• In June 2007, for the first time in the organization’s history, an Israeli official was selected to head one of its committees. Rony Adam, head of the Israeli Foreign Ministry's U.N. department, was chosen to head the U.N. Committee for Program and Coordination. Adam was unanimously elected to the post after serving as the committee deputy director. The committee is comprised of 33 countries, some of which have no diplomatic relations with Israel, such as Iran, Cuba and Indonesia.
• In July 2005, Israel was elected to the deputy chairmanship of the United Nations Disarmament Commission (UNDC), a subsidiary body of the GA.
• In June 2005, Dan Gillerman, Israel's Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the U.N., was appointed to be one of the 21 vice presidents of the GA, marking the first time an Israeli had been chosen for this position since Abba Eban in 1953.  Israel's candidacy as vice president of the GA was put forth by the Western European and Others Group (WEOG), the regional group to which it belongs.

In a significant first, in August 2008 Israel was elected to the Universal Postal Union Operations Council and will be represented at the 24th Universal Postal Congress held in Geneva Switzerland.  While Israel had been a member of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) since December 1949, the Jewish State had never been elected to the professional decision-making body which determines the financial and operational activities of the UPU.

In another truly historic development, 2007 saw the first Israel-initiated resolution adopted.  On December 11, 2007 the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) adopted an Israeli-initiated draft resolution dealing with agricultural technology for development.  U.N. member states supported the resolution in a vote of 118 countries in favor, with 29 abstentions and no objections.

Bias Continues

The Bias of the President of the General Assembly Invades the UN

The 63rd General Assembly was also marred by the actions and comments of the General Assembly President Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann. Throughout his tenure, Brockmann showed his disdain for Israel and his empathy towards the Palestinians. During the General Assembly Debate in September 2008, President Ahmadinejad gave a horrifically anti-Semitic and anti-Israel speech. While many in the audience shunned him, President Brockmann stood and embraced him. Unfortunately, this hug was the beginning of Brockmann’s unhindered display of his prejudice, indeed, Israeli ambassador to the UN called him an “Israel hater.” 

In November, Brockmann attended and spoke at the UN Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People and used the podium to disparage and insult the Jewish State, calling Israeli policies “a version of the hideous policy of apartheid” and called for the international community to boycott Israel.
The following month, Brockmann continued his campaign by attempting to prevent the Israeli Ambassador from speaking when she was to represent the regional group Western European and Others Group at a UN event marking the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Brockmann also took full advantage to use Israel’s operations in Gaza as a springboard for another tirade: “The behavior by Israel in bombarding Gaza is simply the commission of wanton aggression by a very powerful state against a territory that illegally occupies. The Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip represent…Disproportionate military response...” (December 27, 2008). As a result ADL called on Brockmann to refrain from speaking at the UN’s annual Holocaust commemoration on January 27, 2009.

At the same time many U.N. bodies continue single out Israel for criticism.  Indeed, the Human Rights Council continues to be a source of biased resolutions and statements.  

Other U.N. bodies also continue to be a vehicle for unwarranted criticism of Israel. Throughout the year, the security council issued its annual one sided resolutions dealing with Israel and the Middle East. However, during Israel’s operations in Gaza the statement issued by the Security Council equated Israeli self-defense measures with Hamas’ terror tactics targeted at Israeli civilians.

Often, committees with seemingly innocuous names are hijacked and become forums for anti-Israel sentiment. One example of this is the March 2009 meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women which  adopted 6 resolutions. Four of the resolutions were operational, one was about the prvelance of HIV/AIDs and the sixth was entitled Situation of and assistance to Palestinian women which: “Expressing grave concern over the increased difficulties being faced by Palestinian women and girls living under Israeli occupation… Reaffirms that the Israeli occupation remains a major obstacle for Palestinian women with regard to their advancement, self-reliance and integration in the development of their society, and stresses the importance of efforts to increase their role in decision-making with regard to conflict prevention and resolution and to ensure their equal participation and involvement in all efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace and security.”

In March 2006, the only resolution adopted by the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women condemned Israel for poor treatment of women, while not addressing the poor treatment of women in many of the U.N.’s other 191 member states.  The fact that Israel’s democratic system ensures gender equality was ignored, as were issues such as the Saudi Arabia’s ban against women driving, Jordanian “honor killings,” genital mutilation in many African countries, and other abuses of women.  

While Israel was an active participant in the U.N. International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in August 2006, many Muslim and Arab countries refused to recognize Israel at the convention. In a transparent political move, a group of Arab countries proposed an article to the draft text that purportedly aims to protect the rights of persons with disabilities “under foreign occupation.” Israel lobbied to keep this phrase out of the final text and called for a vote on the language.  When they failed to get the required votes, Israel, recognizing the importance of the document, joined the consensus and the whole to adopt the resolution.

In general, the U.N.'s handling of the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in the summer of 2006 focused on Israel, and failed to call Hezbollah to task for its attack on Israeli soil.  In addition to one-sided resolutions condemning Israel's military operations and ignoring Hezbollah's aggression U.N., member states took no action to prevent Syria and Iran from supplying Hezbollah with weapons and failed to enforce longstanding international commitments aimed at disarming Hezbollah including the Taif Accords and Security Council Resolution 1559.

Security Council Resolution 1701, passed on August 11, 2006, which temporarily halted the violence, showed some promise but has been poorly enforced.  After calling for an international force, member states, particularly those in Europe, were initially reluctant to commit significant numbers of troops and complained of the lack of a mandate for the force in the resolution they authored.  Overall, the international community refused to fully acknowledge Israel’s right to self defense in the face of an unprovoked attack by Hezbollah across an internationally recognized border.

The Security Council continued to serve as a forum for anti-Israel sentiment and speech in 2008.  On April 23, 2008, the Libyan Deputy Ambassador, Ibrahim Dabbashi, compared tactics used by Israel to the Nazi efforts to exterminate the Jews.  Significantly the ambassadors from Costa Rica, Belgium, the United States, Britain and France left the chamber in protest after the comments were made.  Meanwhile, no member of the Council has used such strong language to condemn the atrocities in Sudan or Myanmar.