Departing Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan clearly had an unpleasant experience at the world’s largest international institution.
In an interview published in the Israeli newspaper Maariv on August 20, the disgruntled envoy said that “the UN building should be closed and wiped off from the face of the earth.”
Whether Erdan has made this realization or not, his aggressive statement indicates that his four-year career as Israel’s top UN diplomat was a failure.
In the interview, Erdan expressed his wish to become the head of Likud, the right-wing party of current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Erdan’s violent language could be his way of appealing to the right and far-right constituencies that feed on such violence.
However, there is more to Erdan’s hatred for the UN than the mere frustration of a disappointed diplomat.
Israel has had a long and troubled history with the United Nations and other UN-linked institutions. According to Israel’s political discourse, the UN is an ‘antisemitic’ organization, a label Israelis often invoke when their country is subjected to the slightest criticism.
Israel’s relationship with the UN is particularly odd because Israel was created by a UN decision, itself a direct outcome of UN political intrigues and western pressure.
On November 29, 1947, the UN passed resolution 181, calling for the division of historic Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state. It assigned most of the land, 56 percent, to the Jewish population, then a minority, and the rest to the Palestinian Arab natives.
Shortly after, Jewish Zionist leadership began a military campaign that conquered most of Palestine and ethnically cleansed most of its original population.
Israel was admitted as a full UN member on May 11, 1949, while native Palestinians remain stateless. Though Israel’s admission to the international body was conditioned on the acceptance of Resolutions 181 and 194 – on the status of Jerusalem and the right of return of Palestinian refugees – Israel’s violations of these and other resolutions, spared it punishment, thanks to strong backing from Washington and other western powers.
In June 1967, the rest of historic Palestine was conquered. Again, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were ethnically cleansed and, ever since, the remaining Palestinians have lived under a draconian system of military occupation, apartheid, siege and a constant state of war.
The ongoing Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip is the culmination of all the injustices inflicted on the Palestinian people throughout the decades. The war did not start on October 7, 2023, nor will it end when a ceasefire is finally declared.
Aside from the Balfour Declaration, where Britain pledged to construct a Jewish state in historic Palestine in November 1917, UN resolution 181, which allowed the establishment of Israel, could arguably be considered the genesis of all Palestinian suffering.
Throughout this bloody, unjust history, the UN neither penalized Israel nor granted Palestinians their long overdue justice. It even failed to implement or enforce any of its subsequent resolutions recognizing the illegality of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
Yet, Palestinians continue to resort to the UN, since it is their only international platform that could constantly remind Israel, and the world, that Tel Aviv is an Occupying Power, and that international and humanitarian laws must apply to Palestinians as an occupied nation.
These reminders were made frequently in the past, at the UN General Assembly and even at the Security Council, always to the displeasure of Israel and its western benefactors, mainly the United States.
The last solid legal position was articulated through an Advisory Opinion by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on July 19. After the testimonies and interventions made by at least 52 countries and countless experts, the ICJ resolved that “Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is unlawful, along with the associated settlement regime, annexation and use of natural resources.”
Although the UN has not made any difference in forcing Israel to end its occupation, dismantle illegal settlements or respect the basic human rights of Palestinians, the international institution remains a source of frustration for Israel.
Since its establishment on the ruins of Palestinian homes, Israel has worked to change the status of Palestine and Palestinian refugees, and constantly challenged the very term “occupation”. It has done its utmost to rewrite history, illegally annexed Palestinian and Arab land, and built illegal settlements as if permanent ‘facts on the ground’.
In 2017, it looked as if Israel was succeeding in its quest to cancel the Palestinian cause altogether when Washington recognized Israel’s fraudulent claims to Occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Golan Heights. Yet, the world did not follow suit, as demonstrated in the ICJ’s recent legal ruling.
As far as the United Nations is concerned, Israel remains an Occupying Power, bound to international laws and norms.
Though for Palestinians, such facts remain devoid of practical meaning, for Israel, the UN position is a major obstacle in the face of its blatant settler colonial project. And this is why Erdan wants the UN “wiped off from the face of the earth”.
Even if the angry Israeli diplomat gets his wish, nothing will alter this historic truth: Israel will remain a colonial regime, and Palestine will continue to resist, till justice is finally restored.
Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of six books. His latest book, co-edited with Ilan Pappé, is Our Vision for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders and Intellectuals Speak Out. His other books include My Father was a Freedom Fighter and The Last Earth. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA). His website is www.ramzybaroud.net.
