4 Things to Know About the Dec. 23 UN Resolution Against Israel
There has not been a resolution of this kind at the UN in nearly 40 years
While the United States has backed UN resolutions criticizing Israel in the past, what sets this one apart from previous measures is its breadth and scope. Not since 1979 and 1980, during the Carter administration, has the US countenanced a resolution that makes such sweeping claims against Jewish rights to the land. Under this resolution, strong disregard is shown to Judaism's holiest sites and Jews who pray at the Western Wall are in violation of international law.
Some contend that this most recent move is especially dangerous given the rising climate of anti-semitism occurring all over the globe.
In a Wednesday post on their website addressed to UN Ambassador Samantha Power, UN Watch Executive Director Hillel C. Neuer, said that that UN Resolution 2334 has emboldened Islamic terror groups like Hamas and the United States had "joined the jackals."
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By enshrining in the text of the resolution the "4 June 1967 lines," which were Israel's internationally recognized borders before the Six Day War in 1967 began, the United States has reneged on its prior promises to Israel, he argued.
Writing in Providence magazine Thursday, Anglican theologian Gerald McDermott, a professor at Beeson Divinity School in Alabama, noted that the resolution makes egregious allegations against Israel, including that it violates Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention which prohibits forced deportations of peoples.
"This is ironic," McDermott said, "because this convention was adopted to prevent crimes like the Nazi deportation of Jews to death camps."
"But no Israelis are being deported against their will — they are moving voluntarily; nor is any Palestinian Arab being deported or transferred," he added.
