For many years, the United Nations berated the Jewish State that it was using ‘disproportionate’ force against Palestinian Arabs. As the global body now attacks Israelis for proportionate responses to Arab terror, it is clear that the UN’s problem is really about Israel defending itself at all.
Consider the events of May 2021 when Gazans fired thousands of missiles into Israeli towns. The United Nations said “Owing to the vast asymmetry of power, the victims of this conflict are disproportionately Palestinians in Gaza, of whom over 74,000 have been forcibly displaced and made homeless, mostly women and children.“
After Israel responded to missile attacks in 2018, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution that “deplores the use of any excessive, disproportionate and indiscriminate force by the Israeli forces against Palestinian civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and particularly in the Gaza Strip, including the use of live ammunition against civilian protesters, including children, as well as medical personnel and journalists, and expresses its grave concern at the loss of innocent lives.“
Similarly in July 2014, the UN Human Rights Council published an opinion that Israel’s “disproportionate use of force amounts to war crimes and must be brought to justice as it seriously violates international humanitarian law.“
The examples are numerous, that despite Israel acting in a defensive manner against terrorists, the UN seemingly wanted Israel to fire thousands of crude missiles into Gaza (a proportionate response to the Gazan actions), rather than using its limited sophisticated weaponry which was designed to target the evil actors. Of course, the damage Israel would have caused using thousands such crude missiles would have been much worse as the Arabs do not possess Israel’s Iron Dome defensive shield.
The issue in those past conflicts was not really about disproportionate force but disproportionate defenses. However, since there was no legal way of investigating and censoring Israel for disproportionate defenses, the United Nations attacked Israel for “asymmetry of power.”
The farce of UN anti-Israel prejudice continues today with the notion of “settler violence” in the West Bank.
According to the UN’s own biased accounting, West Bank Arabs commit more attacks than Israeli Jews living in Israeli territory of Area C every month. The “settlers” mostly use stones, just like the Palestinian Arabs. However, the UN only comes down harshly on the Israelis.
In March 2022, Tor Wennesland, on behalf of the UN Secretary General, addressed the UN Security Council about activities over the three months December 2021 to early February 2022. He noted that “Israeli settlers or other civilians perpetrated 144 attacks against Palestinians, resulting in 47 injuries and/or damage to Palestinian property,” while adding that “One Israeli civilian was killed by Palestinians, and 100 Israelis, including five women and one child, were injured by Palestinians in clashes, the throwing of Molotov cocktails, attacks and other incidents. In total, Palestinians perpetrated 277 attacks against Israeli civilians, resulting in injuries and/or damage to Israeli property.” By his own math, Palestinians committed twice a many attacks and injured twice as many civilians, including killing someone.
No matter. His report would disproportionately target Israelis.
- “we deplore continuing attacks by Israeli settlers on ordinary Palestinians“
- “Settler-related violence remains significant across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem“
- “repeated raids by Israeli settlers on Burqa led to clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces“
- “Israeli settlers drove a convoy to Huwwara, near Nablus, throwing stones at Palestinians and their property“
- “I remain deeply concerned about the level of settler-related violence in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem“
There was no such detailed concern about Palestinian Arabs attacking Israeli civilians, despite engaging in violence more frequently.
When the Israeli military protects Israeli civilians against Palestinian terrorists, the world rebukes the Jewish State for “disproportionate force” so it can defend punishing the Jews in court. When Israeli civilians defend themselves with proportionate means, the anti-Semites drop the pretense of proportionality being the concern, and accuse the Jews of living in their homes illegally. The Arabs are cast as victims of Jewish aggression in all cases, despite instigating the violence and committing more attacks.
The United Nations has fostered the Arab-Israeli Conflict for decades, with disproportionate focus on perceived Israeli crimes and absolution of Arab terrorism. It is well past time for the global body to examine itself with the scrutiny it reserves for the Jewish State.
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