Professor Anne Bayefsky, President of the Human Rights Voices human rights organization, told Arutz Sheva - Israel National News that the United Nations Security Council resolution demanding an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, which could pass as early as tomorrow (Wednesday) without an American veto, would cement US President Joe Biden's legacy as the president who 'legitimized' global antisemitism if he refuses to veto it.
"Just when one thought the animosity of the Biden administration towards the state of Israel couldn’t get any worse, it has. American diplomats are now negotiating the semi-colons on a UN Security Council resolution that – from start to finish – abandons American and Israeli hostages and throws Israel to the wolves. The draft is a testament to the moral turpitude of the United Nations – and of the Western democracies who prop it up," Prof. Bayafsky said.
"In earlier drafts, a demand for an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza was in a first paragraph and release of the hostages in a second. Clever diplomats combined the paragraphs, so that a ceasefire came first, then a semi-colon, followed by oh-yes release the hostages," she said.
According to her, "Lawyers aren’t required to figure out that this means a permanent ceasefire before the release of all the hostages. It also means leaving Hamas armed, undefeated and committed to mass murder, in the full knowledge that there has never been a ceasefire Hamas didn’t break."
"At this moment, Team Biden is busy massaging the ceasefire language so that they can come out and announce to useful idiots that they are humanitarians," Prof. Bayefsky said.
She stated that, "assuming Jews are still considered part of humanity, a failure by the United States not to veto this resolution, will be the most anti-humanitarian antisemitic resolution in Security Council history."
"Here’s what the rest of the latest draft of this abominable resolution says: It issues a blood libel. It claims Israel is guilty of starving Palestinians, in its words 'rejecting any effort to starve Palestinians.' For a year, Israel been engaged in enormous efforts to supply Palestinians with humanitarian aid – stolen and redirected by Palestinian bosses. Israel has literally been feeding its mortal enemy. While the resolution fabricates an Israeli “effort” to starve Palestinians, it says absolutely nothing about the known fact that Palestinians are starving Israelis, and Americans. The hostages found shot in the head, including an American, were emaciated. But they don’t count for the UN. How is it possible that they don’t count for an American President?" she asked.
She continued, "It demands 'respect for the International Court of Justice' (ICJ) and in particular in its 'exercise of its advisory jurisdiction.' In July of this year, an ICJ advisory opinion said Israel was guilty of apartheid. The facts be damned, since Israeli Arabs enjoy more rights and freedoms in Israel than in any Arab state, while in Mahmoud Abbas’s words, 'filthy' Jewish feet are never to step foot in the 'State of Palestine.' Now an American President is going to allow the lethal lie that fuels every neo-Nazi rally, including on American campuses?"
"The resolution pushes farcical moral relativism by repeatedly directing its orders to comply with law to 'all parties.' It tells a terrorist organization to comply with international humanitarian law when its raison d’etre is to violate international humanitarian law," she said.
Prof. Bayefsky noted that the draft resolution "never condemns Hamas or even mentions Hamas. It doesn’t condemn October 7th (the same glaring omission of the four other post-October 7 Council resolutions.)"
In addition, "In a sick cover-up, it claims to deplore 'all acts of terrorism' – in the full knowledge that the UN has no definition of terrorism and that murdering Israeli Jews doesn’t count for the resolution’s sponsors. Take Iran’s word for it. On November 8, 2024, the majority of UN members – the 119 countries in the 'Non-Aligned Movement' whose UN spokesperson is Iran – told the General Assembly that 'terrorism should not be equated with the legitimate struggle of peoples under colonial or alien domination and foreign occupation.'”
"It repeatedly refers to all kinds of violations of the rights of civilians – but never to the right to life of Palestinian civilians used by fellow Palestinians as human shields," she added. "It says the war has had a 'grave impact' on Palestinian children, women and other civilians. It couldn’t think of any grave impact on Israeli children, women and other civilians."
Despite the UN's dismal track record in failing to condemn Hamas and ignoring or downplaying the atrocities committed on October 7 against against the hostages, the resolution "has an extraordinary paragraph praising the work of the United Nations and the Secretary-General in securing the release of the hostages and in promoting 'de-escalation.' That would be the same Secretary-General António Guterres who on October 9, 2023 said the butchery of Israelis had to be understood in the context of Israeli crimes – immediately diminishing the prospect of the hostages’ rescue and release. The same United Nations that has thrown up every conceivable roadblock to the hostages’ release – from denying their suffering to manufacturing Palestinian doppelganger 'victims.' De-escalation at the UN is code language for denying Israel the UN Charter right of self-defense. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk and the Executive Director of UN Women, Sima Bahous, called for 'de-escalation' on October 7th itself."
Additionally, "It purports to decide that the Palestinian Authority should rule Gaza. That would be the same entity whose 'democratic' President, Mahmoud Abbas, is in the 19th year of his four-year term and whose laws include financial rewards for killing Jews."
"It demands compliance with international law specifically with respect to the treatment of detainees – but not the hostages," she noted.
Moreover, "The resolution contains effusive praise for UNRWA, the UN accomplice and enabler of the October 7th atrocities and the prolongation of the war. It voices full support for UNRWA before accountability for employees who butchered Jews, use hospitals and schools as terror launching sites, and inculcate generations of Palestinian children in antisemitism and violent intolerance."
"And last, but not least, it sets up a formula – reports and meetings and a role for the Secretary-General – to outlive President Biden and to thwart endeavors by the incoming Trump administration to change anything that doesn’t meet with the approval of the United Nations. The resolution is an insult to every American voter," she said.
"If this horrendous resolution is not vetoed, President Biden’s legacy, along with the reputation of fellow Democrats, will be permanently stained. He will be remembered as the President who legitimized and provoked predictable murderous antisemitism in Israel and around the world, including the U.S.A. No UN lingo of 'humanitarianism,' 'ceasefires,' 'peace' and 'human rights,' can or will disguise this unabashed effort to demonize and destroy the Jewish state," Prof. Bayefsky concluded.