Exposing the U.N.'s Double Standard: ACLJ Report Reveals Israel Condemned 187 Times While Iran, North Korea Escape Scrutiny

For decades, Israel has been the object of baseless criticism and bias at the United Nations and its different organs. We have stood with Israel throughout these attacks. As part of our advocacy on behalf of the State of Israel at the U.N., we have just filed a report with the U.N. Human Rights Council (HRC) highlighting the U.N.’s ongoing attacks on Israel.

Most recently, we reported to the HRC that the U.N.’s serious bias against Israel is clear from the sheer number of HRC’s and the General Assembly’s (GA) resolutions, Special Rapporteur reports condemning actions Israel takes in self-defense, and biased and false reporting by the so-called International Independent Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel (COI) and the Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OCHA-OPT).

For example, in our report, we pointed out:

[F]rom 2006 through the present, the GA adopted 187 resolutions condemning Israel, while Iran has been condemned only eleven times, despite its well-known and systematic violations of human rights. North Korea, which brutally suppresses dissent and enslaves its people, also received a mere eleven condemnations, while China, Cuba, Libya, Pakistan, and Venezuela have all yet to be condemned. The clear bias against Israel is obvious and unjustifiable.

Our report further states:

During that same time period, the HRC passed 116 resolutions condemning Israel, while criminal regimes like Cuba and China have warranted no condemnation. Under notorious dictator Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela has earned four condemnations, and Iran’s theocratic regime garnered eighteen.

The bias against Israel is not limited to the HRC and the GA. Recently, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres took a trip to the troubled nation of Syria, and instead of addressing its human rights failures, he took the opportunity to condemn Israel.

Moreover, since the creation of the above-mentioned COI, we have been responding to its false accusations against Israel. In its more recent report, the COI falsely accused Israel of deliberately targeting Palestinian children.

In response to these false accusations, we informed the HRC (which created the COI) that:

This COI Report is extremely misleading because it fails to include numerous well-documented steps taken by Israel to minimize civilian harm. Only thirteen pages out of the ninety-four-page Report focus on the alleged examples of deliberate targeting of children. The rest of the Report simply pads the page count with the COI’s previous reports which wrongly accuse Israel of sexual and reproductive violence and attacks on civilian buildings—which the COI fails to connect to its false reporting on the deliberate targeting of children.

Like the COI, the OCHA-OPT’s reporting is also one-sided. It simply ignores Hamas’s unlawful use of civilian infrastructure. After October 7, 2023, when Israel found Hamas operations under UNRWA’s headquarters in Gaza, OCHA-OPT did not report it as a violation of international humanitarian law. While OCHA-OPT has labeled Israeli early attack warnings to civilians in Gaza as against “the rules of war and basic humanity,” it has supported similar warnings in other conflicts as “‘desperate measures in desperate times.’” The 2018 mass evacuation in Syria is but one example.

Finally, our report highlighted the deplorable actions of UNRWA, whose employees participated in the October 7 attacks on Israel. Out of 12,521 UNRWA workers in Gaza, 1,462 were reported to be members of Hamas and other terrorist organizations. They dug tunnels under UNRWA schools, while two of the schools’ principals were confirmed Hamas members. Not surprisingly, Hamas used UNRWA schools to store weapons.

In light of these outrageous and baseless attacks against Israel by the U.N., we have asked the HRC to take an honest look at its own work and the work of its sister organs at the U.N. to ensure these issues are addressed.

Specifically, we stated:

The UN’s purpose is to “maintain international peace and security . . . in conformity with the principles of justice and international law.” Dishonest reporting and disproportional condemnation of one State—a State that endeavors to do its best to uphold international law—is not justice.

Through our international affiliate, the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ), which has Special Consultative Status with the U.N., we are able to file vital reports with different U.N. organs on a regular basis. Our ECLJ status at the U.N. also gives us a significant platform and an opportunity to respond to the biased work that continues to occur at the U.N. against Israel. Both the ACLJ and the ECLJ committed to defending Israel against this onslaught.