The Geneva-based NGO UN Watch whose stated mission is “to monitor the performance of the United Nations by the yardstick of its own Charter,” has done it again, publishing its annual “Top 10 Worst Anti-Israel Actions” on the part of the world organization in 2020.
UN Watch is an accredited NGO in Special Consultative Status to the UN Economic and Social Council and an Associate NGO to the UN Department of Public Information, so, hopefully, the individuals and countries it criticizes will take the criticism seriously and try to do better in 2021.
Just kidding, of course they won’t. Here’s the list:
10. UN’s ECOSOC Singles Out Israel for “Violating Women’s Rights”
Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Belarus were among member states of the UN’s 54-nation Economic and Social Council that voted to single out Israel as the only country in the world to be rebuked in 2020 for violating women’s rights. Stop laughing, get up from the floor, we’ve only just begun. This UN resolution accused Israel of being a “major obstacle” for Palestinian women “with regard to the fulfillment of their rights” and “their advancement, self-reliance, and integration in the development of their society.”
Pure gold.
By the way, when UN Watch originally protested this astonishingly myopic vote, it sparked outrage in Uruguay, one of the countries that supported the resolution, which led to its foreign minister apologizing and sacking his director-general. Since then, Uruguay has changed some of its UN votes to favor Israel.
9. World Health Assembly Deviates From Coronavirus to Condemn Israel
Deviating from its focus on the global response to the coronavirus pandemic, the annual assembly of the UN’s World Health Organization held a four-hour session focused on condemning Israel in speeches by 30 delegations including Iran, Syria, North Korea, Cuba, Malaysia, Lebanon, and Venezuela, for allegedly violating the health rights of Palestinians as well as the Druze population in the Golan Heights.
8. UN’s Virtual Palestinian Exhibit Distorts Facts
Since 1977, the UN’s “International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People” has provided an annual opportunity for the PLO and its supporters to target Israel. In 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the propaganda spread far beyond the confines of the UN’s New York headquarters with the launch of a virtual exhibit that deployed inflammatory and misleading imagery, took source material from an anti-Semitic website, and used distorted quotes.
7. UN Palestinian Rights Committee Makes Neturei Karta Extremists Its Defining Image
The UN’s Palestinian division made Neturei Karta—a fringe group of extremist Jews who advocate the destruction of Israel and attend Holocaust denial conferences in Iran—its defining image when it posted the image below as its cover photo on both its Facebook and Twitter pages:
6. UN Refers To Jerusalem’s Temple Mount Solely by Its Muslim Name
The UN’s Special Political and Decolonization committee adopted a resolution that referred to Jerusalem’s Temple Mount solely by its Muslim name of Haram al-Sharif, thus showing contempt for both Judaism and Christianity: the resolution made no mention of the name “Temple Mount,” Judaism’s holiest site which is also sacred to all the followers of the Bible.
5. UN Censors UN Watch Submissions on Palestinian Abuse of Child Rights
Contrary to standard practice, the UN’s human rights office refused to publish UN Watch submissions that documented anti-Semitic incitement in the Palestinian education system, PA policies encouraging Palestinian children to pursue terrorism against Israelis, and Palestinian terror attacks targeting Israeli children.
UN Watch sent two written submissions for the March 2020 session of the UN Human Rights Council, but they were not published. The UN human rights office refused to identify any specific problems with the submissions, saying only that “written statements must be relevant to the work of the Human Rights Council.” UN Watch filed a complaint with UN chief Antonio Guterres.
4. Despite Pandemic, UN Human Rights Council Holds Three Anti-Israel Sessions Under Infamous Agenda Item 7
Despite being delayed in late February by the coronavirus pandemic, the UN Human Rights Council’s 43rd Session reconvened on June 15th to hold a special debate against Israel, under the only agenda item that targets a specific country. There was no agenda item on Syria, North Korea, or China. Only Israel. A few days later, the council voted to condemn Israel in five one-sided resolutions. Dictatorships and groups like Amnesty and Human Rights Watch met again in 2020 to excoriate Israel.
3. UN Special Rapporteur on Palestinian Human Rights Michael Lynk Turns Blind Eye to Hamas & PA Abuses
Canadian law professor Michael Lynk whose UN title is “Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967,” issued 15 press releases in 2020—and every single one targeted Israel alone. None focused on abuses by Hamas or the Palestinian Authority. For example, Lynk said nothing in June when the PA arbitrarily arrested Palestinians who said they would prefer to live under Israeli rule, in an Israeli TV news report. Likewise, in December, he ignored Hamas’ ban on Muslims attending Christmas celebrations in Gaza.
In July, the United Nations published as an official document a UN Watch submission that detailed Lynk’s failure to uphold universal human rights.
2. UN General Assembly Condemns Israel in 17 Resolutions, 6 on Rest of the World Combined
The United Nations General Assembly concluded the year 2020 by adopting 17 resolutions singling out Israel—and 6 on the rest of the world combined. Mass abuses in China, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Venezuela, Egypt, Turkey, Zimbabwe, and many other countries, were ignored.
The one-sided texts condemned Israel (but not Hamas or the Palestinian Authority) for alleged violations of human rights and international law, accused Israel of oppressing the Palestinians as well as the Druze residents of the Golan Heights, and renewed the mandates of UNRWA—which perpetuates Palestinian refugees and incites against Israel—and of two UN entities devoted to Palestinian propaganda.
1. UN Releases Anti-Israel Blacklist, Fueling BDS
When the UN Human Rights Council published a blacklist of companies that do business in Israel’s disputed regions, the UN suddenly became ground zero for BDS—the global campaign to boycott, divest and sanction Israel, and undermine its right to exist. UN Watch fought back, calling out the UNHRC’s hypocrisy and its disregard for true human rights issues.