Why Israeli claims of UN bias have ramped up since the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas attacks
UN-Israel relations have long been fraught, but some observers say they've reached an all-time low
For someIsraeli politicians, the United Nationshas a troubling fixation on their country.
A bias, some claim, has revealed itself particularly prominentlyin the wake ofthe Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks on Israel. Those attacksclaimed the lives of around 1,200 people, according to Israeli officials, and prompted Israel to launch a ground and air offensive inside Gaza that haskilled more than 29,400 Palestinians, Gaza health authorities estimate.
It was just last month thatIsrael's UNambassador,Gilad Erdan,accusedthe internationalbody of being a place of "bias and hypocrisy" with "no morals" for calling for a ceasefire while dozens of hostages still remain in Gaza.
And it was at aGeneral Assembly meetingback inNovember that Israeli diplomatReut Shapir Ben-Naftaly said thatthe organization's "twisted anti-Israel bias has been on clear display" sincethe Oct. 7 attack.
Hillel Neurer, executive director of the Geneva-based UN Watch, monitors the international body as part of the group's work combating antisemitism and what it sees asanti-Israel bias.
"A large part of itstime is spent condemning Israel," Neurer said of the UN.
Evidence of such bias, says Neuer, can be found in the tally of resolutions passed against individual states. In 2023, according to Neuer'swebsite, which tracks them, the UN adopted oneresolution each against Iran, Syria, North Korea, Myanmar, Crimea, Russia and the U.S. for alleged human rights violations.
But Israel faced 15 such resolutions, according to UN Watch. Those resolutions range from condemnation of the destruction caused by theIsraeli Air Force during an operation thatcreated an oil slick in Lebanon tocriticismof Israel's activities in the occupied territories and its treatment of Palestinian refugees.
"It's 15 to 1. There is no resolution on Pakistan. There's no resolution on Venezuela inthe General Assembly,"Neurersaid."There's no resolution on China in the UN. There's no resolutions on most of the world's worst abusers. There's15 on Israel. That'swhat's going on with the General Assembly."
Despite the fact that these resolutions were adopted in the UN General Assembly, Israel had repeatedly ignored them.
UN pivotal in creation of Israel
Accusations of UN bias have ramped up following the Oct. 7 attacks, and some now suggest Israel's relationship with the body issignificantly fractured.
Neuer and others say antisemitism is the root cause of what they consider the disproportionate attention the UN has paid to Israel.
But some observers argue thatother reasons factor into it,including the historical relationship between Israel and the UN, the sympathy some states have for the Palestinian cause,and Israel's ability toavoid having to take any serious action in response to the resolutionsbecause of U.S. protection.
It was the United Nations, back in1947, that adopted the resolution topartition what was then Palestine into two states, one Arab and one Jewish.That resolution was the basis on which Israel declared independence the following year.
Richard Gowan, the UN director of theInternational Crisis Group, an organization that works to prevent deadly conflict around the world, says the UN's role in the establishment of Israel is at least one of the reasons why there is so much focus on the Israeli-Palestinianconflict.
"For many, many members of the UN, there is astrange sense that theorganization has a special responsibility for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that is qualitatively different to the UN's engagement with other wars and other crises," he said.
"And I think that that is rooted in the fact that, the UN was present at the creation of Israel."
Since 1947, the membership of the UN has changed from only 57 countries to 193 sovereign nations today.
UN supportfor the Israeli state in 1947 came from a body dominated by Western Europe and Latin American states, at a time when colonial powers were in charge of much of Asia and Africa.
"Ifyou fast forward to the late 60s and early 70s," said Neuer,"the same General Assembly that voted for a Jewish state... in the [1947] resolution, in 1975said the idea of a Jewish state is racist."
Neuer is referring to a 1975resolution that declared that "Zionismis a form or racism and racial discrimination."
Perhaps the most significant UN resolution after the partition plan wasSecurity Council Resolution 242, passed in 1967 following the Six-Day War. It was a resolution that called for a "peaceful and accepted settlement" of the Arab-Israeli conflictand a resolution that Israel itself supported. But it has been a source of fierce debate since, interpreted differently by various parties, and has not securedthe peace it promised.
'One of the lowest points that I've ever seen'
For years, Israel and somemembers of the Jewish community outside the country have"held the UN incontempt,"believing thatIsrael isdiscriminatedagainst, singled out and subject to double standards,said DovWaxman,director of the Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies at the University of California Los Angeles.
Indeed, pollsconducted by Pew Research havefound the majority of Israelis hold unfavourable views of the institution.
"But I think inthe wake of Oct. 7, that sense of being unfairly treated by the UNhas really been exacerbated," said Waxman.
There have been criticisms from Israel that various UN agencies were slow to denounce the attacks on Oct.7, particularly the allegations ofsexual violence. Israel has also taken aim at UN SecretaryAntonio Guterreshimself, calling for his resignation after he said the Hamas attacks against Israel "did not happen in a vacuum."
As well, Israel is accused of "engaging in genocidal acts against the Palestinian people in Gaza" at the UN's International Court of Justice. Israel has rejected the claims and defended itselfat ahearingin the Haguein January.
This past week, the courtopened another set of historic hearingsinto the legality of Israel's 57-year occupation of Palestinian territories, including the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Meanwhile,Israel has allegedthat staff members from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, participated in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks.UNRWAhas firedseveral of the accused workersand is investigatingthe allegations.
Neuer said while historically, there have been many low points for Israel at the UN, currently, "it's one of the lowest points that I've ever seen."
Gowan of the Crisis Group agreed that the relationship between Israel and the UN is "certainly, extremely bad."
"If you look back over the history of the UN, Israel has often faced enormous criticism and pressure inthe UN General Assembly and the Human Rights Council," he said.
But the intensity of the recent criticism is"very striking," he said.
Waxman agreed that Israel receivesa disproportionateamount of criticism at the UN General Assembly andnoted that some have perceived that criticism as antisemitic.
Last January, for example, on Holocaust Remembrance Day, Erdan, Israel's UN ambassador, told the General Assembly that the disproportionate number ofresolutions "singling out the one and only Jewish state yes, it is antisemitism."
Waxman saidwhile such perceptions might be valid, there are likelyother reasons behind the criticism Israel faces at the UN.
In the case of some countries with Muslim majorities, voting against Israel may just reflect the fact that"much of the Muslim world is sympathetic to the Palestinians, and the Palestinian cause resonates across the Muslim world," Waxmansaid.
Also, he said, a large majority of countries in the UN have their own histories ofcolonialism and "continue to see the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the lens ofcolonialism."
Protected by the U.S.
Daniel Levy, president of the policy institute U.S. / Middle East Project, says claims of bias are exaggerated, and that at the UN,Israel enjoysa "regime of impunity" despite its well-documented violations of international law and human rights.
He said Israel avoids any binding sanctions from the UN Security Council because it's protected by the U.S., a permanent member of the council and an unwavering ally of Israel, unlike other countries, such as Iran,Libya and North Korea, which doface sanctions.
"What's unique here is not that Israel is singled out for this excessively harsh treatment [but] that Israel is singled out for the impunity with which it is treated," Levy said.
"Because the UN can never actually do anything on Israel because of the Americans' veto, you create all these workarounds to try and at least get some traction."
The UN, says Gowan, has been used very effectively by the Palestinians as a diplomatic battleground where they can challenge Israel.
Heagreed that Israel does have one fundamental advantage in that the U.S. will use its veto power to protect Israeli interests on the UN Security Council. On Tuesday, for example, the U.S. vetoed an Arab state-backed and widely supported UN resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
Gowan said that since October,it's been very clear that the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu has had a strategy of ignoringany criticism coming from any part of the UNand deliberately aiming to delegitimize the institution.
Waxmansaid whileIsrael may outwardly dismiss resolutions such as those calling for a ceasefire, it does care about its legitimacy on the world stage.
"While these votes don't impose any kind of concrete measures on Israel, they do affect Israel's standing in the world ... [which] can affect Israel's diplomatic relationships."
With files from The Associated Press
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