By Mohammad Rasoul Kailani
It appears the Hasbara trolls have been emailed a new talking point. To the detriment of my sanity, I decided to look at the ongoing online discourse surrounding the situation in Jerusalem. After illegal settlers have been trying to expel Palestinian families from their homes, protests erupted, which were violently suppressed by Israeli police. A few days ago, Israeli forces entered the area of the Temple Mount and broke into Al Aqsa mosque, firing tear gas at worshippers and setting fire to parts of the compound. This has happened multiple times in the past week, and after the most recent bloody beatdown, many Israelis celebrated their control of Jerusalem. There is a plethora of video evidence that attests to the disgusting crimes committed yesterday, so the equally disgusting advocates of Israel have shifted their strategy in regards to shilling. Since it is impossible to deny that Israel is committing such atrocities, Israel’s keyboard warriors have been parroting a new line along the lines of “all countries have dark spots, but Israel only gets called out because they’re the Jewish state!” One would hope that there would not even have to be an article explaining why this claim is so absurd, fallacious and misinformed, but it must be noted; these commenters are right when they say Israel is the exception, but not in the way they assert. Israel is a fascinating case of when a country can commit such egregious violations of International Law and practically suffer no consequences.
Many countries have set different types of records. For instance, Canada has the world’s highest number of freshwater lakes, and Brazil has won more World Cups than any other nation. Israel has the noted distinction of violating more United Nations Resolutions than any other member state. Talk about defying expectations! The amount of times Israel has been condemned by the various bodies of the U.N. is unfathomable. Since the U.N. Human Rights Council was formed in 2006, it has condemned Israel more than it has condemned every other country combined. Overall, the United Nations Security Council has adopted resolutions condemning Israel 83 times since 1948*, whilst the General Assembly has condemned Israel 119 times in the last seven years**. Faced with such a blow to their image as “the only democracy in the Middle East”, Israel and their backers generally assert that they are unfairly excluded and the councils have anti-Semitic motives, but again, no other country could commit so many blatant violations of international law and still be considered a member of the international community.
In the 1990’s, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq violated sixteen United Nations resolutions. After their loss in the Gulf War, sanctions were slapped on Iraq, which destroyed its economy (One Iraqi Dinar was worth around $3 before the war, it eventually devalued to 3,000 dinars for every dollar.) The United States semmed particularly distressed by these infractions, as it used them as a pretext to invade Iraq in 2003. This, as we know, resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians and broke Iraq beyond repair. South Africa’s apartheid regime was condemned a number of times by the United Nations. The Security Council adopted resolution 418, which placed a strict arms embargo on South Africa. Later on, general sanctions were placed on South Africa. All this pressure helped cause the collapse of that country’s racist governing system and free elections were held there in 1994. In a more recent example, the Islamic Republic of Iran suffered an arms embargo and a freezing of assets for beginning a nuclear program, whereas Israel can possess hundreds of nuclear warheads and suffer no consequences.
What is especially disgraceful is that Israel is not only immune from any sort of decisive action, but is essentially rewarded for its unjust deeds. Israel receives $3.8 billion annually from the United States, being second only to Afghanistan in terms of monetary assistance from the U.S. Of the $151 billion that has been given to Israel by the United States since its inception, $104 billion has gone to the Israeli Defence Forces, an army known for its fighting skills, female soldiers and wide array of war crimes. Israel has no regard for civilian life, which is why their bombs have flattened residential buildings in Gaza, killing at least 113 this week (at the time of publication.) Americans, rather than going towards free healthcare or improving your communities, your tax money is killing little children in a foreign land. It seems strange that of all the strategic alliances America is a part of, this is the one that seems especially important. The big question must be asked: why is America so inclined to defend and assist Israel, a country that is the antithesis of American democratic values?
To keep it short and simple, lobbying. Lobbying is a legal way of attempting to influence government legislation in order to serve certain interests. It often involves the gifting of campaign donations in exchange for the receiving politician advocating for a designated policy. In essence, it is a fancified form of bribery. The pro-Israel lobby in the United States has congress in a headlock. Lobbying watchdog Open Secrets has found that in 2020, $28 million was given to incumbent members of congress or potential candidates by pro-Israel advocacy groups. Interestingly, the politician that received the most “assistance” last year was none other than current president Joe Biden, who received over $3 million from these organizations. There are other significant reasons as well. Certain Evangelical Christian groups believe that the Holy Land must be controlled by the Jews for Jesus to come back, and perpetual conflict in the Middle East ensures continued Western hegemony over the region (this reason is so important that it might be necesarry to dedicate another article to it.) Now that it has been established that Israel can easily sway American policy decisions in its favour, an analysis of how this affects accountability must be conducted.
All of these factors have strongly influenced how America votes in the United Nations. Since 2002, the U.S. has abided to the “Negroponte doctrine”, a policy that stipulates America will veto any Security Council resolution that condemns Israel without criticizing Palestinian millitant groups. This may sound objective, but it is a perfect example of the “both sides” fallacy. The United Nations has found that since 2008, 5,601 Palestinians have violently died as a result of the conflict compared to 251 Israelis. To break it down a bit, 121 of the Israelis who died were IDF troops engaged in combat, whereas a quarter of Palestinians killed were minors. Clearly, one side is doing more damage. Because of this, Israel is able to avoid a lot of denunciation and punishment for its actions. Since 1972, the U.S. has vetoed 45 resolutions addressing Israel’s illegal actions in the Security Council. This has the effect of allowing Israel to evade justice. Just to put this in perspective, of the 83 Security Council resolutions that have ever condemned Israel, 56 occurred after 1972, which means that in reality, Israel should be condemned almost twice as much as it is at the moment!
You may be wondering why the United Nations does not seem to denounce other murderous regimes as much. In the founding charter of the United Nations, article 2.7 provides that – “Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state or shall require the Members to submit such matters to settlement under the present Charter; but this principle shall not prejudice the application of enforcement measures under Chapter VII.” To simplify, the United Nations tends not to intervene in domestic affairs unless it poses a risk to Chapter VII, which mandates that the United Nations must work to maintain peace and prevent breaches of it. Many people dislike this fact, but the issue (if you view this as one) is to do with the U.N’s application of resolutions in general; it is not the case that Israel is specifically targeted. For example, the United Nations never condemned Ben Ali’s Tunisia for torturing dissidents because that is not their jurisdiction. This rule does not apply in all cases. If war breaks out and certain conventions are repeatedly violated, the U.N. may voice its concern. An example of this can be found with Assad’s Syria and the civil war there, especially the use of chemical weapons in 2013. Resolutions were drafted numerous times to condemn the Syrian regime, but they were repeatedly vetoed by Syria’s closest ally, Russia. Perhaps there is a general problem with the existence of the veto.
Numerous resolutions address Israel because their issues are not really domestic. Israel occupies the West Bank. It hasn’t annexed it, so it isn’t considered part of it’s sovereign territory. Given that Palestine is an observer state of the United Nations, it makes sense that this is treated as one country transgressing on the other, not an internal issue. Thus, article 2.7 does not apply. What does apply are the many charters and conventions that Israel pretends do not exist, and then acts surprised when the body meant to ensure these conventions are followed has an issue with it. The argument referenced in the beginning of the article is an absolutely terrible one. When Zionists respond to this fact, they do not even deny it. In fact, many insinuate that the United Nations is an illegitimate and lying organization. If this is the case, leave it! Obviously, this will not happen, because membership in the U.N. is quite important. Furthermore, at least do what any sensible perpetrator of ethnic cleansing would do and deny the atrocities. Nay, it seem Zionists are too proud of detaining and killing children to deny the facts and figures. To those who use this argument, at least try to look intelligent.
In reality, no other country could do what Israel does and still be able to receive millions of tourists and billions of dollars in foreign aid. It is just impossible to argue that your country is wrong and unjustly targeted when the world’s most powerful country puts an unholy amount of effort to ensure that the fate of Apartheid South Africa does not repeat itself. Such a claim is also insulting to Holocaust victims. Using the pressing problem of anti-Semitism to avoid responsibility for violating every piece of international legislation known to man trivializes that very real issue. On top of the claim being false, it is grossly immoral as well. It is a great injustice to the Palestinian people and a spit in the face of Human Rights that Israel can commit such despicable crimes, then use money and connections to not only avoid accountability, but even cry about it. Shame on Israel and shame on those who lie to defend its heinous acts.
*I counted 77 violations from 1955-2013 from this chart, five additional ones from the source previously linked (1948-55) and one more from 2016.
**The source linked had 104 condemnations but only tracked up until 2019, there were 17 additional condemnations in 2020
In any case, the fact that I had to count so many violations this meticulously proves the point of the article.
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SHAME ON YOU TRUDEU !!!