NEW YORK, Nov. 19, 2020 –  A United Nations General Assembly committee adopted a resolution that referred to Jerusalem's Temple Mount solely by its Muslim name of Haram al-Sharif, one of seven resolutions passed earlier this month that single out or condemn Israel, out of a total of 17 expected by the end of December.

The UN 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.

One of the other texts condemns Israel for "repressive measures" against Syrian citizens in the Golan Heights, another renews the mandate of the corrupt UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), while another renews the mandate of the UN's "special committee to investigate Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people and other Arabs of the Occupied Territories." (Click here for texts and voting sheets.)

All 193 UN member states belong to the Special Political and Decolonization Committee, or Fourth Committee, that each year adopts the texts with large majorities. Countries' votes are repeated in December when the GA plenary formally ratifies the texts.

The UN’s assault on Israel with a torrent of one-sided resolutions is surreal. Just two weeks after the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group assaulted Israeli civilians with a barrage of rockets from Gaza—while the UN's General Assembly and Human Rights Council stayed silent—the world body added insult to injury by adopting seven lopsided resolutions, whose only purpose is to demonize the Jewish state.

While France, Germany, Sweden and other EU states are expected to support most of the estimated 17 resolutions to be adopted against Israel by December, the same European nations have failed to introduce a single UNGA resolution on the human rights situation in China, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Turkey, Pakistan, Vietnam, Algeria, or on 175 other countries.

Three of the resolutions adopted concern UNRWA—yet none mentions that the agency chief was fired last year after top management engaged in what the UN’s own internal probe described as ‘sexual misconduct, nepotism, retaliation, discrimination and other abuses of authority, for personal gain.’ All EU states are complicit in this conspiracy of silence that enables the culture of impunity at UNRWA.

One of the resolutions—drafted and co-sponsored by Syria—falsely condemns Israel for ‘repressive measures’ against Syrian citizens in the Golan Heights. This is but the latest act in the UN's theater of the absurd.

The resolution condemns Israel for holding on to the Golan Heights, and effectively demands Israel hand the region and its people to Syria. After the Syrian regime has killed half a million of its own people, how can the UN call for more people to be handed over to Assad’s rule? The text is morally galling, and logically absurd.

The resolutions claim to care about Palestinians, yet the UN is oblivious to more than 3,000 Palestinians who have been slaughtered, maimed and expelled by Assad’s forces.

The 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.

How to Take Action

UN Watch has launched a new website database documenting the UN's bias against Israel, and features individualized petitions in multiple languages urging governments to stop enabling the subversion of UN Charter principles such as the promise of equal treatment for all nations, large and small.

EU Countries Breach Promise to Oppose UN Bias

The voting by countries like Germany and the Netherlands stands in stark contrast to promises made by their governments.

Last year, after 155 German MPs called on the German government to oppose "politically motivated initiatives and alliances of anti-Israeli Member States” in the UN, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas called out UN bias against Israel and committed to oppose "any attempt to isolate or delegitimize Israel" in UN bodies.

Likewise, after the Dutch parliament resolved to “actively oppose UN organizations that devote disproportional attention to Israel,” the Dutch foreign minister declared last year that the Netherlands would "make an active effort to combat disproportionate attention" on Israel at the UN.

Yet both countries largely went along with the ritual singling out of the Jewish state, as did most other EU states.