The United Nations General Assembly, the body featuring all member states, overwhelmingly passed a resolution on Tuesday demanding Israel halt its war against the genocidal terrorist organization Hamas – and rejected two proposed amendments to condemn the terrorists.
The resolution is the second from the General Assembly addressing the Israeli war on Hamas since October 7, when Hamas terrorists invaded Israel and brutally killed 1,200 people, abducted 250 others, and engaged in a spree of atrocities including gang rape, torture, the killing of children as young as infants, and desecrating of corpses.
The General Assembly adopted a similar measure in late October that also failed to condemn Hamas but urged Israel not to protect itself from a repeat of the October 7 crimes against humanity.
Demonstrators protest outside the United Nations while the General Assembly vote on a resolution to demand the cease-fire in Gaza on December 12, 2023 in New York City. (Kena Betancur/VIEWpress/Getty)
The United Nations Security Council, the most powerful body in the global entity, has struggled to make any official statements on the Hamas slaughter as a result of the veto powers of its permanent members, particularly Russia, which vetoed a U.S.-led resolution for being insufficiently condemning of Israel while introducing pro-Hamas resolutions that the Council voted down.
The Council ultimately passed a resolution in mid-November demanding “urgent an extended humanitarian pauses” in Gaza but failing to condemn Hamas for the terorrist attacks of October 7.
The document on Monday received the support of 153 of the General Assembly’s 193 members. Only ten countries – including Israel, as well as the United States, Paraguay, Guatemala, and Liberia – voted against the resolution. Another 23 countries – prominently including European powers such as Germany, the United Kingdom, and Italy – abstained from the vote.
Today, the #UNGA Emergency Special Session adopted resolution ES-10/22 demanding:
— UN GA President (@UN_PGA) December 13, 2023
➡️ Immediate humanitarian ceasefire.
➡️ All parties comply with their obligations under international law.
➡️ Unconditional release of all hostages, as well as ensuring humanitarian access. pic.twitter.com/IiBjS5g5Uf
The resolution demands an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire,” meaning a halt in Israeli counterterrorist operations, leaving Hamas to rebuild and prepare for another attack. It also demands the “unconditional release of all hostages” still in Gaza, the Hamas stronghold where they are believed to be trapped, and includes vague language urging parties’ compliance with international law, which the United Nations has no mechanism to enforce.
The document does not mention Hamas at all. The government of Austria attempted to amend the resolution to add a call to Hamas, specifically, to release its hostages, but the General Assembly voted against it. The United States also attempted to pass an amendment that would have explicitly condemned Hamas for the atrocities of October 7, but that, too, failed.
Israel’s Ambassador to the U.N. Gilad Erdan fervently condemned the General Assembly for omitting Hamas from the resolution and attempting to prevent military operations meant to stop terrorism.
“Not only does it fail to condemn Hamas for its crimes against humanity — it doesn’t mention Hamas at all,” Erdan lamented. He also condemned calls for a ceasefire, emphasizing, that a ceasefire in Gaza “means one thing and one thing only — ensuring the survival of Hamas, ensuring the survival of genocidal terrorists committed to the annihilation of Israel and Jews.”
Demonstrators gather as the U.N. General Assembly vote on a resolution to demand the cease-fire in Gaza on December 12, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Kena Betancur/VIEWpress/Gettys)
There is no indication that Israel will end its counterterror operations in response to the resolution. Following the passage of the late October General Assembly resolution, which used the term “humantarian truce” rather than “ceasefire,” Erdan declared, “Israel will not stop the operation until Hamas terror capabilities are destroyed and our hostages are returned. … And the only way to destroy Hamas is root them out of their tunnels and subterranean city of terror.”
The United Nations has a history of anti-Israel bias and antisemitism in general, developed long before October 7. The General Assembly, for example, used over half of its 2022 resolutions to condemn Israel, spending less than half its time on the entire rest of the world combined.
“The United Nations is unquestionably the world’s foremost legitimizer of antisemitism, including in its most virulent and violent forms,” Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) said in November, chairing a Congressional hearing on antisemitism at the United Nations. At the hearing, experts detailed the outrageous actions of the United Nations and statements by top officials condemning Israel, with no similar outrage against rogue human rights violators such as North Korea and China.
Of particular concern is the United Nations’ “special rapporteur on Palestine” for human rights, Francesca Albanese, who has a history of explicitly antisemitic statements and collaboration with Hamas.
A display shows the results of a U.N. General Assembly vote on a resolution to demand a ceasefire in Gaza on December 12, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Kena Betancur/VIEWpress)
“Before she was appointed, we informed the Council that Albanese had repeatedly equated Palestinian suffering with the Nazi Holocaust and accused Israel of war crimes, apartheid, and genocide,” Hillel Neuer, who leads the monitor group U.N. Watch, told Congress. “In a 2014 Facebook post, she wrote that America is ‘subjugated by the Jewish lobby’ … Last November, she addressed a Hamas conference where she said, ‘you have a right to resist.’”
Following October 7, Albanese declared Israel’s right to self-defense against terrorism is “non-existent” and has said the population of Gaza should “return” to Israel, suggesting the dissolution of the latter state.
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