By Morton A. Klein
(June 10, 2024 / Israel Hayom) On November 10, 1975 – the 37th anniversary of the Nazis’ nationwide Kristallnacht pogrom against German Jews, the United Nation General Assembly passed infamous Resolution 3379, calling Zionism – the national liberation movement of the Jewish people – a form of “racism.” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Daniel Patrick Moynihan promptly stood up and gave one of the most powerful speeches ever given at the UN. Ambassador Moynihan noted that the day would live in infamy, castigating the UN members that combined to perpetrate this outrageous obscenity, and refuting the UN resolution as a terrible lie that gave the abomination of antisemitism the appearance of international sanction, and would do grave harm to the whole notion of human rights.
Fortunately, Resolution 3379 was revoked in 1991, thanks to the hard work of the George H. W. Bush administration. But unfortunately, the United Nations has continued to be a forum where the abomination of antisemitism is repeatedly given the appearance of international sanction.
This happened once again today: Shamefully, UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ Chief of Staff notified Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan that Israel (along with Hamas) was being added to a “List of Shame” appended to the UN Secretary-General’s report on Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC), shaming countries and armed organizations that allegedly have not taken adequate measures to improve the protection of children during conflict.
Israel is a moral, human rights-loving nation that goes out of its way to protect Palestinian children’s and civilians’ lives at the risk of Israel’s own soldiers’ lives. It is utterly obscene to place Israel on the same “list of shame” as Hamas, which deliberately murders, tortures and abducts Jewish children and deliberately places its own children in harm’s way.
As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated, the UN actually “added itself to the blacklist of history when it joined those who support the Hamas murderers.”
Indeed. It is the UN that belongs on the List of Shame – especially the UN’s largest agency, UNRWA – whose teachers and other workers participated in murdering and abducting Jewish civilians on October 7th; bragged about their genocidal crimes; imprisoned hostages in their homes in Gaza; teach Palestinian children to murder Jews; and continue to store weapons and provide facilities for Hamas in UNRWA schools and other facilities.
ZOA also completely agrees with Ambassador Erdan’s strong response: “I am utterly shocked and disgusted by this shameful decision of the Secretary-General. Israel’s army is the most moral army in the world and you know it. This is an immoral decision that only aids terrorism and reward Hamas. . . . The only one who is blacklisted today is the Secretary-General whose decisions since the war started, and even before, are rewarding terrorists and incentivizing them to use children for terror acts. Now Hamas will continue even more to use schools and hospitals because this shameful decision of the Secretary-General will only give Hamas hope to survive and extend the war and extend the suffering. Shame on him!”
In 1975, Ambassador Moynihan declared: “The United States rises to declare before the General Assembly of the United Nations, and before the world, that it does not acknowledge, it will not abide by, it will never acquiesce in this infamous act.”
It’s time for the United States to rise up and say the same thing today, demand that Guterres must immediately remove Israel from his “List of Shame,” and take action against the cesspool that the United Nations has become.
Every decent country that has the moral capacity to distinguish good from evil must likewise stand up and protest the UN’s latest antisemitic abomination, and demand that it be revoked.
Morton A. Klein is the national president of the Zionist Organization of America.
This op-ed was originally published in Israel Hayom and can be viewed here.