The 50th anniversary of the infamous “Zionism is Racism” of 1975 makes an important starting place for understanding the calumny of the United Nations, ground zero for anti-Israel propaganda and delusional support for maximalist Palestinian demands.
The United States, as the largest funder of UN activities and agencies, must use its considerable leverage and take the lead.
President Ronald Reagan said of the resolution, “Few events have so offended the American people as the ‘Zionism is Racism’ resolution of November 10, 1975.” Daniel Patrick Moynihan, then-US Permanent Representative at the UN, expressed the moral outrage of the American people, declaring, “The United States… will never acquiesce in this infamous act.”
They gave voice to the shared bedrock values of the United States and Israel.
Sixteen years after its adoption by the UN General Assembly, under Reagan’s successor, President George H. W. Bush, the resolution was repealed. That required a strong diplomatic effort coordinated by then Assistant Secretary for International Organizations, John Bolton.
But the damage was done.
The Soviet Origins
The infamous resolution was part of a worldwide effort, hatched in the Soviet Union, to defame and delegitimize the State of Israel and to embarrass its number one ally, the United States. Despite its 1991 repeal, 50 years after its original passage, the animus and slanderous accusations continue to animate hatred of Israel at the UN and beyond.
The USSR is now well ensconced in the dustbin of history. But the mischief it wrought against the Jewish people at the UN is alive and well – possibly the only lasting and successful enterprise of Soviet communism.
Today, the UN continues to act in its dealings with Israel as if “Zionism is Racism” remains an operating principle. This includes, among many other attacks, the shameful Durban Conference in 2001 – an antisemitic festival held a mere few days before the September 11 terrorist attacks against New York City’s World Trade Center and Pentagon in Washington, DC. Israel has routinely and falsely been branded as “racist,” “colonialist,” “fascist,” “Nazi,” and “apartheid.” And tragically, the pillorying and condemnation has only gained force and momentum since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 massacres in Israel. Added to the usual insults and slanderous charges is a new, poisonous one: that Israel is committing “genocide” and “war crimes” against the Palestinian Arabs
October 7
This is a bold-faced and shameful lie. Israel was viciously attacked on October 7 by Hamas, the elected governing party in the Gaza Strip, a territory from which Israel withdrew completely in 2005. Every Israeli civilian that was brutally murdered, injured, or kidnapped on October 7 was living across the border in Israel proper, not in any supposedly “disputed” or “occupied” territory. Israel was forced to respond vigorously in defense of its border and people.
Although these are indisputable facts, the libelous charge of “genocide” has been hurled freely at Israel, oblivious to any situational or historical context. John Spencer, Chair of the Urban Warfare Institute at West Point, who has visited Israel and Gaza several times since October 7, notes that during the Battle of Manila during World War II, the Japanese hid in sewers, in underground tunnels, and among the Filipino population in the city. US, British, and Allied troops were forced to fight in those conditions, and more than 100,000 Filipino civilians were killed in only one month of fighting, many by Japanese occupying Manila.
There were no Allied “war crimes” in either case, he writes. And while Palestinian civilian deaths are tragic, they occurred in large measure because Hamas purposely embedded itself among and under civilian institutions including schools, hospitals, and mosques.
But at the UN a parallel universe exists, and none of that matters. It is absolutely clear that Israel’s enemies oppose, not particular Israeli actions or policies, but Israel’s very existence. Neither Hamas, the Palestinian Authority (led by Fatah), nor any Palestinian political group with any following unequivocally call for or advocate permanent and peaceful coexistence with Israel as a Jewish state. Nor do any clearly and unequivocally renounce and condemn terrorism and violence. Palestinian media, educational institutions, religious figures and organizations continue to harbor (and advocate) the evil dream of destroying Israel and replacing it with a Palestinian Islamist supremacist state and continue to preach and spew hatred and promote violence against Israelis.
The Responsibility of the UN
The UN bears great responsibility for this. For decades, tolerance of those dedicated to negating Israel’s existence and perpetuating the false narrative of Palestinian dispossession and helplessness has encouraged Palestinian rejectionism. And tragically, it contributed to October 7. Worse, following the horror of that day, some countries chose to reward Hamas terrorism by recognizing the “State of Palestine.”
Furthermore, the UN General Assembly voted to enhance “Palestine’s” status at the UN to one close to full membership, sending the message that terrorism pays. Palestinian leaders were offered a state with generous terms at Camp David in 2000 at the end of Bill Clinton’s presidency, and again by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s government in 2008. Both times they rejected it and turned back to murderous violence because they were not ready for any settlement that included acceptance of the permanence of Israel. Former President Clinton has stated this explicitly and repeatedly.
It is past time for the international community to speak harsh truth to and about the Palestinian Arabs. No doubt Elise Stefanik, US Ambassador to the UN (ambassador-designate at press time), is disposed to do so. Her leadership in calling out campus antisemitism and university presidents who tolerated it, proves that she understands the consequences of poisonous rhetoric and lies.
The Role of the US
The United States has historically taken a strong rhetorical stand against the double standard wielded against Israel at the UN. It is time to go further. The US should take harsh and active measures against offending UN institutions AND countries that support them. President Donald Trump has already taken decisive action against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the anti-Israel UN Human Rights Commission (UNHRC), and the International Criminal Court, which repeatedly takes extra-legal action against the Jewish state. This is a good start.
What animates the attitude toward Israel of all of these offending UN institutions is unquestioning acceptance and endorsement of the Palestinian narrative, which negates the very legitimacy of Israel’s existence. For that reason, it is appropriate to hit back hard.
During President Trump’s first term, when the US moved its embassy to Jerusalem, Israel’s capital city, the UN voted 128-9 (with 35 abstentions) to criticize Washington for doing so. At that time, President Trump said, “Let them vote against us. We’ll save a lot. We don’t care … this isn’t like it used to be where they could vote against you and then you pay them hundreds of millions of dollars…we’re not going to be taken advantage of any longer.”
This is exactly the right attitude. There is no doubt that members of Congress, not to mention their constituents, would strongly agree. President Trump already signed an executive order which states, “It is the policy of the United States that no further United States foreign assistance shall be disbursed in a manner that is not fully aligned with the foreign policy of the President of the United States.”
A strong Israel and stability in the Middle East are clearly crucial goals of US policy. The UN and many of its member states have undermined fundamental American interests by maintaining an aggressive, one-sided, anti-Israel agenda for more than 50 years. It is time active measures against these harmful and wasteful activities.
Where to Start
A logical place to start is the so-called “Palestinian Committee” (formally the “Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People”). This is a unique UN institution, literally created in concert with the “Zionism is Racism” resolution. It is in many ways the operational arm of that defunct resolution, enshrining Palestinian “inalienable rights” which specifically include the imaginary “right of return” for more than five million Palestinians to settle in Israel, something that accrues to no other refugee population in the world.
This UN body, among other things, sponsors the commemoration of “Nakba Day”—using the Arabic word favored by Palestinian Arabs to characterize the creation of Israel as a “catastrophe”—and widely disseminates, in the name of the international community, incendiary propaganda targeting Israel. No other people or country in the world has a similar UN committee dedicated to its cause. The Palestinian Committee has 46 members and observers, including the “State of Palestine.” By their very membership, these countries are giving sanction and support to the undermining and sabotage of US policy. Congress should mandate that any country that is a member or observer of the Palestinian Committee will be ineligible to receive any foreign assistance from the United States.
Next, the “Division for Palestinian Rights” (DPR), which essentially serves as the secretariat of the Committee, needs to be abolished. There is no parallel in the entire UN system for these entities, specifically and clearly targeting one UN member. This, along with the equally scurrilous “Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Human Rights Practices” (SCIIHRP), implement the defunct but still influential “Zionism is Racism” resolution.
The US should go to the Fifth Committee (the UN budget committee) and demand an end at long last to the existence of these organizations, which operate contrary to the wishes and interests of the American people and which are a gross waste of US taxpayers money.
UNRWA is Special
Despite its well-documented corrosive behavior over the decades—hate education, fraud and abuse, financial irregularities, collaboration with terrorists, and—on October 7—apparent actual participation in murder by staff members, UNRWA’s original sin is its very existence. As a refugee agency dedicated to the Palestinian Arabs only, it was purposely created to perpetuate the conflict and to keep Palestinians immiserated as human propaganda weapons against Israel. The damage is incalculable, and it needs to be eliminated. Real refugee needs can be handled by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
OCHA-oPt
Another worthy target for the complete cut-off of US funding is “OCHA-oPt” (The UN Office of the Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs-Occupied Palestinian Territories). The US is a major donor to OCHA-oPt, although, like UNRWA, this office uses the disguise of humanitarian concern and assistance to wage political warfare against Israel. It provides grist for the anti-Israel propaganda mill by agitating against Israel and accusing it of various violations of human rights. UN watchdog NGO-Monitor reports, “OCHA oversees and facilitates government funding to highly biased and politicized NGO’s, including a number that are highly active in promoting BDS [anti-Israel boycott, divest and sanction] and lawfare campaigns, and some even engage in blatantly antisemitic activities.”
Moving Forward
Elliot Abrams, then-Assistant Secretary of State, said in congressional testimony, “…we need to make this a piece of our bilateral relationship with these countries, and we most often don’t do it…we view it as not a very big deal instead of saying ‘this will affect whether your Prime Minister or Foreign Minister is invited to Washington… (and will) visibly affect your foreign aid.’ This matters to us.”
According to the most recent State Department report mandated by Congress, a mere 57 countries (out of 193 at the UNGA), voted with the United States even 50 percent of the time.
November 29
Ironically, every November 29, the date of the 1947 UN Partition Resolution that gave sanction to the birth to the State of Israel, the UN General Assembly observes the “International Day of Solidarity With the Palestinian People.” A rash of anti-Israel resolutions are passed on that date, and UN Ambassadors of Third World countries line up to bash Israel. Former House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen aptly labeled it “Hate Israel Day.”
But that same day in that same resolution there was sanction for the birth of an Arab state as well. All Arab states and the Palestinian Arab leadership rejected it and waged war. Had they not, there could have been a second Palestinian Arab majority state (after Jordan) long ago. The fact that Israel’s enemies use that very date to continue to spew hatred and propaganda against the Jewish state is telling.
UNSCR 242
Similarly, the Palestinians have yet to demonstrate acceptance of UN Security Council Resolution 242 (unlike UNGA resolutions, Security Council Resolutions are binding). Passed in 1967 after the Six-Day War, the resolution guaranteed Israel’s “legitimacy and permanence” and its right to “secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of war.”
UNSCR 242 created the basis for the 1978 Camp David Peace Accords between Israel and Egypt and, similarly, peace in 1994 between Israel and Jordan. Until the Palestinians show a genuine, sincere, and concrete acceptance of that resolution and what it represents, which they have never done, their self-inflicted and self-perpetuated grievances deserve dismissal.
On the 50th anniversary of the passage of “Zionism is Racism,” zero tolerance for anti-Israel agitation at the UN should be the guiding rule. It would certainly be good for Israel and salutary for the United Nations. And it would serve essential US interests, benefitting the cause of peace and stability, and ultimately Palestinian Arabs themselves.
Gil Kapen is Executive Director of the American Jewish International Relations Institute (AJIRI), a partner of B’nai B’rith International.
