UNGA adopts 6 anti-Israel resolutions
What the UN is doing while other Middle East nations are in turmoil.
The UN observed the 64th anniversary of the vote to partition Mandatory Palestine with an International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People on Tuesday, with speeches and General Assembly resolutions condemning Israel on the agenda both Tuesday and Wednesday.
In a powerful address to the General Assembly late on Tuesday, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor told the body that it exacerbates rather than resolves the Middle East conflict with such commemorations.
Tuesday’s presentations in ‘solidarity with the Palestinian people,’ Prosor said, present ‘a distorted and impartial version of history. It transforms the cause of Palestinian self-determination into a deliberate attempt to denigrate, defame and delegitimize the State of Israel.’
The ambassador recounted the history of the establishment of the State of Israel, not as a calamity but rather as a people being restored to its ancient homeland. In response, the Arab nations declared war on the Jewish state, he said.
‘One percent of Israel’s population died in combat during this assault by five armies [in 1948]. Think about that price,’ Prosor said. ‘It would be the equivalent of 850,000 soldiers dying in France today, or 3 million soldiers dying in the United States, or 13 million soldiers dying in China.’
While many Arabs became refugees as a result of the War of Independence, Prosor said, so did Jews – and the difference between the two nations lay in the fact that Jewish refugees were absorbed into Israeli society, while Palestinian refugees were not.
Prosor cited discrimination against Palestinians in various Arab nations: ‘In the vast majority of Arab countries, Palestinians have no rights of citizenship. It is no coincidence that the Arab world’s responsibilities for the ‘inalienable rights’ of these Palestinians never appear in the resolutions before you.’
At one powerful moment, Prosor said that ‘the basic question underlying our conflict for 64 years has not changed. That question is: Has the Arab world – and particularly the Palestinians – internalized that Israel is here to stay and will remain the nation-state of the Jewish People? It is still unclear whether they are inspired by the promise of building a new state, or the goal of destroying an existing one.’