Lawmakers Appeal for Change at UN

312 lawmakers from both sides of the Atlantic have today called upon European Union (EU) member states and fellow democracies to help end the systematic discrimination of Israel at the United Nations (UN).

That group includes 40 parliamentarians from across the political spectrum in the UK, featuring members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

The leadership of Transatlantic Friends of Israel sent the appeal to the governments of all EU member states, the UK, Norway and Switzerland, to the EU leadership as well as the UN Secretary General and leaders of major UN agencies.

In the appeal they emphasise that bias against Israel damages both the reputation of the United Nations and its ability to tackle global problems. They write:

“Within the context of rising global antisemitism, the relentless, disproportionate,
and ritualistic condemnation of the world’s only Jewish state at the UN is particularly
dangerous and must finally end. Israel deserves attention and scrutiny, as does
every other nation. But it also merits equal treatment – nothing more, nothing less.”

Their statement continues:

“By violating its own Purposes and Principles, which commit the organization to
‘develop friendly relations among nations’ and to the ‘principle of the sovereign equality
of all its Members,’ the UN is undermining its credibility and losing public support.”

In March this year, Christian Friends of Israel UK joined the Zionist Federation in lobbying Parliament to seek reform at the United Nations because of its appalling record of biased voting against Israel.

During that online lobby, we had the privilege of being addressed by three experts on the matter, Sharon Bar-Li, Israel’s Deputy Ambassador to the UK, Gregory Lafitte, co-founder and Director of the Forum for Cultural Diplomacy, and Hillel Neuer, Director of UN Watch.

An example of the bias was highlighted by the Jerusalem Post today when it noted that in 2020 the UN General Assembly adopted 17 resolutions against Israel for human rights violations but only 6 resolutions against the other 192 member states.

That degree of bias is the reason these 312 parliamentarians want to abolish the UN Human Rights Council permanent agenda item against Israel, as well as dissolving discriminatory UN committees and programs specifically formed against Israel.