It should be clear to any reasonable observer that the United Nations is not a safe space for Israel. For many years, New Zealand has joined the bullies at the United Nations and not voted against any of the biased and disproportionate number of resolutions that single out Israel.
Last year the Israel Institute of New Zealand obtained documents under the Official Information Act about the advice given by Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade officials on UNGA voting. An analysis of this advice shows it is deeply flawed.
Nevertheless, New Zealand representatives have once again continued their bias against Israel by voting in the most recent tranche of seven resolutions, singling out Israel – no other country has been singled out.
This is, sadly, consistent with previous years – where actual human rights abuses of other countries are ignored yet Israel has multiple resolutions passed against her for alleged crimes.
Three of the seven resolutions were about UNRWA, yet none of them contained any reference to the troubles faced by the agency in recent times; including allegations of UNRWA managers having “engaged in sexual misconduct, nepotism, retaliation, discrimination and other abuses of authority.” Nor did any of the resolutions mention any of the other issues with UNRWA, most notably the glorification of terror and incitement taught to children.
Another of the resolutions referred to Jerusalem’s Temple Mount solely by its Muslim name of Haram al-Sharif. The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism and using only the Muslim term is a denial of the Jewish link to Jerusalem. This is, sadly, consistent with the UNESCO resolutions that delegitimised Israel and denied the historical Jewish connection to the Holy Land, which is part of the reason Israel and the US left that organisation in 2017. With respect to the latest UNGA resolution, UN Watch CEO Hillel Neuer said
“The UN today showed contempt for both Judaism and Christianity by passing a resolution that makes no mention of the name Temple Mount, which is Judaism’s holiest site, and which is sacred to all who venerate the Bible, in which the ancient Temple was of central importance… Today’s farce at the General Assembly underscores a simple fact: the UN’s automatic majority has no interest in truly helping Palestinians, nor in protecting anyone’s human rights; the goal of these ritual, one-sided condemnations is to scapegoat Israel. The UN’s disproportionate assault against the Jewish state undermines the institutional credibility of what is supposed to be an impartial international body. Politicization and selectivity harm its founding mission, eroding the UN Charter’s promise of equal treatment to all nations large and small.” Hillel Neuer, UN Watch CEO
There are still another 12 anti-Israel resolutions scheduled at the UNGA before the end of the year. It would be a great shame if New Zealand continued to vote with the bullies and erode the UN Charter’s promise of equal treatment to all nations.
