Top Jewish groups denounce UN General Assembly’s failure to pass anti-Hamas resolution

Top Jewish groups denounced the UN General Assembly over its failure to pass a US-authored resolution on Thursday.

By Algemeiner Staff

A number of top Jewish groups have denounced the U.N. General Assembly over its failure to pass a U.S.-authored resolution on Thursday condemning the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.

The motion received the backing of 87 countries, which 57 rejected it (and 33 abstained from the vote). This plurality fell short of a 2/3 majority requirement that was put in place — with the support of a group of Arab nations — in a procedural move just before the vote.

World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder said, “The United Nations General Assembly has had countless opportunities to prove that it stands of the right side of history. Yet, time and again, the vast majority of its members have failed to do so.

“Today’s disappointing vote is just the latest example of the anti-Israeli bias and double standards that run rampant throughout the international community. We thank all of the member states who expressed their support for this important resolution.”

“Hamas is a terrorist organization that exploits the lives of innocent civilians in its boundless quest to terrify Israelis and destroy the State of Israel,” Lauder added. “It is high time that the international community recognize Hamas for what it is and condemn it in the strongest terms possible.”

B’nai B’rith International President Charles Kaufman and CEO Daniel Mariaschin said, “We salute the United States mission to the United Nations, and particularly Ambassador Nikki Haley, for initiating a first-time, explicit U.N. General Assembly repudiation of Hamas, the terrorist group that controls the Gaza Strip, for its culpability in relentless and recently escalated attacks against Israeli civilians from that territory and its reckless exploitation of Palestinians.

:Although the resolution garnered a plurality of votes, it failed to achieve the two-thirds majority required due to a procedural roadblock. Haley rightly pointed out this roadblock was a clear double standard, as just last week the U.N. General Assembly passed numerous resolutions under the same agenda item attacking Israel with no similar two-thirds majority requirement.

“Indeed, another resolution — tabled by Ireland — was passed at this same session without any discussion of a need for such a two-thirds majority.”

“The resolution against Hamas was part of ongoing and determined efforts to demand a far more responsible and unbiased U.N. approach to Arab-Israeli issues and is critical to meaningful efforts at actual peacemaking. We commend the 87 countries that supported this manifestly just and common-sense resolution and take note of the 33 countries that declined to support the resolution through their abstention,” Kaufman and Mariaschin continued.

“Despite Hamas’s long history of targeting Israeli civilians with rockets, digging tunnels into Israel and carrying out suicide bombing attacks, this resolution was the first time that the U.N. General Assembly has almost condemned Hamas by name.

“We are appalled by the numerous ploys the Palestinians and their allies at the U.N. have used to sink this important resolution. The double standard that was ultimately used to deny a plurality of the U.N. General Assembly passage of this critical resolution clearly shows that anti-Semitism continues to plague the world body.

“All countries that voted in favor of requiring a two-thirds majority are as complicit in this stain on the U.N.’s reputation as those who ultimately voted against this resolution.”

“The U.N. was founded to work toward global peace and security. Until its member states are able to recognize that the terrorism employed by Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other groups in the region is a key factor holding back any attempt at a peaceful resolution of the conflict, the UN will continue to wallow in its own irrelevance,” they concluded.

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