Israel largely ignores 'Palestine Day' at UN

Senior diplomatic official: We pick our battles, this one we can't win; GA expected to condemn Israel.

By HERB KEINON
palestinian flag 224.88 (photo credit: AP)
palestinian flag 224.88
(photo credit: AP)
Under the rubric of the need to choose one's battles, Israel is not putting a lot of energy into battling the annual anti-Israel ritual at the UN known as the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, scheduled for Monday. Every year on this day, the UN passes a number of pro-Palestinian resolutions that blast Israel, and one diplomatic official said that Jerusalem had concluded it was useless to invest much in fighting those resolutions because of the built-in Arab and third-world majority in the General Assembly. "We pick our battles, and this is one that, because of the numbers, we simply can't win," one senior diplomatic official said. Nevertheless, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gabriella Shalev is expected to address the General Assembly. While Israel is not planning any significant counter action, Anne Bayefsky, editor of a UN monitor site called EYEontheUN.org , said in a statement that the event was "an annual reminder that the UN's real agenda is to delegitimize the birth - and the perseverance - of the State of Israel." According to Eye on the UN, there will be a formal meeting Monday morning of the Committee on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, as well as a film, an afternoon meeting of the General Assembly on the "Question of Palestine," and the opening of a public exhibit at the entrance to the UN's New York headquarters. The General Assembly is scheduled to adopt another six resolutions condemning Israel for human rights violations. According to Eye on the UN, a total of 20 resolutions criticizing Israel are expected to be adopted at this fall's General Assembly, compared to only four resolutions critical of human rights records in any of the remaining 191 UN member nations. The exhibit, which will open at 6 p.m. on Monday in the UN lobby - the public entrance through which schoolchildren and tourists come in - is entitled "The Palestinians: 60 years of Struggle and Enduring Hope." According to Bayefsky, "The '60 years of struggle' is telling. It puts a lie to the alleged root cause of the Arab-Israeli conflict as an 'occupation' that began with the 1967 war. The real complaint is the alleged wrong of the creation of the State of Israel itself."