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He would not know, for example, the background to Resolution 10/10, which voices its deep concern at "grave breaches of international humanitarian law committed in the Jenin refugee camp . . . by the Israeli occupying forces." He would not know that the Palestinian inhabitants of Jenin found themselves being used as human shields for bomb factories and terrorists. Not being familiar with the Geneva Convention, he would not know that Article 51 outlaws such tactics and makes them a war crime. A Martian would think that Israel laid "siege on the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem" simply because it wanted to destroy some holy sites. He would not know that the church was first occupied by Palestinian militants who desecrated the interior.
Other resolutions would lead him to believe that only Palestinian children were in danger in the Middle East, because Palestinian children are the only ones in the world the UN has voted to protect by name (Res. 57/188). He would assume these resolutions were fair because decent countries like Canada did not vote against them. And if he looked further into UN resolutions, he would assume that the troubled continent of Africa was comparatively free of atrocities since condemnations of countries such as Zimbabwe or Congo are virtually unknown, no matter how much blood is spilled.
Israel is the only member state denied permanent membership in any of the UN's five regional groups. It should be in the Asian group, but Muslim countries have kept it out. As did various countries of the "Western Europe and Others Group" which kept it out until 2000, when they granted Israel temporary membership of four years in an uncharacteristic spurt of warmth after the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon. But this temporary membership, following 42 years of isolation, came with restrictions. Israel is the only country that cannot take part in most group votes, including those on human rights and racism. Algeria, China, Cuba, Zimbabwe, Libya and Saudi Arabia can pass judgment at the UN High Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, but not Israel. China, home of forced abortions, and Iran and Sudan are key members of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, but not Israel. The Jewish state of Israel, created by the UN, is, as professor Anne Bayefsky of Toronto' s York University has written, "disqualified, blackballed or left standing in the halls of UN bodies everywhere." The Israeli ambassador might as well wear the yellow star.
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