This tilt against Israel carries over to the UN Security Council as well . On December 23 , 2016 , in the waning days of the Obama Administration , for the first time in eight years , the U . S . declined to use its veto power to prevent the UN Security Council from adopting a biased resolution singling out Israel for condemnation . The current U . S . Administration , however , has vowed to veto any similar resolutions .
The strong anti-Israel bias at the UN has also led to the creation of numerous pro-Palestinian bodies within it that simply do not exist for any other group . The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People is the only General Assembly committee devoted to a single people . The Division for Palestinian Rights is the only division within the UN Secretariat ’ s Department of Political Affairs devoted to a single people . And the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People is the only committee in the UN ’ s human rights structure devoted to a single people .
Another glaring example of bias is the UN ’ s treatment of refugees . While the UN High Commissioner for Refugees is assigned to handle the needs of all the world ’ s refugees , a separate organization , the UN Relief and Works Agency ( UNRWA ), deals only with Palestinians . And that ’ s not all — those Palestinian refugees are treated differently than all the others . For one thing , while the High Commissioner ’ s portfolio includes “ only people who have fled their homeland ,” UNRWA ’ s definition also includes “ the descendants of persons who became refugees in 1948 ,” so that the original 860,000 Palestinian refugees have mushroomed into five million . Also , part of the High Commissioner ’ s mandate is to help resettle refugees , whereas UNRWA leaves its clients stateless , living in camps throughout the Middle East . Indeed , there is strong evidence indicating that UNRWA schools in those camps teach children hatred of Israel .
8 • DASHED HOPES : ANTI-ISRAEL BIAS AT THE UN