AntiSemitism > Another Disgraceful, Anti-Israel UN Resolution

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‘Shameful, disgrace’ – UN declares Israel’s establishment a catastrophe

 

December 1, 2022

Nakba Day protest. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)

“By passing such an extreme and baseless resolution, the UN is only helping to perpetuate the conflict,” said Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan.

By World Israel News Staff

The UN General Assembly voted to formally recognize “Nakba Day,” an annual memorial event characterizing the establishment of the State of Israel as a disaster, in a major victory for pro-Palestinian activists on Wednesday.

The word “Nakba,” which means catastrophe in Arabic, has been used to describe the 1948 War of Independence that led to the creation of the Jewish State.

It's curious that the 1948 war was called a War of Independence. One usually associates a war of independence as one started by the party that wins its independence. The 1948 war in the Middle East was not started by Israel by was started by the surrounding Arab countries the very moment the State of Israel was formed.

The UN resolution, which was sponsored by the Palestinian delegation to the UN, Egypt, Jordan, Senegal, Yemen and Tunisia, calls for the “commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the Nakba, including by organizing a high-level event at the General Assembly Hall” on May 15th, 2023.

Both Egypt and Jordan have decades-old peace treaties with Israel, though tensions with Jordan deteriorated in recent years.

Israel’s new “friends” in the Arab world, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan supported the anti-Israel resolution.

“Today the #UNGA passed a shameful resolution calling for an official event to commemorate the Palestinian ‘Nakba’ on the 75th Anniversary of the creation of the State of Israel,” wrote Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan. “By passing such an extreme and baseless resolution, the UN is only helping to perpetuate the conflict.”

It is also proving that the UN is based in lies, racism, and hypocrisy thereby making itself irrelevant.

“Try to imagine the international community commemorating your country’s Independence Day by calling it a disaster. What a disgrace,” Erdan added. “The Palestinians’ lies must no longer be accepted on the world stage, just as this body must stop allowing the Palestinians to continue pulling its strings. I urge you all to stop blindly supporting the Palestinians’ libels.”

90 countries voted in favor of the resolution, 30 voted against, and 47 abstained.

The U.S. and several European countries, including the UK, Italy, Austria, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hungary, and the Netherlands voted against the resolution. Notably, Ukraine abstained from voting on the measure, just weeks after voting in favor of a resolution that the UN human rights committee should investigate Israel for alleged war crimes and apartheid.

I wonder where Canada voted on this issue? - To my surprise, CBN News reported that Canada joined the US, UK, and Australia in voting against the resolution.

“Many of these resolutions have budgetary implications in favor of aid to the Palestinians, UNRWA, all sorts of things like that,” former Israeli Ambassador to France David Shek told i24 News.

“Then looking a little bit lower, the symbolic dimension and symbolic importance — clearly the Palestinians need this in order to keep the issue alive,” he added.

They also need it to help pay for Abbas' trip to the World Cup when he took dozens of family members and friends.

“And last I think that at the lowest level of importance is the political dimension. I don’t think that this adds any real bearing. You might say unfortunately that UN General Assembly resolutions don’t have any bearing on reality but this is more a ritual than a turning point.”

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‘Surgical Strikes Hitting Surgical Wards’: UN Passes Resolution to Protect War Zone Hospitals

But will it actually make a difference?

Syrian army soldiers gather in front of the al-Dabit maternity clinic after it was hit by rockets fired by insurgents in government-held parts of Aleppo city, Syria, in this handout picture provided by SANA on May 3, 2016. © SANA 

The United Nations Security Council unanimously voted for a resolution condemning attacks on medical facilities in conflict zones, following a spate of deadly hospital bombings in Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan in recent months.

"Such attacks must end," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said prior to the vote. "When so-called surgical strikes end up hitting surgical wards, something is deeply wrong."

The pledge, which has no clearly-defined legal power, but can serve as a recommendation, was co-authored by New Zealand, Spain, Egypt, Japan and Uruguay, the non-permanent members of the UN’s executive body, and upheld by the permanent members, China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The 14-point resolution, not only demanded a stop to attacks on hospitals, but also said all warring must provide immunity and safe passage to medical personnel in the conflict zone. UN bodies will now compile reports on violations in individual countries, while peacekeepers have been given a mandate to help keep medical areas secure.

The resolution was passed following an impassioned speech from Medicins Sans Frontiers (MSF) President Dr. Joanne Liu, who said that in Syria alone its affiliated hospitals had been attacked 94 times since the breakout of the conflict in 2011, as part of a deliberate strategy “where healthcare is systematically targeted, and besieged areas are cynically denied medical care.”

“Four of the five permanent members of this council have, to varying degrees, been associated with coalitions responsible for attacks on health structures over the last year,” Liu chided the Council. “These include the NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan, the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, the Russia-backed Syrian-led coalition.”

The resolution was being discussed just as news came out of Aleppo that three people had been killed and at least 15 injured by an Islamist rebel attack in the city of Aleppo, the sixth such incident since fighting intensified around what was once Syria’s biggest city two weeks ago.


Burnt vehicles are pictured in front of the damaged the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)-backed al-Quds hospital after it was hit by airstrikes in Aleppo, Syria April 28, 2016. © Abdalrhman Ismail / Reuters

The most deadly of these attacks came last week, when what rebels said was a government strike, killed 55 people in an MSF facility. Damascus has denied responsibility.

Other notable attacks included one on a hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz last October, which was ostensibly targeted at Taliban fighters hiding in the facility, but resulted in the deaths of more than 40 people.

MSF has called the incident a “war crime,” and said that there had been no armed combatants at the facility.

These are, indeed, war crimes, and should not be tolerated whatsoever. A condemnation with no teeth is not going to change anything. They need to state quite emphatically that hits on hospitals or clinics will be treated as war crimes and those responsible as criminals to be prosecuted in the Hague.


The damaged hospital in which the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) medical charity operated is seen on October 13, 2015 following an air strike in the northern city of Kunduz. © AFP

The NGO says that Saudi Arabia has destroyed three of its hospitals in Yemen over a period of several months, starting from last October, and that similar tactics were being applied in Sudan, the Central African Republic, and eastern Ukraine.


Resident Coordinator of the United Nations in Yemen, Jamie McGoldrick (C), inspects damage at a hospital in Yemen's southwestern city of Taiz January 21, 2016. © Anees Mahyoub / Reuters

France and the UK welcomed the resolution, while admitting that it did not propose anything that wasn’t already covered by other existing international legislation.

Russia also supported its text, but insisted that all reports of hospital strikes “must be verifiable” and cautioned against alleged hospital attacks being used for “media smear campaigns, for the purpose exerting political pressure in the interests of involved parties.”