Relatives and supporters of hostages kidnapped on the deadly October 7 attack by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, rally for their release, after a temporary truce between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas ended when the terrorist group broke it, in Tel Aviv, Israel, December 2, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha

As an Israeli human rights advocate and former UN officer, I am deeply troubled by the rapid evolution of latent bias against Israel at the UN, into widespread and unabashed antisemitism in some quarters within the international human rights community.

Senior officials and human rights experts at the UN need to be more thoughtful about their public statements, which have led to a denial of justice for Israeli victims.

I come from the same camp of human rights advocates. I too insist Palestinians have a right to a state. I also wish for the war and enormous suffering to end. And often, I can be critical of the Israeli government as well. However, nothing justifies nor contextualizes the crimes of Hamas. There can be no moral ambiguity about that.

The UN must maintain its moral authority by conveying a principled and fair approach to Israel. During these chaotic times, it is ever more important for the UN to uphold the promises of the UN Charter — to save us from the scourge of war, reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, and maintain respect for international law.

For example, justice and morality is not served by UNRWA staying silent about Hamas’ storage of weapons in its schools. An UNWRA teacher even helped Hamas hide hostages.

The UN’s principle of impartiality is perversely abused when UNICEF repeatedly compares innocent Israeli babies abducted by Hamas and the violent juveniles detained by Israel. And the principle of universality lost all meaning when UN Women failed to address the horrifying and barbaric sexual violence against Israeli women and girls for 50 days.

In addition to abandoning its principles, the UN has demonstrated no professional integrity. When it comes to the Israel-Hamas war, this holds true even for the World Health Organization, which has done such fine work in other areas. The organization risked the lives of Palestinian patients by delaying the evacuation of Al-Shifa Hospital, despite knowledge of its use for terrorist activities. It was the same pattern with the bombing of Gaza’s Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, which UN officials immediately pinned on Israel without verification, based on Hamas’ report. When they were proven wrong, they never issued retractions saying that Palestinian Islamic Jihad was the group who launched an errant rocket.

Endless UN resources were dedicated to spreading the narrative of Hamas, a bloodthirsty terrorist organization, and the Palestinian Mission to the United Nations. Somewhere along the way, the Secretary-General and other senior UN officials decided to streamline a uniform message and fall in line with Palestinian expectations.

One wonders why the Special Rapporteur on racism has stayed silent about the global surge in antisemitism. Similarly, the Special Rapporteur on health has said nothing on how to help Israeli survivors of the Hamas massacre recover. And the Special Rapporteur on internally displaced persons has ignored the hundreds of thousands of displaced Israelis. Such unreasonable conduct, and such blatant double standards, have contributed to the creation of a political environment that is hostile to the Jewish state and to all Jews, including the victims of Hamas.

Does the UN motto “leave no one behind” not apply to Jews?

In this hostile political climate, the concern of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights about antisemitism was eclipsed by his worry for the freedom of peaceful assembly of angry pro-Palestinian protesters. Make no mistake, a New York mob yelling “From the river to the sea” is just as terrifying as a Charlottesville mob chanting “Jews will not replace us!”

Israelis deserve better. The victims of the October 7 Hamas massacre deserve much better. The UN Charter promised much more to humanity. Especially now, it requires everyone at the UN to ask themselves: Am I really fair to all victims, regardless of nationality? Am I really doing the right thing? Or am I causing injustice?

 Yoni Ish-Hurwitz, Executive Director of the Human Rights Likeminded Office, is a former UN officer and former adviser at the Israeli Mission to the United Nations.