ACTION ALERT: Combat the UN’s Most Egregious Assault on Israel Yet

For 11 days in May, Iranian-backed terrorist group Hamas shot over 4,300 missiles at Israeli communities. The United Nations, which mentions in its founding charter the “inherent right of individual or collective self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations” does not recognize that right of only one country – Israel.

The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is a 47-member body, including shining examples of human rights like China, Russia, Qatar, Libya, Sudan and Venezuela. On May 27th , the UNHRC voted on a resolution to “ urgently establish an ongoing, independent, international commission of inquiry to investigate, in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel, all alleged violations and abuses of international human rights law leading up and since 13 April 2021.”

The resolution further requested the commission of inquiry to “investigate all underlying root causes of recurrent tensions, instability and protraction of conflict, including systematic discrimination and repression based on national, ethnic, racial or religious identity.”

The commission of inquiry was mandated to report to the Human Rights Council and to the General Assembly on an annual basis from June 2022 and September 2022 respectively.

This commission of Inquiry can hardly be more overtly biased. It never mentions Hamas, nor its thousands of rockets targeting Israeli civilians, Hamas’ use of human shields or the Palestinian Authority’s “Pay for Slay” program. The individuals heading this Council have also proven, time and time again, their unabashed hatred of Israel.

To make matters worse, this commission will operate in perpetuity and can go back indefinitely, namely to the very founding of the State of Israel, which Israel’s enemies refer to as the nakba (Arabic for “catastrophe”). We have no doubt that this will be a Kangaroo Court. Not one Western democracy voted for the resolution.

Never in UN history has so much money been appropriated indefinitely with so few guidelines – $10 million to start and $4-5 million per year in perpetuity has been allocated for this program.

The American taxpayer will be footing the bill to the tune of 22% annually for this program solely meant to demonize and delegitimize the Jewish state.

Despite voting against the inquiry, America will be providing the kangaroo court with about $2.5 million upfront and no less than $1 million every year thereafter. In the past, the president and Congress have withheld money from the UN when it goes on its regular anti-Israel rampages. EMET implores its readers not to let this administration be any different.

Luckily, the current continuing resolution to fund the United States government ends in mid-February, which could present an opportunity to defund the United Nations.

EMET calls on its community to take these important steps to stop this inquiry and defend Israel. Ask your senators and representative to withhold any money appropriated for UN Resolution S-30/1, which contains the framework for the Commission of Inquiry.

Find your representative here and your senators here.

1. If you do not live in the United States, please contact your members of parliament or other appropriate representatives.
2.  You do not have to be an attorney or head of an NGO to submit information to the inquiry. Every single person in the entire world is eligible to submit information to the inquiry. There are absolutely no qualifications for submissions and it is critical not to give anti-Israel voices an easy victory simply for showing up. Your submission does not have to be original. Feel free to copy and paste directly from any EMET article or fact sheet.

Any human being in the entire world could be named as a “perpetrator” to be tried at the International Criminal Court. Do not allow this attack to remain unchallenged. All information on submissions can be found here (with profound thanks to Anne Bayefsky).

Said Sarah Stern, Founder and President of EMET, “The UN has a long, egregious history of demonizing Israel. Since the 1975 “Zionism is racism” resolution and the Durban Conference Against Racism in 2001, which devolved into an antisemitic hate fest, a disproportionate number of blatantly anti-Israel resolutions have passed. In 2021, 14 were enacted in the UN General Assembly against Israel and just four against all other countries combined.

“However, this particular initiative has extremely serious long-term consequences, legitimizing those who want to isolate Israel. American taxpayer money is being used to wage this egregious campaign against a democratic state trying to defend its citizens against terrorists and it must be stopped immediately. We implore everyone to do whatever they can to stop this unprecedented assault on the state of Israel.”