document<\/a>\u00a0that was recently signed between the U.N. and the Palestinians outlines a \u201cstrategic programming framework\u201d in the disputed territories from 2018-2022, and states that the U.N. will work to advise the Palestinian Authority on how to exploit \u201cinternational accountability mechanisms\u201d in order to hold Israel accountable for alleged violations of international law. The document is set to come into effect Jan. 1, 2018.<\/p>\nThe document makes no references to Palestinian violations of international law and human rights, nor does it specify that the $1.3 billion in funding should be applied to humanitarian assistance. Rather, the U.N. document states that the money should be used for developing programs that support \u201cPalestine\u2019s path to independence.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe funding of this unprecedented and prejudicial aggression against a member state by the U.N. is clear evidence that the international body\u2019s goal and solution is for a single Palestinian state to replace Israel,\u201d Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, president of the Tel Aviv-based civil rights organization Shurat HaDin – Israel Law Center, told JNS.org.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a new form of anti-Semitic aggression and terror by other means, and it plainly violates the U.N.\u2019s own charter,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Sixteen U.N. agencies appear as signatories in the document, including the OHCHR human rights office, the UNESCO cultural body and the UNRWA refugee agency. In signing the document, the agencies pledged to hold Israel accountable for its alleged violations and to document the purported abuses while simultaneously strengthening Palestinian groups\u2019 \u201cability to advocate effectively for rights to be respected.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the document, the U.N. also pledged to monitor \u201cthe impact of Israeli violations\u201d as well as how purported Israeli \u201cbreaches of international law\u201d hinder the development of \u201cPalestine.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no other example or precedent of the U.N. funding, training and advising one side of a conflict to pursue legal advocacy against another side,\u201d said Hillel Neuer, executive director of Geneva-based UN Watch, a group whose stated mission is to \u201cmonitor the performance of the United Nations by the yardstick of its own charter.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFor some reason, however, when it comes to Israel, the U.N. development agencies cross the bright red line from humanitarian assistance to political advocacy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Although the amount of funding allocated by the U.N. towards overtly anti-Israel initiatives is unprecedented, Shurat Hadin\u2019s Darshan-Leitner said the world body\u2019s singling out of Israel and misuse of funds were \u201cno big surprise.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe U.N. is misappropriating, once again, its donors\u2019 funds and directing them into projects that help the PLO target and attack the Jewish state, instead of for humanitarian causes,\u201d said Darshan-Leitner.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter all, it\u2019s the U.N.\u2019s raison d’etre at this point,\u201d she added. \u201cWe have seen a massive increase in these baseless lawfare suits being filed without any merit in the American federal courts in the past few years. The unilateral encouragement of these frivolous harassment suits against Israelis and Jewish individuals, which are obviously being funded and fanned on by foreign bodies, is a new Palestinian strategy to try to bedevil and deter support for Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Darshan-Leitner underscored that the U.N. \u201cdoes not care one iota about justice for the so-called \u2018victims\u2019 it\u2019s pretending to assist,\u201d and that it uses Palestinian initiatives as a vehicle for turning Israel into an international pariah.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s policies like this that display so clearly why\u00a0the United States was moved to quit UNESCO<\/a>, and is considering resigning [from] and defunding other U.N. agencies,\u201d she said.<\/p>\nProf. Avi Bell, a member of the faculty of law at Israel\u2019s Bar-Ilan University and a senior fellow at the Kohelet Policy Forum think tank, voiced similar sentiments, telling JNS.org that the U.N.\u2019s newly revealed strategic document \u201chighlights the degree to which many organs of the United Nations are actively involved in diplomatic, legal and financial warfare against the state of Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe often fail to appreciate the degree to which the U.N, supports, or even directs, anti-Israel propaganda and political activity,\u201d said Bell. \u201cThis kind of activity obviously violates the U.N. Charter by infringing upon Israeli sovereignty and denying Israel the right of sovereign equality.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bell added that these actions \u201cundermine international institutions by subordinating their legal roles to a political agenda [and] corrupting them in the name of anti-Zionist ideology\u2026.Unfortunately, the U.N.\u2019s decades-long war on Israel is nowhere near ending.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/UN_abbas.jpg\")