Holiday Spirit At The UN....

by Mickey Z
December 12, 2003

While this is allegedly the time of year when humans allegedly show more kindness, you can always count on god's country and the Holy Land to keep things in cynical perspective. Over the past 25 years, the United States and Israel have a UN voting record in the month of December that effectively demonstrates their political philosophies and firmly establishes them as the two most hypocritical nations on the planet.

<snip>


---- Dec. 12, 1979: 111 member-states endorse UNGA Res. 34/90A, calling upon Israel to desist from specified human rights violations vis-à-vis Palestinians. The US and Israel cast the only votes against. Dec. 14, 1979: 104 member-states endorse UNGA Res. 34/100, opposing internal or external intervention by any country in the legitimate affairs of another state. The US and Israel cast the only votes against. ----

The voting record is far too extensive to list here but in 1980, the US and Israel voted against the condemning of Israeli policy resulting in abysmal living conditions for the Palestinians. A year later, it was UNGA Res. 36/98, demanding that Israel comply with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty by renouncing possession of nuclear weapons. In December 1985, the US and Israel cast "no" votes against resolutions that deplored the human rights situation in El Salvador, and called for measures to be taken to combat the spread of nazi, fascist, and neofascist activities.

A favorite of mine occurred on Dec. 7, 1987 when only the US and Israel opposed a resolution calling for measures to prevent international terrorism and a comprehensive study of its root causes to help "define terrorism in such a way as to distinguish it from legitimate wars of national liberation." That vote was 153-2. In the 16 years since that tell-tale vote, the US and Israel have stood in holiday solidarity to oppose resolutions condemning apartheid in South Africa (1988), calling for a Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (1990), the adoption of alternative approaches by the UN in "its efforts to further universal enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms" (1991), reiterating the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people (1994), condemning Israel's illegal settlements in the occupied territories (1997), and reaffirming the applicability of the 1949 Geneva Convention IV to Israeli policies in the occupied territories (1999).

http://zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=22&ItemID=4673

Does anyone know if there's a list anywhere of resolutions that the US has voted against at the UN, both in the GA and ones they've either vetoed or managed to get off the agenda altogether in the SC? If there is, I'd love a link to it...

Violet...

SUPRISINGLY!!!! I found it at FreeRepublic

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/859716/posts

LOL. That's one place I wouldn't have thought of looking for it at. I'll take a look at it tomorrow...


Thanks again...

Violet...

and it doesn't really matter since their resolutions are non-binding.

But I find it interesting to see the sorts of resolutions that the US does vote against. A few were mentioned in the article I posted, like voting against condemning Apartheid in South Africa and condemning human rights abuses in El Salvador and condemning nazism etc, and I bet there's a whole lot more pretty nasty no votes if some digging is done....


Violet...