The United Nations is supposed to be above the fray – a forum for and facilitator of peaceful resolutions or, at the least, the minimisation of harms. Yet for the last year, Israel has treated it as an inconvenience at best and adversary at worst.
UN peacekeepers are literally in the path of its offensive in Lebanon and are refusing to leave as it has urged. The Israel Defense Forces forcibly entered a base and have repeatedly fired on their positions, injuring five. Nearly 230 aid workers for Unrwa, which supports Palestinians, have been killed in Gaza. Earlier this month, Israel declared the UN’s secretary‑general, António Guterres, persona non grata. In May, its outgoing ambassador to the UN shredded a copy of the charter.
The relationship has long been fraught. Israel says it is singled out unfairly by the large number of (non‑binding) general assembly resolutions criticising it. The country’s alliance with the US has meant that more consequential security council resolutions have almost always been vetoed by Washington.
Israel has long lobbied against Unrwa, objecting to its recognition of the right of return for Palestinian refugees and their descendants, and is now in the process of banning it as a terrorist organisation. The UN says that nine of its 13,000 employees in Gaza might have been involved in the 7 October Hamas attack: disturbing findings that do not negate the value of the agency, on which millions depend for basic supplies and services. The agency’s head, Philippe Lazzarini, says that the intent is ultimately to undermine the Palestinian aspiration for self-determination.
Only four years ago, when the World Jewish Congress honoured Mr Guterres, it described him as “the voice of fairness and equity that the state of Israel and the Jewish people have been hoping for at the United Nations for a long, long time”. His remark that the Hamas atrocities of 7 October “did not happen in a vacuum”, made as he condemned them, provoked anger in Israel. But the government also knew that its all-out assault on Gaza would inevitably bring intense criticism at the UN. Its attacks upon the institution, and the man who represents it, have sought to undercut and delegitimise the censure.
They are also a sign of the times. The UN is now a beleaguered institution, stuck on the sidelines of recent major conflicts. The security council has repeatedly been deadlocked, with the US, the UK and France on one side and Russia and China on the other. Western leaders have wrung their hands about this weakness and paralysis contributing to the decline of the rules-based international order. They must confront any attempt to further undermine it.
The UN security council has rightly issued a collective statement backing Mr Guterres. Unrwa too must be supported. The widespread condemnation of attacks on UN peacekeepers is also vital. Israel’s attacks are increasing its international isolation, even alienating Italy, one of its staunchest European allies, which is among those supplying the UN troops. Spain and Ireland have urged other EU members to suspend the free trade agreement with Israel over its actions in Gaza and Lebanon. Spain and France have called for countries to stop supplying arms to Israel.
But overall the US has been mealy-mouthed to date – and Israel in any case knows it will be financially and militarily supported whatever it does, as a former French ambassador to Washington and representative to the UN, Gérard Araud, has noted. The US is likely to regret allowing further weakening of the UN. Benjamin Netanyahu and his colleagues’ refusal to respect it makes it all the more important that others do so, and do so vocally.
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