Afrasianet - Omar Kosh - Israel has been waging a sustained campaign for many years against the United Nations, despite being a Member State, as a result of the inability of the United Nations organs to take any punitive action against Israel for its crimes and violations against the Palestinian people since its inception in 1948.
The Israeli campaign has intensified with the genocidal war it has been waging for more than thirteen months against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, which has expanded to include the leaders and elements of the Lebanese Hezbollah, their whereabouts, and their social incubator, in all Lebanese regions, where the United Nations peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL) have been subjected to direct and repeated Israeli attacks.
On the political side, UN officials have been attacked and reprimanded by Israeli politicians and generals, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In addition, on October 2, former Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz (now defense minister) considered UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres "persona non grata," which means that he is barred from entering Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Even French President Emmanuel Macron was not spared Netanyahu's attack and rebuke because he tried to remind him that the Jewish state was created by a UN resolution, referring to the General Assembly's vote on Resolution 181 in November 1947, which provides for the plan to partition Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state.
Guterres is not the only UN official whom Israel's far-right government has deemed persona non grata and is being targeted by Israel, and the Israeli authorities have previously denied the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, a visa to visit in April.
It has also been subjected to Israeli targeting campaigns, but responded to the campaigns targeting UN officials by saying that it is "an unjustified attack that expresses moral cowardice."
Perhaps the most dangerous Israeli targeting of the UN is the Israeli Knesset's vote, on October 28, 2024, of two resolutions banning the activities of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the occupied territories, one of which severes all Israeli authorities' relations with it, and the other stipulates that it "prevents it from having any representation, stops its services, and does not carry out any activity directly or indirectly within the territory under Israeli sovereignty," which will have political, legal and humanitarian repercussions.
This decision poses a serious threat to the Agency's work, as it limits its ability to carry out its responsibilities towards millions of Palestine refugees, as it is the only body that provides humanitarian assistance, health care and education to Palestinians living in refugee camps in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, as well as a symbol of maintaining the guarantee of the right of return of Palestinian refugees to their homes.
The main reason for Israel's campaign against the United Nations is simply because it is an organization that represents international legitimacy, defined by the set of principles and laws drawn up by legislators, to govern and direct international relations through it, and by the provisions of its organs and bodies charged with maintaining world peace and security.
Israel does not recognize all of this, as it considers itself above all international conventions and laws because of the support it enjoys, especially from the United States and its allies in Western countries.
Israel did not arise naturally, as it is not like the rest of the world, which was formed according to social and political processes among human groups inhabiting a specific territory of the land, united by history and coexistence, but rather as a settler-colonial entity.
It has used violence against Palestinians since its inception in 1948, and has continued to target Palestinians through wars, forced displacement, and ongoing collective punishment.
If Israel's aggressive practices are contrary to the Charter of the United Nations and international laws, Israel's persistence in non-compliance with the resolutions of United Nations institutions exposes the fact that it is a rogue State and its impunity for continuing its defiance of the United Nations.
On May 10, Israel's former ambassador to the UN, Danny Erdan, tore up a copy of the UN Charter while standing at the podium of the General Assembly, in response to the General Assembly's vote in favor of a resolution supporting Palestine's application for full membership in the United Nations.
UN agencies have already issued dozens of laws condemning Israel's crimes and human rights violations in the occupied Palestinian territories, despite pressure from Israel's supporters and allies, especially the United States, which blocked the passage of more than 50 draft resolutions against Israel.
The United Nations seeks to promote respect for international law and the protection of human rights, but Israel's politicians demean it, disdain its work and endeavors, and consider it a tool biased against their country's policies, and a docile tool in the hands of countries opposed to its settler occupation of Palestinian lands, so they have not stopped targeting it.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not shy away from himself when he described the United Nations, from the podium of the General Assembly on September 27, as "a cesspool of anti-Semitic bile that must be drained" and that if it does not comply with what he wants, it will be "nothing more than a despicable farce."
The main reason for Israel's campaign against the United Nations is simply because it is an organization that represents international legitimacy, defined by the set of principles and laws it has established to guide international relations, which Israel does not recognize.
Since the beginning of the genocidal war on the Gaza Strip on October 8, 2023, the level of Israeli targeting of the United Nations has increased, by fabricating accusations aimed at discrediting it, portraying it as an organization that supports "terrorists" and prevents Israel from exercising its right to self-defense against them.
The Israeli propaganda campaign focused on UNRWA, and tried to portray it as a "den of terrorists," as Netanyahu claimed on January 26, 2024, that 12 employees working for this agency participated in the attack carried out by the Islamic Resistance Movement "Hamas" on October 7, 2023.
On March 23, 2024, the US Congress voted to suspend US funding to UNRWA until March 2025, despite the fact that the far-right government in Israel has not provided any convincing evidence to prove its false claims.
In addition, reports by international human rights organizations confirmed that the Israeli army deliberately bombed UNRWA headquarters, including schools, hospitals, homes and offices.
According to its Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini, the number of victims of this UN agency has reached at least 223 employees since the outbreak of the beginning of the Israeli war on Gaza, while more than 563 civilians who were present at its headquarters were killed. In addition, Israel bombed schools and places that are being equipped as shelters for the displaced, and whose coordinates UNRWA sends so that the Israeli army does not bomb them.
On April 18, 1996, Israeli fighter jets bombed a UNIFIL camp in the town of Qana in southern Lebanon, where Lebanese civilians had taken refuge, resulting in an Israeli massacre in which 106 civilians were killed.
In addition, UNIFIL has lost 334 personnel, most of whom died in Israeli raids, since it was formed on March 19, 1978, based on UN Security Council resolutions 425 and 426, and its vanguards reached southern Lebanon on March 23 of the same year.
The question may arise: Why not suspend Israel's membership in the United Nations until the campaign against it is stopped? The answer to the question is that any punitive measure to suspend or expel Israel from the United Nations is contingent on the recommendation of the Security Council.
It is known that the United States, which has veto power, does not allow any such measure to be passed, so Israel will continue its policies and practices, especially since the far-right government led by Netanyahu is driven by fascism that has come to control the prevailing Israeli political mind.