The United Nations General Assembly adopted, once again, 5 resolutions targeting Israel as part of a series of anti-Israel texts that are passed every year during this same time period. These resolutions, adopted in the context of the annual “Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People” that was celebrated last week at the UN, exemplify the ingrained and structural bias of the organization when it comes to Israel. They focused on the “Syrian Golan”, the “Peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine”, and 3 UN units that are specifically mandated to deal with the rights of Palestinians.
While these above-mentioned texts are generally passed every year without much contestation, a welcome development came when several countries -- Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia, Brazil, and Colombia – decided to alter their voting pattern and oppose a resolution calling for continued operation of the UN's 'Division for Palestinian Rights'.
In a statement thanking these countries, Israel Minister of Foreign Affairs, Israel Katz, highlighted that this change represented an “important step in the long struggle against the prejudiced bias towards Israel at the United Nations.” He continued: “ particularly noticeable is the shift in the stance of several member states of the European Union and I trust that the remaining EU members will adopt this position soon.”
