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UN mum on anti-Semitism

If you haven’t seen it you must. Last year, in a scathing condemnation, Hillel Neuer of UN Watch asked several Arab nations in the UN Human Rights Council a simple question: “Where are your Jews?” Deafening silence was the answer.

Neuer was attempting to draw attention not only to the tragedy of Jews being expelled from nearly every single Middle Eastern country following the establishment of the State of Israel but, perhaps more condemnatory from the UN perspective, the absolute silence that accompanied this racially-motivated expulsion.

One year after the video went viral, Neuer again went before the Human Rights Council, this time providing an answer (see video above). At the same time, UN Watch also released a 10-year report card of the UN’s action on anti-Semitism.

The results are damning. Turns out, not only were those Arab nations in the chamber silent, the whole organization has been.

For while the UN has been busy passing resolution after resolution condemning Israel, it has been largely silent on the issue of anti-Semitism. Whereas the UN has been quick to (rightly) condemn terror attacks, racism and the defamation of Islam, it has rarely addressed aggression toward Jews.

Key findings are available here, along with a PDF of the full report

The report takes a research approach, gathering and consolidating information. It does not answer the question “why,” but rather provides evidence of the phenomenom.

It is up to readers to discern “why,” and a few possibilities arise:

  • “The UN is anti-Semitic,” which would be the definition of irony as the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights made by Eleanor Roosevelt was in large part a response to the deadly anti-Semitism of the Holocaust
  • “The UN is anti-Israel” can be easily argued considering that its anti-Israel condemnations are institutionalized into annual, permanent resolutions
  • “The UN is beholden to anti-Semitic and/or anti-Israel states.” This would seek to distance the UN as an independent body from its inaction on anti-Semitism, but then again, the institution is comprised of its members and is not independent as such
  • “The UN doesn’t care about small minority groups.” This doesn’t seem plausible considering the attention the UN has (rightly) given smaller ethnic groups facing trauma, including most recently the Rohingya in Myanmar
  • ….

As an aside, if, as many today argue, being anti-Israel does not conflate with being anti-Semitic, why did Arab nations expel their Jewish populations due to conflict with the State of Israel?

Answers to this question or the broader  “why” regarding the UN’s failure to address anti-Semitism are welcome.




2 thoughts on “UN mum on anti-Semitism

  1. Yaakov Watkins

    Jews have been wondering why the people who hate us hate us. It has been pointed out ad nauseum that hatred of the Jews seems to part of the European and Arab cultures. Asking why again and again is insane. It will not go away.

    Reply
  2. Blaise L. Farago

    Why are the Jews hated? The answer is spiritual: The promise that those who bless you will be blessed, and those who curse you will be cursed. (Genesis 12: 2 and 3, and 27: 29), this covenant promise has been used by evil throughout all history since it was made. The way evil uses this promise is it works on weak minded people, gets them to persecute and hurt some Jews. If evil succeeds and these people hurt or kill some Jews, then evil can now sit back and watch God come and fulfil His promise by cursing those people. So in essence, evil didn’t have to do all that work, and yet a lot of damage was done. If one studies history, this has occurred and reoccurred.

    Reply

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