The UN’s protection of pariahs

by Ramona Wadi

United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the Rights Situation in the Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese speaks at a press conference during a session of the UN Human Rights Council, in Geneva, on 27 March, 2024 [FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images]

UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese told a recent press conference in Geneva, “I think it is unavoidable for Israel to become a pariah in the face of its continuous, relentless, vilifying assault of the United Nations, on top of millions of Palestinians.” She also asked: “Should there be a consideration of its membership as part of this organisation, which Israel seems to have zero respect for?”

Moreover, Albanese pointed out how many member states have failed to act to stop Israel’s genocide. In which case, ensconced as it is within the UN and the protection that the institution offers to settler-colonisation in Palestine, how can Israel become a pariah?

Albanese has not been one to shy away from calling out Israel over its genocide in Gaza.

However, the links between Israel and the UN cannot be ignored. Zionism found a foothold in the institution; the 1947 UN Partition Plan paved the way for Israel’s creation and the current genocide; and the Palestinian right of return as enshrined in UN resolution 194 is, at best, fleeting balm for a permanent wound. The essence of Resolution 194 is not that settler-colonialism ends, but that Palestinians make amends for it.

Israel must be held accountable for genocide, but, equally, the UN must be held accountable for creating Israel and allowing genocide to happen. It is highly unlikely that Israel will become a pariah because of its genocide or, on a lesser scale, its disrespect for the UN, because it enjoys unmatched impunity at the institution. If Israel can commit genocide and get away with it, how much more can Israel attack the UN and get away with it? It matters not that the UN is an international institution; what matters is that the international institution is subservient to Zionism and has routinely mellowed the settler-colonial entity’s international law violations, to the point that the UN has now normalised genocide by failing to act against it.

The UN is clearly not infallible. It has its own agenda which has nothing to do with protecting people and human rights.

As Albanese said, and rightly so, UN member states are failing to stop the Israeli genocide in Gaza, and this is the result of decades of letting previous international law violations occur with only the slightest reprimand. If the UN truly stood against genocide, this would be a stain on its reputation. However, the UN’s reputation is questionable and were it not for the duplicitous game it has to play when it comes to human rights and human rights violations, the institution would be wearing the genocide label as proudly as Israel.

No one can look at the genocide unleashed since 7 October in Gaza and not remember the 1948 Nakba. No one with a conscience, that is. Israel has replicated the Nakba with advanced military weapons and the UN has been able to watch it in real time, as has the rest of the world. But while the world has been screaming genocide, the UN has argued about humanitarian pauses and refused to address Israel’s genocide, or at least its genocidal intent. So, let’s be honest: how can Israel become a pariah in the midst of a whole bunch of pariahs which have made a mockery out of human rights and international law?