The Israeli parliament’s designation of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency as a “terrorist organisation” is merely the culmination of a historical path of hostility by official political institutions in Israel, along with their outright rejection of resolutions reflecting the collective international will represented by the United Nations General Assembly. This has escalated to the point of declaring the head of this agency as persona non grata, labeling him a “partner in terrorism”, barring his entry into Israel, and even deeming the UN itself a “hotbed of anti-Semitism”.
It is no secret that international institutions, due to certain regulations, have historically failed to fulfill their role as defined in the charter— to maintain international peace and security. This failure results from the privileges granted to the victorious powers of World War II, which has rendered the UN Security Council unable to express the positions of the world’s people as reflected in the General Assembly or to independently take actions that protect the rights and interests of nations, free from dominance, dependency, and foreign guardianship.
Although international efforts were made to overcome this issue through Resolution (377) adopted by the General Assembly in 1950, under the title Uniting for Peace, which grants the General Assembly the right to intervene in matters where the Security Council fails to act due to a veto, the General Assembly has been unable to enforce dozens of resolutions aimed at maintaining international peace and security. Many of the recommendations issued by the Assembly under this resolution, particularly those related to the Palestinian issue, remain unimplemented due to international power imbalances and the protection that major countries provide to Israel. Israel uses this protection to justify its rebellion and even its aggression against international legitimacy and its symbols.
Israel is a glaring example of these power imbalances, reflecting the contradictions and conflicts among major powers. Despite being the member most subject to international criticism, leading the list of countries facing international resolutions, and showing the least compliance with these resolutions, the UN has yet to take any single measure to deter this defiance and compel Israel to respect international will. The American veto plays a primary role in encouraging Israel to flout international laws and oppose global consensus. Nevertheless, there remains some leeway, although the General Assembly has failed to activate or leverage it for its own protection, avoiding the effects of the veto except in rare cases with recommendations that remained unrealized.
Today, many voices are calling from countries, institutions, and international law experts to expel Israel from the United Nations. However, such calls still collide with Article 5, which links the matter of expelling any member from the UN to a Security Council recommendation—dominated by the United States through its veto power.
Given the difficulty of securing a Security Council decision recommending Israel’s expulsion to the General Assembly, some propose suspending Israel’s membership in the international organisation, bypassing Article 5 and using the precedent from 1974, when South Africa’s membership was suspended due to its apartheid policies.
In the current Israeli reality, apart from the racist laws enacted by the Israeli parliament—such as banning the activities of one of the UN’s most significant agencies (UNRWA)—there are numerous Israeli laws that do not differ in nature from the laws and legislation enacted by South Africa’s white government that affected all aspects of life. For instance, Israeli laws classified as racist include: the Law of Return (1950), the Citizenship Law (1951), the Absentees’ Property Law (1950), the Land Acquisition and Utilization Law (1953), the Law of Limitations (1957), the Population Distribution Law (1975) preventing non-Jews from building in certain cities, the Planning Law (1982) restricting building permits in Palestinian areas to address population density issues, the Citizenship and Nationality Withdrawal Laws (2008), the Nakba Law (2011), the Forced Feeding of Prisoners Law (2015), the Stone Throwers Law (2015), the Call to Prayer Ban Law (2017), and the law permitting the trial of Palestinian children under the age of 14 (2018)—in addition to hundreds of administrative decisions characterized by racial and discriminatory nature.
Israeli laws and practices—whether against Palestinians or Arabs in Israel, especially following the enactment of the “Jewish Nation-State Law” in 2018—establish Jewish racism institutionally and officially, embedding it as a policy of the entity and its institutions. Thus, the occupation has legitimized a system of racial discrimination, reconstituting itself as an illegal and undemocratic occupying and racist entity that thrives only on policies of extremism and aggression against the Palestinian people. This provides ample grounds for suspending Israel’s membership in the United Nations as a precursor to its expulsion from other UN-affiliated international institutions.
What further legitimizes the demand for suspension or expulsion is Israel’s initial failure to meet the conditions for membership in the United Nations, particularly regarding the UN’s purposes of maintaining international peace and security, respecting peoples’ rights to self-determination, and requiring all member states to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state. Notably, the Israeli law banning UNRWA activities and annulling its 1967 agreement with the organisation is not only an infringement of previous commitments but also a violation of Article 105 of the Charter, which explicitly states that “the Organisation (UNRWA) shall enjoy in the territory of each of its Members such privileges and immunities as are necessary for the fulfillment of its purposes… and that the representatives of the Members of the United Nations and officials of the Organisation shall likewise enjoy the privileges and immunities necessary for the independent exercise of their functions in connection with the Organisation.”
Through its practices, policies, and daily crimes against the Palestinian people, along with its blatant and open defiance of UN organisations and officials, and refusal to comply with resolutions issued by UN bodies, Israel places itself outside the framework of the international cooperation represented by the United Nations. Therefore, this organisation must prioritize the application of the principle of equality among its members and activate mechanisms of accountability and punishment against any member that does not comply with international will, constituting a threat to international peace through its actions.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
In the name of the Foreign Affairs Department of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, we present this message to you, setting forth the reasons for expelling Israel from the United Nations. We hope it will draw your attention and resonate within global public opinion to expose Israel’s positions, which oppose all values of democracy, human rights, and international law, now reduced to a name devoid of actual substance. Israeli officials have taken their defiance of international organisations to a level of arrogance and insolence previously unseen by any international entity, not only challenging the Palestinian people and their national rights but also openly rebelling against the international system. Therefore, it is the right and duty of the international family to consider ways to curb this defiance. We have full confidence in your support for Palestinian rights and international justice, which will remain incomplete until enjoyed by the Palestinian people, who have endured aggression that will remain a shameful stain on the conscience of a world that has stood by, silent and complicit, in the face of the genocide targeting children and civilians in a barbaric assault unprecedented in modern history, both in its extent and in the silence that has emboldened the criminal to continue his crimes
Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Foreign Affairs Department
