Nicaragua (which is persecuting members of the Catholic Church on a daily basis) or Iraq – and even terrorist groups like Hamas – were not condemned or mentioned in any General Assembly resolution.
In addition to condemning the Israeli offensive in Gaza, resolutions approved against Israel at the UN included accusations that the country was exploiting Palestinian and Syrian natural resources in the Golan Heights; that the Jewish State was restricting the Palestinians' right to self-determination with the security wall in the West Bank; and that Israel was violating the human rights of Palestinians and Arabs in occupied territories.
At no time after the month of October did the UN General Assembly pass resolutions explicitly mentioning the name of the terrorist group Hamas nor did it directly condemn it for its crimes carried out during the attacks committed against the Jewish State.
The body also did not recognize or mention Israel's right to defend itself and did not take into account evidence found by the Israeli military that the terrorist group uses civilians as human shields in Gaza, or that several of its tunnels and command centers are located under hospital buildings, schools and homes of ordinary people, much less the fact presented by Israel that Palestinian terrorists divert humanitarian aid destined for the enclave.
The tendency of the UN General Assembly to pass resolutions against Israel unevenly is not new. According to data from UN Watch, since 2015 the body has approved 141 resolutions against the Jewish State, more than double the number of resolutions approved against all other countries combined. This data was reflected well last year, with Israel receiving 14 convictions at the UN, which was double when compared to the total number of resolutions approved against the other target countries of the entity in 2023, which together, reach just seven (the States The United States were also the target of a UN resolution for their embargoes against the Cuban regime – which is accused by human rights organizations of persecuting and intimidating opponents).
Also according to UN Watch, since 2006 the UN Human Rights Council has approved 104 resolutions against Israel, compared to 99 against other countries.
André Lajst, political scientist and executive president of StandWithUs Brasil, an organization that promotes education and defense of Israel, points out that the UN's unequal treatment of Israel became even clearer after the Hamas terrorist attacks. He explains that the UN has an extensive history of prejudice and persecution against the Jewish State.
“It is regrettable and unacceptable that a body like the UN, as well as its agencies, created with the purpose of promoting peace between nations after the Second World War, has this position – [de] to disproportionately condemn a country that defends its people after suffering the biggest terrorist attack in its history, while ignoring not only the atrocities committed against the Israeli population, but also the actions of several bloodthirsty dictatorships around the world.”
UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer called the number of resolutions passed against Israel “absurd” in a statement, arguing that “the purpose of the unbalanced condemnations is to demonize the Jewish State.”
“This demonization fuels the anti-Semitic agitators in America and around the world who threaten Jews on campuses, in community centers and in their businesses,” Neuer said.
The director also questioned the European Union's (EU) commitment to the equal application of human rights standards, pointing out that “while France, Sweden and other EU states supported almost all of the 14 resolutions adopted against Israel during sessions of the General Assembly , the same European nations have failed to introduce a single UN resolution on human rights situations in China, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Turkey, Pakistan, Vietnam, Algeria, or 170 other countries.”
“Where is the EU’s supposed concern for international law and human rights?” asked Neuer.
Through a publication on its official account on X (formerly Twitter), UN Watch, citing a study by the organization Freedom House, recalled that only 44% of the members of the UN General Assembly, 84 out of 193 countries, are classified as free democracies right now.
The fact that the UN did not even consider Hamas a terrorist group even after the October attacks was criticized by Lajst. The political scientist said that “although several nations classify Hamas as terrorist, including countries in the European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Japan, the Security Council [da ONU] does not include those responsible for the greatest tragedy in Israel's recent history in its list of terrorist groups. Without this definition, Hamas is not condemned in the way it should be by the United Nations and [seus] member countries, including Brazil, which follows the UN's determination not to call Hamas terrorists, despite the atrocities they committed against the Israeli population and its own, which is used as a human shield”.
The chief executive of StandWithUs clarified that Israel's main motivation for continuing the war in Gaza is to rescue Israelis held captive by the Palestinian terrorist group, and that the Jewish state “will do everything to bring them back safely, taking the decisions that any other country would take to defend its citizens and ensure that terrorists do not commit barbarities against its population again.”
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