The UN abandons the world

The UN abandons the world

By Smadar Bat Adam

The U.N. has demonstrated shocking disrespect for its own charter and contempt for the main reason why it was established: to save future generations from the violence of war and to bring peace and security to the world. The organization, which was established during World War II "to save humanity from hell," as its second secretary-general, Dag Hammarskjold, put it, has made biased resolutions and prevented other resolutions from passing out of cowardice. This can be seen in the many international crises, regional conflicts, civil wars and the enormous number of victims. What particularly stands out is the biggest number of refugees since World War II -- some 60 million refugees and displaced persons are now seeking a safe haven.

I accuse the Security Council, one of the U.N.'s six main branches, for being too ineffectual to impose peace or security in the world, as it is entrusted to do. It isn't scrambling to prevent the bloodshed of the civil war in Yemen, is uninterested in the national aspirations of the Kurds, and hasn't lifted a finger to save the residents of Darfur from chemical weapons. Faced with the Islamic State, it's like a reed in the wind, and is helpless to do anything about the millions of refugees flooding into Europe.

Throughout the five-plus years of the Syrian civil war -- during which almost 500,000 people have been killed, about 2 million wounded and some 6 million turned into refugees (according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights) -- the Security Council hasn't passed a single operative resolution to check the killing of civilians or the suffering of the besieged residents of the cities under attack. The council's awe of Russia, which represented Iran and Syria while thwarting every attempt to promote a diplomatic solution or even a cease-fire, overcame the sanctity of life.

I accuse the U.N. organization of giving legitimacy to the new anti-Semitism, which is mainly characterized by accusing Israel of murdering the Palestinian people, while comparing the Palestinians' situation to that of Jews during the Holocaust, and by supporting the dehumanization of Israel as the state of the Jews and opposition to Zionism, and in effect to the very existence of the state of Israel.

A small sampling of the twisted picture: the bad resolution equating Zionism with racism that remained in effect from 1975 until 1991; the eight condemnations issued against Israel in 2006, while dictatorships that were killing their own citizens weren't condemned more than once a year for the entire course of its existence; the U.N. summits on racism in 2001 (Durban) and in 2009 (Geneva), which moved from a discussion of racism in the world to a show of incitement and anti-Semitism against Israel; the delusional agreement of 2014, in which the U.N. General Assembly passed 24 resolutions containing various condemnations -- 20 (83%) of which were directed against Israel; and the fact that at the start of 2016, four months into the most recent wave of terrorism, the Security Council passed 12 resolutions against terrorism in the world and zero resolutions against Palestinian terrorism in Israel.

I accuse the U.N. organization of repeatedly presenting Israel as a recalcitrant state that adheres to a racist principle of a national state, discriminating against it and keeping it out of the principle explicitly declared in its charter to "promote and encourage respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion."

I accuse the U.N. organization of wasting precious time passing baseless condemnations of Israel, the only liberal democracy in the Middle East, at the expense of properly handling all the other serious problems on the face of the earth.

I accuse the Human Rights Council, which every year issues twice as many condemnations of Israel as it does for the entire rest of the nations of the world together, but does not find the time to address, rape, murder and sex trafficking of women; does not take an interest in the homosexuals hanged publicly in Iran; and ignores the hundreds of thousands of children who are dying of hunger under the brutal oppressive regime in North Korea.

I hold the U.N. organization responsible for abandoning the world and for the current global chaos. Its obsessive focus on Israel allows the forces of evil to carry out a Holocaust on the rest of humanity.

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