The United Nations Has Been Morally Bankrupt For Decades

The United Nations Human rights council in session. Photo: wiki commons.

Israel was the first country to boycott the annual human rights review presented at the bogus United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). Despite being tacitly rebuked by the US, Israel was justified in doing so. For years, whilst ignoring the rampant denial of human rights and the butchering of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians throughout the world, the proceedings of this despicably biased body were concentrated on relentlessly condemning, demonizing and delegitimizing the Jewish state.

Recent examples include the defamatory 2009 Goldstone Report – subsequently recanted by Goldstone himself – accusing Israel of willfully engaging in war crimes, despite having a track record of minimizing civilian casualties in war unmatched by any other country. A year later it again condemned Israel for “attacking” Turkish terrorist “humanitarians” on board the Mavi Marmari of the Gaza ”peace” flotilla.

Israel’s decision to boycott the hearings was vindicated on January 31 when, based on largely fabricated Arab and hostile NGO sources, the UNHRC proclaimed that Israel’s settlements over the green line were in breach of the 1949 Geneva Conventions and accused it of indulging in gross “violations of human rights law”. The review made no reference to the deliberate targeting of Israeli civilians by Palestinian terrorists.

It warned that if Israel failed – with no preconditions – to dismantle construction and withdraw from these areas, charges of war crimes at the International Criminal Court could ensue. This amounted to a UN body purporting to promote human rights, demanding the ethnic cleansing of disputed territories.

The Council also called on governments and multinational corporations to withdraw investments and sever all dealings with settlements – effectively providing notice of intent to impose sanctions.

Had Israel submitted its case in advance to such a kangaroo court, it would merely have legitimized the procedure.

The passionate idealists, who in 1945 created the United Nations to promote global peace and universal human rights, would turn in their graves were they aware of how this former noble institution has been hijacked by an alliance of radical Islamists, rogue states and tyrannies notorious for trampling on human rights, even denying their own citizens basic human rights such as freedom of expression and worship.

The farcical assignation of rogue states to prominent roles at the UN has transformed this purportedly human rights organization into a sick joke. A representative of Khadafi’s Libya was elected president of the UN General Assembly in 2009; in 2011 Qatar was elected president and Iran became vice president; both North Korea, the notorious proliferator of nuclear arms and Iraq chaired the UN Commission on Disarmament; Iran, notorious for stoning women, was appointed to the UN Commission on the Status of Women; in 2011, Assad’s Syria was elected to a UNESCO commission dealing with human rights and to this day Syria remains on the committee of UNESCO; Libya introduced a UN resolution to “end all forms of racial discrimination”; Iran called on the US to implement international humanitarian law; China demanded an end to “excessive force by law enforcement bodies”.

The genocidal Holocaust denier, Iranian President Ahmadinejad, is treated deferentially when he addresses the General Assembly and calls for the destruction of a UN member state, employing demonic Jew hatred unprecedented since the Nazi era.

Only last week, on January 28, the UN elected Sudan as vice president of its Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the body which regulates human rights groups. That president Al Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity and genocide in Darfur, failed to preclude Sudan’s election.

The UN Human Rights Commission (UNHRC), boycotted by Israel, is a gross caricature of its title, blatantly undermining every aspect of human rights. Libya was elected chairman of this august body in 2003 and as recently as 2010 the UNHRC produced a report praising the human rights record of Libya.

The UN, the UNHRC and the Security Council have spent infinitely more time debating and condemning Israeli settlements and construction in Jerusalem than reviewing issues of human rights violations in Arab states, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, China, Congo or even Mauritania where slavery is still practiced. Even the civil war bloodbath in Syria which has now claimed over 60,000 victims and created 700,000 refugees, receives considerably less attention than Israel.

The Bush administration boycotted the UNHRC on the grounds that US involvement would provide legitimization for this sham body. However, the Obama administration, as part of its campaign to “engage” with all countries, renewed its membership.

Since the 1970s, the bulk of UN debates and condemnations of human rights infringements are directed against Israel, the nation state of the Jews. It climaxed in November 1975 when at the UN General Assembly, the Soviet Union and its satellites, supported by Islamic and Third World countries, carried Resolution 3379 equating Zionism with racism.

Yet sixteen years later in 1991 the US, headed by President Bush senior, harnessed its immense resources as a superpower and acted as a powerful force for decency by achieving the repeal by 111 nations of what Hillary Clinton described as a “criminal” resolution. This act underlines the potential power of President Obama who, if he so determined, could enforce reforms at the UN and orientate it towards moral objectives.

But the repeal of UN Resolution 3379 – whilst important – as of now fails to inhibit Islamists from utilizing their numerical superiority to continue exploiting the UN as a launching pad to demonize and delegitimize the Jewish state.

It was thus not surprising that the UN endorsed the 3 Durban conferences against racism which were transformed into anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic fests and last year the UN General Assembly adopted 22 anti-Israeli resolutions, whilst only approving four other condemnations against all other countries.

The European countries, which at one stage demonstrated token moral resistance to some of these one-sided anti-Israeli resolutions, have reverted to the role they assumed in the 1930s and 40s when they stood aside as the forces of darkness assaulted the Jewish people.

Israel must reconcile to the reality that it will never achieve justice from this dysfunctional assembly of nations dominated by tyrannies and dictatorships.

On the positive side, Israel’s current UN ambassador, Ron Prosor brilliantly articulates the moral case for the Jewish state and effectively exposes the hypocrisy and double standards of the UN. His role is extremely important in enabling Americans to appreciate the bias and duplicity of the ongoing UN assaults.

Hillel Neuer, operating UN Watch – one of the most effective nonprofit bodies promoting the case for Israel abroad – also deserves kudos for systematically highlighting the humbug at the United Nations.

Hopefully, as US public opinion becomes increasingly disillusioned and angered with the hypocrisy and double standards employed by the immoral tyrannical forces dominating the current United Nations, President Obama may be persuaded to act. Alternatively, Congress could employ its own clout and, if necessary, deny funding in order to stem the UN’s obscene activities. If it fails to do so, it may even ultimately decide to encourage the creation of a new global association of democratic states.

This column was originally published by the Jerusalem Post and Israel Hayom. The writer may be contacted at ileibler@leibler.com