Anti-Israel U.N. Security Council Falls Silent in Face of Hamas Barbarism

Israel's Ambassador to the U.N. Gilad Erdan holds up a sign as he speaks to reporters
Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images
John Hayward

The U.N. Security Council (UNSC) held a closed-door emergency session Sunday to discuss the Hamas attack on Israel, but was unable to produce a statement condemning Hamas for the wanton rape, kidnapping, and murder of hundreds of Israeli civilians.

“We did not discuss any joint statement, but no one proposed any text anyway,” said Malta’s U.N. representative, Vanessa Frazier.

UNSC met for 90 minutes to discuss the crisis. U.S. representatives urged the 15-member council to condemn the incredible atrocities perpetrated by Hamas, but the U.N. was easily neutralized by interference from Hamas-supporting states, including Russia.

“My message was to stop the fighting immediately and to go to a ceasefire and to meaningful negotiations, which was told for decades. This is partly the result of unresolved issues,” said Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia.

“Many members of the Council believe that a political horizon leading to a two-state solution is the only way to finally solve this conflict,” said United Arab Emirates (UAE) Ambassador Lana Zaki Nusseibeh.

Chinese Ambassador Zhang Jun said Beijing favored issuing a joint statement, but not to condemn Hamas. Instead, China wanted a generic statement opposing “all attacks against civilians.”

“There are a good number of countries that condemned the Hamas attacks. They’re obviously not all,” sighed U.S. diplomat Robert Wood after the UNSC session. Before the meeting began, Wood said he expected all 15 member nations of the UNSC to condemn the Hamas attack.

Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan met with reporters outside the Security Council meeting room, showing them graphic images of Hamas atrocities against Israeli civilians.

“These are war crimes, blatant documented war crimes,” Erdan said. 

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“The era of reasoning with these savages is over. Now is the time to obliterate Hamas terror infrastructure, to completely erase it, so that such horrors are never committed again,” he urged.

“This unimaginable – unimaginable – atrocity must be condemned. Israel must be given steadfast support to defend ourselves, to defend the free world,” Erdan argued – unsuccessfully, as it turned out.

Palestinian ambassador Riyad Mansour, who technically represents the Palestinian Authority rather than Hamas, held Israel responsible for Hamas’ murderous actions.

“Regrettably, history for some media and politicians starts when Israelis are killed,” Mansour claimed.

“This is not a time to let Israel double down on its terrible choices. This is a time to tell Israel it needs to change course, that there is a path to peace where neither Palestinians nor Israelis are killed,” Mansour said.

Contrary to Mansour’s spin, the U.N. constantly denounces Israel and has no problem quickly issuing statements of condemnation against the Jewish state.

In 2022, the U.N. issued 15 resolutions condemning Israel, compared to 13 for the entire rest of the world combined – in a year when Russia was brutally invading Ukraine, China continued enslaving Muslims, the Taliban tightened its merciless grip on Afghanistan, and all parties in several African civil wars were credibly accused of crimes against humanity.

In April 2023, the U.N. General Assembly needed only 24 hours to condemn Israel for raiding the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, which “resulted in hundreds of Palestinian worshippers beaten, injured and detained while also causing damage to the building of Al-Qibli mosque.”

The U.N. chastised Israel for conducting the Al-Aqsa raid during a Muslim holiday but seems much less troubled by Hamas raping and murdering hundreds of Israelis during a high Jewish holiday. The statement of condemnation concluded by calling for “the end of Israel’s occupation” and “the realization of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including the Palestine refugees and the achievement of the two-State solution.”

The U.N. condemned Israel unequivocally, making no mention of Israeli grievances or even explaining why Israeli security forces raided the mosque using non-lethal equipment. A violent group of Palestinians had barricaded themselves inside the mosque and were throwing stones and fireworks at those outside.

“It’s absurd that out of a total of 28 UN General Assembly resolutions that criticize countries this year, more than half are focused on one single nation – Israel. Make no mistake: the purpose of these lopsided texts is not to promote human rights, but to demonize the Jewish state,” U.N. Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer said in December 2022, when the year’s tally of resolutions was complete.

Neuer was in Jerusalem for the holidays when Hamas attacked, so he was obliged to spend the weekend in bomb shelters instead of observing the fruitless UNSC meeting. He offered a gloomy prediction for how the U.N. was likely to handle the Hamas atrocity:

Hamas and Islamic Jihad, funded by the Islamic Republic of Iran, know that the world will do nothing — until Israel responds by targeting the terrorists and their infrastructure.

Then the U.N. Human Rights Council will spring into action, and accuse Israel of war crimes and racism. This incentivizes the terrorists, granting them a global propaganda victory. 

It’s what they’ve done repeatedly, like after the last war in May 2021. The UNHRC created a permanent commission of inquiry to target Israel. They made Navi Pillay the chair, after she already declared Israel to be a racist and inhuman war criminal. 

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the Hamas attack “in the strongest terms” through a spokesman on Saturday, saying he was “appalled by reports that civilians have been attacked and abducted from their own homes.”

However, Guterres then called on the Israelis to make more concessions to the Palestinians to prevent further atrocities.

“He stresses that violence cannot provide a solution to the conflict, and that only through negotiation leading to a two-State solution can peace be achieved,” Guterres spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

In a similar vein, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said he was “shocked and appalled at reports this morning that hundreds, possibly thousands, of indiscriminate rockets have been fired by Palestinian armed groups towards Israel,” but then called for “de-escalation” before Israel could respond.

“I call for an immediate stop to the violence, and appeal to all sides and key countries in the region to de-escalate to avoid further bloodshed,” he said.

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