Israel’s anti-Palestine propaganda defeated at the UN

Ray Hanania

US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley speaking at a General Assembly debate, last week. (Screenshot UN Web TV)

Despite being the target of ongoing defamation by the US and Israel because of its refusal to abandon the Palestinian refugees, the UN manages to serve as a method of monitoring the world’s moral compass.

We saw this last week, when the UN General Assembly (UNGA) failed to muster enough votes to approve a resolution that singled out violence by Hamas while ignoring ongoing terrorism and apartheid oppression by Israel’s government. After rejecting the one-sided anti-Hamas resolution, the UNGA approved by an overwhelmingly majority another resolution that urged a “comprehensive Middle East peace” and that denounced Israel’s illegal and racist settlements.

Since 1967, Israel has confiscated lands from Palestinians in the Occupied Territories for the sole purpose of building Jewish-only settlements. Israel’s refusal to dismantle the settlements and its policy of continually expanding them is one of the primary obstacles preventing peace.

Last week’s votes paint a hopeful picture that, despite Israel’s huge investment in propaganda and lies as well as efforts by the US' outgoing UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, the majority of the world stands by Palestinian rights and peace based on a compromise that would recognize the establishment of a Palestinian state.

The one-sided resolution on violence failed when the sponsors, Israel and the US, failed to obtain a two-thirds majority of the UN’s 193 member states. The resolution, which was introduced by Haley, received only 87 votes in favor and 57 against. The resolution needed 129 votes to be adopted.

Although the resolution failed, it showed that Hamas continues to lose support among the world’s nations, with many viewing it as a “terrorist” organization that has repeatedly voted to reject compromise with Israel.

In contrast, the resolution urging a comprehensive Middle East peace received 156 votes, with only six nations opposing it. The six that publicly declared their opposition were the US, Israel, Australia, Liberia, Nauru, and the Marshall Islands.

Pro-Israel propagandists immediately began arguing that the votes reflect the moral corruption of the UN and most of the world’s nations, pointing out that, this week, three Israeli settlers had been killed by Palestinian shooters.

The real hypocrisy is that, while the pro-Israel propagandists condemned the killing of the settlers, the American resolution made absolutely no mention of the fact that Israel has killed more than 200 Palestinians this year, mostly civilians, using long-range sniper fire along the border between Gaza and Israel, and seriously injured thousands more.

Ironically, while Israel and the US rejected peace based on compromise, most nations in Europe and the Arab world spoke in favor of a “just peace” and against “all forms of violence.” It seems the US and Israel are engaging in a policy of hypocrisy when it comes to the UN and Palestine. Both nations have criticized the organization, which was first introduced in 1942 by the Allied Powers who were fighting Nazism, and formalized into an international organization in 1945, based in New York City.

The real hypocrisy is that, while the pro-Israel propagandists condemned the killing of the settlers, the American resolution made absolutely no mention of the fact that Israel has killed more than 200 Palestinians this year, mostly civilians. Ray Hanania

On the one hand, America and its financial dependent Israel continue to turn to the UN for justification for many of their actions. It was the UN that voted to partition Palestine and strip non-Jews of their fundamental rights in 1947. And although the UN Security Council (UNSC) did not authorize the US-led military campaign against Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, it was widely thought to have given the US the “political foundation” to launch the war.

While America and Israel gladly accept votes when it comes to their own interests, the two consistently vote against resolutions that recognize the rights of Palestinians.

Israeli propagandists often argue that the Palestinian refugees — three generations of victims that have grown to nearly 5 million since Israel expelled them in 1948 — have lived in a limbo preserved by the UN’s financial largesse and should be assimilated by the nations that house their refugee encampments. But the truth is that it has been Israel’s refusal to recognize the violence and suffering it heaps on Palestinians that prevents a resolution of the conflict.

They also pretend that only Israelis are killed in the conflict. Most Arab countries have condemned the violence on both sides; the killing of Jews, Christians and Muslims. But that is not the case with Israel.

Whether a resolution passes or does not pass at the UN is beside the point. The UN has become an oxymoron; a symbol not of unity but of dysfunction. This isn’t because the majority of members do not strive to achieve the organization’s noble goals of defending human rights or enforcing the international rule of law. The UN has lost a lot of its importance because some nations, like the US, have far more power than other member nations and they exploit it for their own political advantage.

Ray Hanania is an award-winning former Chicago City Hall political reporter and columnist. He can be reached on his personal website at www.Hanania.com. Twitter: @RayHanania

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