The United Nations (UN) was founded in 1945 after WW2 and has grown from 51 to 193 Member States. There is a perfect reason why there were so few member states at its inception, but more about that later…
According to its founding charter, the UN’s main aspirations promised much for a world recovering from the devastation and inhumanity of WW2. However, in recent times, the once noble founding mission and vision of maintaining international peace and security, protecting human rights, delivering humanitarian aid, supporting sustainable development and climate action, and upholding international law for all countries are just words on paper.
Today, the UN is hostage to the self-serving ambitions of a handful of countries with veto rights, most notably the United States of America. The USA is the biggest bully in the UN and uses its veto voting power to ensure that its imperialist foreign policy holds sway by effectively crushing the rights of everyone else while showing the finger to international law.
Other countries that vote in agreement with the US on matters that affect global peace, security, sustainability, development and self-determination are usually the same loathsome clique – former colonial powers or desperate underlings hoping for sloppy seconds. They’re often appropriately referred to as vassal states. Some, like Nauru, Micronesia, Palau, and Papua New Guinea, are probably still caught in the headlights of cargo-cult worship of the USA.
Last month, the USA vetoed Palestine’s application to the Security Council for full member status of the UN. Yet again, when a new resolution for limited membership rights was brought up in the UN General Assembly earlier this month, the US voted with Israel, Argentina, Czech Republic, Hungary, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, and Papua New Guinea against the resolution. Familiar vassal states like Canada and Germany, among 23 others, decided to abstain in a cowardly fashion.
Fortunately, 143 countries chose to be on the right side of history and humanity by voting favourably. Thus, Palestine will become a limited member, which will force the UN Security Council to reconsider its previous rejection by the solitary US veto. There were 25 abstentions and nine rejections, whom I named and shamed earlier.
With that rambling introduction, which was meant to impart some idea about the United Nations’ disreputable nature, I will focus on one of the more perverse episodes in its inglorious history.
After the latest General Assembly vote to admit Palestine as a member of the UN with limited rights, Israeli envoy Gilan Erdan, in what has become a familiar exhibition of theatrical yet childish outrage, proceeded to destroy a miniature copy of the UN charter with a mini shredder. He undoubtedly brought the mini shredder to the UN meeting in a calculated move.
Erdan has previously brought similar props to UN meetings because those on the wrong side of history tend to resort to infantile hubris when logic, reason and moral authority are not in their arsenal. His mini tantrum only succeeded in shredding what little humanity and integrity Israel still possesses after seven months of brutally massacring more than 40,000 Palestinians and pummeling most of Gaza into rubble.
While Palestine received an overwhelming number of votes from countries for partial admittance to the UN, Israel just managed to scrape through on their application for full membership in 1949. Gilan Erdan would not be so smug was he familiar with the circumstances of his own county’s admittance.
UN Resolution 273 for the admittance of Israel to the UN was passed by the General Assembly with 37 votes for, 12 against, and nine abstentions. The subsequent Security Council vote was a mere formality. By 1949, the UN had grown to only 58 member states. The interesting point about this low number is that a vast portion of the world, including most of Africa, was still under colonial rule at the time and thus excluded from membership.
South Africa, then under apartheid rule, voted in favour of Israeli membership in the UN. Ironically, post-apartheid South Africa is currently one of Israel’s leading detractors, having referred them to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) earlier this year to answer for a case of genocide.
Following the court’s granting of interim measures against Israel in January, South Africa has returned to the ICJ on two subsequent occasions, the latest being just last week, to seek further measures to protect Palestinians against probable genocide.
Even a casual observer would not have failed to notice the utter desperation in Israel’s legal defense. It consisted of much bluster and outrage but little to no facts. At one point, an attendee inside the courtroom, shouted ‘liar” as an Israeli lawyer was making her closing statement.
Israel’s defense was so perverse, that it would not have been out of character if their ambassador to the Netherlands showed up with a mini shredder to shred the Statute of the ICJ.
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