UN’s Israel fetish

Two weeks ago, Unesco’s World Heritage Committee passed a resolution that purported to deny any Jewish ties to Jerusalem. On Wednesday, it did so again, presumably in case anyone missed its earlier message. That the resolution is simply ludicrous needs little confirmation. This week alone a piece of papyrus from the 7th century BC was revealed, which details in Hebrew tax payments in Jerusalem. Last week, remnants of the so-called ‘Third Wall’ of the Temple were made public. But the Unesco vote is not about history or heritage. It is a result of UN agencies’ obsession with Israel. Last month, for example, the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, compared Israel unfavourably with Iran, Syria and North Korea. The Human Rights Council itself is comprised of such luminaries of human rights as China, Cuba and Venezuela.

At its last session the UNHRC passed five resolutions attacking Israel. No other country was considered to merit more than one critical resolution. Earlier this year the UN Commission on the Status of Women decided that only one nation on earth merited criticism for its treatment of women: Israel. Not Saudi Arabia, not Yemen, not anywhere: just Israel. Given this pattern, it is easy simply to ignore the UN and its agencies; they are indeed beyond parody. But the problem is that not everyone is aware of the background, and the UN label gives credibility, spurious as it may be, to these bodies’ work. On the other hand, perhaps the most appropriate response to the likes of Unesco is to look at its slogan — ‘Building peace in the minds of men and women’ — and find a way of stifling the laughter.