AJC Ad in Today's Wall Street Journal on Unjust UN Treatment of Israel

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Sep 28, 2015, 08:41 ET

NEW YORK, Sept. 28, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In a full-page ad in today's Wall Street Journal, AJC is calling on world leaders to end the longstanding, endemic bias against Israel at the United Nations.

The ad, "How the UN Divides the World," graphically lines up 192 UN member states on the left-hand side of the page and Israel alone on the right-hand side. This division is exactly how Israel is treated in the UN system, especially at the Geneva-based Human Rights Council.

Astonishingly, and defying all logic and truth, the Council has issued more condemnations of democratic Israel than of all other member states combined. It even dedicates an entire agenda item (#7) to scrutinizing Israel—the only state so segregated.

"The UN has defaulted on its founding commitment to the 'sovereign equality' of all member states," states the ad, which appears as the leaders of UN member states gather in New York for the UN General Assembly (UNGA) opening session, marking 70 years since the founding of the world body.

The ad also introduces a new AJC website, UNjustUN.org, to take action. The site includes a video, an ebook, and other resources detailing how Israel is shamefully treated differently than all other UN member states.

"The singular and decades-long focus on Israel has undermined the noble UN mission," said AJC Executive Director David Harris. "In the case of human rights, this obsession with Israel has tragically served to ignore the plight of countless genuine victims of abuse by governments rarely, if ever, condemned, by the Human Rights Council."

AJC has been involved with the UN since the founding conference, in San Francisco, in 1945. Historians credit AJC leaders with having successfully advocated for the inclusion of human rights protections in the UN Charter.

In an annual tradition since 1991, AJC is meeting privately with more than 60 presidents, prime ministers, and foreign ministers currently attending the UNGA.

SOURCE American Jewish Committee