The rise of anti-Semitism in Australia has continued in recent months, aided and abetted by the Greens.
The Labor government, seemingly more concerned about re-election and the Muslim vote, has tried to walk both sides of the street. In the interest of ‘social cohesion’, Labor has tolerated hate speech and threats on the streets with its only response being to appoint a new Commissioner against Islamophobia. Abroad, the government talks about a mythical two-state solution while it has failed to support Israel’s right to defend itself against Hezbollah’s rocket attacks.
Our ABC is no better. Ignoring its mandate to provide unbiased information, the left-wing collective appears to view events in Israel through the Woke prism of white colonialism. The word genocide, like so many modern insults, has lost its meaning. As cautioned in George Orwell’s book 1984, black can become white. In defending themselves against genocidal Hamas, the Israelis are being labelled genocidal…
As this conflict continues, the United Nations is falling further into disrepute. As is so often the case with international bodies, their original goals have become lost in bureaucratic dysfunction and corruption. Where the organisation should contribute meaningfully to wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, the United Nations is missing in action. We are left with the increasing impression of an organisation that has decided that Western colonialism is the cause of all the world’s ills, and Israel has now been included in that group.
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) deals with an ever-increasing number of refugees. It has a workforce of 17,000 to handle 35 million refugees worldwide and it estimates that there are as many as 120 million are forcibly displaced.
On the other hand, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency’s (UNRWA) sole function is to handle Palestinian refugees. UNRWA involves itself with their health, education, social services, infrastructure development, and aid distribution. Since its establishment in 1948, when Israel was founded, the original 700,000 Palestinian refugees, with two subsequent generations of their descendants, have increased to six million. All are classified as refugees and are found in and around camps in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.
UNRWA is primarily funded by Western nations. It has a staff of 13,000, mostly Palestinians. America is by far the biggest aid donor while Palestine’s neighbouring Arab countries contribute token amounts. In providing education for children, UNRWA has allowed the perpetuation of the extremist terrorist agenda and promotion of the view that Israel and Jews have no right to exist.
UNRWA controlled aid for new buildings in Gaza which we now know has been subverted to include the building of 500km of tunnels for Hamas. One released hostage was held by an UNRWA teacher for 50 days in one of those tunnels. The United Nations has confirmed that members of UNRWA were directly involved in the October 7 massacre which started the latest conflict. Nine have been fired.
UNRWA’s primary role is the distribution of food aid, which is a task it carries out under the direction of Hamas in Gaza. Hamas dictate where and to whom the aid is delivered. Prior to the current war, Israel had, for 15 years, also provided food, water, power, and infrastructure support to Gaza. Because of its political involvement, the Israeli government plans to end the agency’s activities, including their role in aid distribution, with cancellation of the special rights enjoyed by other UN employees. UN Chief António Guterres has warned this would be an unmitigated disaster.
The Human Rights Commission (UNHRC), spends much of its time discussing supposed abuses in Israel, rather than addressing the world’s problems. In special sessions, it has reviewed Libya once, Myanmar three times, Syria five times and Israel nine times. As early as 2013, Israel had been condemned by 45 resolutions from the UNHRC, by 2018 increased to 76. North Korea has also, once, been the subject of inquiry.
Whilst the United Nations’ attention is focused on Israel, humanitarian disasters occur on a grand scale, in other parts of the Middle East and Africa. In Africa, 25 million are in need of assistance in the Congo, where over 120 armed groups are involved in inter-tribal fighting. Similar ethnic conflicts are occurring in Ethiopia, Niger, Somalia, Sudan, and Mali.
This attention to Israel fails to recognise it is the only democratic government in the area, with its 18 per cent of non-Jewish citizens entitled to vote and be represented in Parliament. In Gaza, there are no surviving Jews apart from, hopefully, some of the hostages.
Since the mandate in 1948 establishing the country of Israel, there has been a permanent United Nations department to assess the country’s human rights abuses, whilst those of its neighbours are ignored. The October 7 massacre of Israeli civilians by Hamas, produced no comment, not even from the UN Women’s agency which merely issued a statement advising both sides to exercise restraint. At least the Czech government has shown some backbone, threatening to withdraw its membership. It is a course of action many in Australia would support.
As the Middle East conflict deepens, there is much finger-pointing, with the conclusion that a Colonial Jewish State is at fault. The threatened Israeli invasion of Southern Lebanon has been necessitated by 9,000 rockets fired by Hezbollah over a year, from territory which the United Nations was supposed to control. A UN resolution, following Israel’s previous war-time invasion and withdrawal in 1978, left the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), to police the area South of the Litani River, and prevent its use by terrorists.
This mandate has never been cancelled, with troops from many countries still tasked with maintaining security. It has signally failed in its task. With a force of around 10,000, jointly operating with Lebanese government forces, reports show UNIFIL disposed of 17 ‘unauthorised rocket’ launchers over the last six months. But Hezbollah has systematically prevented the organisation from entering some areas for many years, with an estimated 3,000 arms depots and military sites, harassing, assaulting UNIFIL. Even death ensuing, this violation of resolution 1701 has produced no response from the United Nations. The deployment, costing $500 million annually, one quarter provided by the US, has provided a fig leaf for the UN whilst allowing Hezbollah to establish its terrorist infrastructure, unencumbered.
Sixty countries have designated Hezbollah a terrorist organisation, with a smaller number bestowing the same status on Hamas. Australia designates both groups. Although classifying some groups as terrorists, the UN rejected the designation for Hamas, on a vote in 2018, Hezbollah ignores UN resolutions 1559 and 1701 to disarm, with impunity. Both groups remain funded by Iran which the United Nations chooses not to comment on.
The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), was founded in 2006. Its membership has contained such stalwarts of human rights as Libya, China, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and Russia. Despite worldwide human rights abuses, Israel is the only country that has a special rapporteur, referring the country’s activities in the West Bank and now in the war, to the UN International Court of Justice. The rocket-firing activities of Hamas have, until now, been selectively ignored. The US representative to the UN, Nicki Halley, described the UNHRC as a ‘cesspool of political bias’.
Israeli attacks within Lebanon have seriously degraded Hezbollah’s terrorist potential, but rockets continue to fall. For its own security, whilst incurring UN opprobrium, Israel may again have to invade; meanwhile, the UN pointlessly calls for a ceasefire.
As it fights for survival, Israel remains the sole focus of UN opprobrium. The Negroponte declaration of 2002 stated the US would block all submissions to the Security Council on Israel, unless also condemning terrorist groups. This is yet to happen. In 2007 UN President, Kofi Annan, commented on disproportionate focus on Israel. The UN Human Rights Commissioner described antisemitism as ‘an ongoing plague’, but it appears the organisation’s selective condemnations continue to reinforce that plague.
Graham Pinn has lived and worked in several Middle Eastern countries over 7 years, in the 1980s and early 2000s
