Israel at the United Nations

When Israel joined the United Nations in 1949, the nascent state envisioned working closely with the UN to promote peace, security, human rights, and development. Since that time, Israel has acted to promote and implement the work of the United Nations on a wide range of issues.

Israel serves on numerous UN bodies and committees including the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD), Commission on Population and Development (CPD), the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations, and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), to name just a few (for a full list of UN bodies and committees that Israel is a member of, click here). Israel’s participation in these bodies and other UN fora offer a unique opportunity for Israel to share its experience and to help develop global solutions to global problems. From peacekeeping to development, Israel continues to be an active and contributing Member State of the United Nations.

As a leader in agricultural technology, Israel has played an instrumental role at the United Nations in promoting sustainable agriculture for development and the diffusion of agricultural technology. Israel and its international aid agency, MASHAV, have signed partnership agreements and memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with the United Nations Development Programme, the Food and Agriculture Organization, and the United Nations Environmental Program.

In December 2007, the 62nd session of the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution entitled “Agricultural Technology for Development.” The resolution –– the first ever initiated by Israel –– recognized that the international community can act more vigorously to achieve global development commitments in the fields of agriculture. The resolution called for developed nations to share with developing countries more information and technology related to sustainable development.

All of Israel’s efforts to promote the United Nations as a force for positive change and development reflect its commitment to the founding values of the United Nations.

Israel and the “Automatic Majority”

Despite Israel’s positive engagement at the United Nations, many states reject Israel’s rightful place among the community of nations and seek to use the United Nations as an extension of the battlefield against Israel (for more about the history of Israel and the United Nations, click here).

The ongoing discriminatory treatment against Israel within the United Nations system as a whole is a reflection of the political dynamics of the world body. The work of UN bodies –– such as the General Assembly –– is often organized through regional groups (i.e. the African Group, the Asian Group, the Group of Latin American States, etc.) and other sub-divisions (the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the Arab Group, the Non-Aligned Movement, JUSCANZ, etc.). The most powerful blocs are those with the largest number of Member States and unfortunately, Israel’s detractors use their numeric superiority to dictate and push through an anti-Israel agenda at the United Nations. While there is sometimes overlap between each group, between the Arab Group (22 countries), the Organization of the Islamic Conference (56 countries) and the Non-Aligned Movement (118 members) –– all of whom vote consistently against Israel irrespective of the facts on the ground –– Israel’s condemnatory treatment in the halls of the United Nations is virtually assured.

Even today, the General Assembly annually adopts numerous one-sided and narrow resolutions that single out Israel. These resolutions not only fail to recognize Israel’s desire and work towards peace, but they categorically reject Israel’s right to live in security and defend its citizens. Furthermore, these resolutions are adopted year after year in an automatic manner –– often recycling the identical language time and again. Such work reflects a desire to condemn and isolate Israel while ignoring the changing facts on the ground.

Finally, no other Member State of the United Nations –– even those that systematically deny their citizens the most basic freedoms –– faces such a litany of one-sided resolutions. This fact reflects the sad reality that the condemnatory resolutions against Israel are a political tool used to promote a narrow, hateful agenda. In the words of former Secretary-General Kofi Annan, “Has any of this (one-sided resolutions, discrimination against Israel, etc.) had an effect on Israel's policies, other than to strengthen the belief in Israel, and among many of its supporters, that this great Organization (the UN) is too one-sided to be allowed a significant role in the Middle East peace process?”

Additionally, these aforementioned resolutions seek to prejudge the outcome of sensitive issues including Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, settlements, and others that are meant to be resolved through bilateral talks as mandated in Security Council resolutions 242 (1967), 338 (1973), and 1850 (2008). As such, these resolutions undermine bilateral negotiations and efforts towards the achievement of peace.

Beyond the resolutions of the General Assembly, the GA sustains its own “Palestinian Units,” including the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, the Division on Palestinian Rights, and the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories. Together, these committees spend millions of dollars to promote their work that seeks to enshrine the Palestinian narrative at the expense of historical facts and current realities. In only one of countless examples, during the 2005 United Nations Annual Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, the main ceremony featured a map of the region in which all of modern Israel was labeled “Palestine.”

Aside from the robotic institutional framework within the General Assembly against Israel, other UN bodies and organs obsessively target Israel, as well. The Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council is yet another glaring example. Designed to replace the now-defunct Commission on Human Rights –– a body that former Secretary-General Kofi Annan noted “cast doubt on the overall reputation of the United Nations” –– the Council targets Israel in a relentless fashion while rogue states and regimes that systematically abuse human rights are never mentioned. The Council’s only country-specific agenda item focuses solely on Israel while its mandates and “fact finding” missions predetermine Israel’s culpability. The Human Rights Council has, in fact, passed more resolutions against Israel than all other countries –– combined.

The Western European and Others Group (WEOG) is one of five regional groups formed in 1961 to facilitate elections of Member States to United Nations bodies. The other regional groups are the Asian Group, African Group, Eastern European Group, and Latin America and Caribbean Group (GRULAC).

WEOG is unique in that that geography is not the sole defining factor. WEOG membership includes Member States from North America, Western Europe, the Pacific region, and Asia.

Prior to May 2000, Israel was the only UN Member State excluded from a UN regional grouping, a result of the rejection by Arab states of Israel’s membership in the Asian Group, Israel’s natural geographic regional group. Consequently, Israel could not sit on any UN body where membership in a regional group was required, such as the Security Council or the Economic and Social Council.

Furthermore, Israel could not be elected to leadership positions on the vast majority of bodies in the UN system, where voting is based on membership in a regional group. Thus, Israel was unable to serve in a variety of positions, including as the President of the General Assembly or on any committee or programme bureau where representation was based on regional distribution. Israel’s exclusion was a clear violation of the principle of sovereign equality enshrined in the UN Charter.

However, as a result of intense efforts, Israel’s isolation in the regional grouping system began to change.  In May 2000, Israel became a temporary member of the Western European and Others States Group (WEOG) in New York. This membership was officially extended in May 2004. Israel’s admission to WEOG helped to partially rectify an anomaly, where no other nation was omitted from a regional group, and marked an important step towards the full integration of Israel into the United Nations system. Israel has agreed to continue to seek membership in its natural grouping in the Asian Group (the Asian group continues to deny Israel membership).

The positive implications of Israel’s admission into WEOG in New York notwithstanding, Israel remains excluded from the regional group system outside New York. As such, Israel can neither participate in Western group consultations and meetings outside of New York nor can it nominate candidates to United Nations positions in UN bodies where elections for those bodies are not organized by the New York regional group system.

It is worthy to note that the Western group generally separates into two smaller bodies for consultations—European states meet under the European Union umbrella, while the remaining states (Japan, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand) comprise JUSCANZ. Israel, however, is not part of JUSCANZ. While Israel is admitted into JUSCANZ for the consultations of the Second Committee, it is excluded from participating in the Third Committee, and thus remains one of the few countries without status in a consultative group on human rights issues. This discriminatory exclusion violates the principle of sovereign equality enshrined in the UN Charter, and denies Israel the ability to play its rightful role as a full and equal member throughout the UN system.

For this discriminatory anomaly to be fully rectified, Israel continues to work towards its full inclusion in the region grouping system on an equal basis with all other states.