fbpx

A Reaction to the UN’s Lack of ReactionTuesday 22/09/2020

Last week, the 75th session of the United Nations was officially opened, but it was a little different this time around. This year, endless convoys of leaders from all over the world did not fill the streets of New York. Instead, they delivered their remarks through recorded statements.

A few hours later and approximately 250 miles away, on the White House lawn, an important message of peace was being conveyed to the world. The State of Israel signed an historic peace agreement with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. This was only the beginning of something great; several other Muslim and Arab countries have already announced their intentions to join the initiative and normalize their relations with Israel.

In my naivety I thought the UN, the largest international human rights platform in the world, whose stated goal is the promotion of human rights and the achievement of world peace, would take advantage of the opportunity to praise this important step toward peace in the Middle East during their opening session. For some reason, they didn’t find the time for it. Forget praising this momentous occasion, what about simply recognizing it? I guess they didn’t have time for that either. However, there was plenty of time for the United Nation’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet to attack and solely blame Israel for the situation in Gaza.

Once again, the UN’s true colors are exposed. And again, the UN proves that it doesn’t value nor demonstrate the tenets it sets forth and expects its member states to uphold. The peace agreement with the UAE and Bahrain was made despite the UN, rather than thanks to it.

We can only hope that through changing the Israeli-Palestinian relations paradigm and opening up channels of dialogue with Muslim and Arab nations, Israel will be able to overcome the automatic majority and the decades-long, antagonistic voting bloc in the UN.

 

Adv. Uri Morad

International Law & Public Diplomacy

Jerusalem Institute of Justice

Designed by: Studio Reut Tucker Built by: Wordpress Development