The latest session of the United Nations General Assembly is launching with a bang, as Palestinians are planning to ostracize Israel in the style of the much-maligned, and now defunct, “Zionism is Racism” resolution of  1975. 

 As the General Assembly session officially commenced at 3 p.m. Tuesday, the Palestinian observer to the UN, Riad Mansour, huddled with fellow Arab ambassadors in the UN halls. He is pushing a new resolution proposal that would force Israel to depart Gaza, Judea and Samaria, and Jerusalem by March. It would also impose a global arms embargo, in effect stripping Israel of the right to defend itself against terrorists that seek its demise. 

Mr. Mansour is aiming to pass the writ by next week. When he first raised the idea last month, he also invited members of the UN Security Council to join the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, on a tour of Gaza. No ambassador took the bait, and as of yet Mr. Abbas has been unable to gain access to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.    

If the new Palestinian resolution passes on the eve of the first anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 massacre in Israel, “it will be a reward for terrorism, and a message to the world that the barbaric slaughter of children, the rape of women, and the kidnapping of innocent civilians is a worthwhile tactic,” Israel’s ambassador at the UN, Danny Danon, said.   

The timing is designed to coincide with the annual gathering of world leaders at New York’s Turtle Bay, on the eve of the General Assembly’s September 23 general debate, an annual marathon of speeches.

To gain support, Mr. Mansour might tweak the proposed text a bit. Diplomats tell the Sun that America and several European countries would oppose the resolution, while other Europeans would either abstain or vote in favor. Yet, any anti-Israel resolution at the General Assembly is assumed to have a built-in majority.

As a late Israeli diplomat, Abba Eban, said in the era of the Zionism is Racism resolution, “If Algeria introduced a resolution declaring that the earth was flat and that Israel had flattened it, it would pass by a vote of 164 to 13 with 26 abstentions.”     

As is often the case at Turtle Bay, Arabs and their allies bounce resolutions from one UN body to another, like an echo chamber. In December 2022, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution that asked for an advisory opinion from the Hague-based International Court of Justice. 

The resolution asked leading questions like, “What are the legal consequences arising from the ongoing violation by Israel of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination?” In July, the Hague dutifully issued an 83-page opinion that affirmed New York’s query. Now, Mr. Mansour is returning to the General Assembly for more. 

The proposed resolution relies on the ICJ opinion, which called Israel’s presence in the territories “unlawful.” The text also referes to another ICJ case, where Israel is accused of “genocide.” Yet, that case might now be delayed as the complainant, South Africa, is reportedly unable to find enough evidence to support its accusation. 

The proposed new Palestinian resolution would “demand” that Israel leave all “Occupied Palestinian Territories without delay.” Specifically, it says, Israel must leave these areas “no later than six months from the adoption of the present resolution.” 

At the going rate it is unclear when the war in Gaza will end. Israel is also unlikely to cease military raids into terror nests in West Bank cities like Jenin, where the Palestinian Authority lost all control, and where threats to Israeli cities are growing. The Palestinian proposal, though, calls for a global arms embargo if Israel continues to battle its Iranian-armed enemies.  

All UN members, it says, must “cease any direct or indirect transfer, sale, export and diversion of arms, munitions, parts, components, dual use items, surveillance equipment, technologies, and any other military equipment to Israel” if “there are reasonable grounds to suspect that they might be used in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

Also banned would be “any military trade, cooperation and dual-use research, which may contribute to the maintenance of Israel’s unlawful presence in the Territory.”

Israeli allies, like Britain, have recently announced a partial arms embargo. President Biden denied halting congressional-mandated arms deliveries, even as Israeli officials said certain weapons are slow to arrive.

UN General Assembly resolutions have no enforcement mechanism and at times are dismissed as “non-binding.” Yet, if the Assembly enacts the proposed resolution, it could strengthen voices within allied countries that are already overly critical of Israel, and could lead to military, trade, intellectual, and other exchanges with the Jewish state. 

“Any country that votes for this extreme resolution would be a party to denying a UN member state, which for decades has been besieged by terrorism, its basic right to defend itself,” a veteran Israeli diplomat who had served as deputy UN envoy, Daniel Carmon, tells the Sun.