1 00:00:00,420 --> 00:00:07,420 There are 193 countries in the United Nations today. Of these, one has been singled out 2 00:00:07,779 --> 00:00:14,330 as an especially egregious offender of the organization's mandate to preserve and enhance 3 00:00:14,330 --> 00:00:19,320 human freedom and tolerance. Can you guess which it is? 4 00:00:19,320 --> 00:00:25,270 It has about seven million citizens of whom a fifth are Arab. The government is vibrantly 5 00:00:25,270 --> 00:00:32,270 democratic; its press wide open, and religious freedom fully respected. Women have equal 6 00:00:33,059 --> 00:00:35,370 rights, and gays live openly. 7 00:00:35,370 --> 00:00:37,159 The answer is Israel. 8 00:00:37,159 --> 00:00:40,210 Here are some facts: 9 00:00:40,210 --> 00:00:46,879 38% of all the resolutions of the United Nations Human Rights Council - the UN's top human 10 00:00:46,879 --> 00:00:53,879 rights body - that are critical of specific countries have been directed at Israel alone. 11 00:00:54,709 --> 00:01:00,799 The Council has a permanent agenda that governs every regular session. This agenda is composed 12 00:01:00,799 --> 00:01:06,950 of ten items, one of which is always reserved for criticizing Israel. 13 00:01:06,950 --> 00:01:16,430 Between 2006 -- when the council was created -- and 2012, it published 48 reports condemning Israel. 14 00:01:16,620 --> 00:01:22,520 During that same period, there were nine reports on Syria's mass killings and 15 00:01:22,540 --> 00:01:31,360 torture of its own citizens, three on Iran's genocide-threatening regime, and not one on, 16 00:01:31,409 --> 00:01:38,409 for example, China - which denies more than a billion people elementary freedoms. 17 00:01:38,619 --> 00:01:43,130 I could go on, but I think you get the idea. 18 00:01:43,130 --> 00:01:48,829 So we are faced with a choice. Either there's something very wrong with Israel that I'm 19 00:01:48,829 --> 00:01:54,179 not telling you about or there's something very wrong with the United Nations that you 20 00:01:54,179 --> 00:01:56,240 should know about. 21 00:01:56,240 --> 00:01:59,189 Let's look into the history of both. 22 00:01:59,189 --> 00:02:01,149 First Israel. 23 00:02:01,600 --> 00:02:08,600 Ever since its establishment (voted for by the United Nations, by the way) in 1948, Israel 24 00:02:08,920 --> 00:02:13,340 has had to fight its neighbors solely in order to survive. 25 00:02:13,340 --> 00:02:21,860 It has endured innumerable acts of terrorism, the most intense from 2000-2005, the so-called 26 00:02:21,870 --> 00:02:27,510 Second Intifada in which children and other innocents were blown up in places like pizza 27 00:02:27,510 --> 00:02:34,510 parlors, and buses and at weddings. It still suffers from rocket attacks against civilians 28 00:02:34,760 --> 00:02:41,220 from the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by a terror group, Hamas, whose stated reason 29 00:02:41,220 --> 00:02:45,549 for existence is to destroy Israel. 30 00:02:45,549 --> 00:02:52,649 Israel has developed a strong military and a web of security fences and walls to protect itself. 31 00:02:53,180 --> 00:02:58,860 Do these security measures cause hardships to people who must deal with this network? 32 00:02:59,220 --> 00:03:06,220 Yes, they do. Israel would like nothing better than to tear all these fences and walls down. 33 00:03:07,650 --> 00:03:13,829 But bitter experience informs it as to what would happen if it did. 34 00:03:13,829 --> 00:03:20,470 Is Israel a perfect country? Of course not. But it is one of the freest and most open 35 00:03:20,470 --> 00:03:23,439 societies in the world. 36 00:03:23,439 --> 00:03:25,340 That's Israel history. 37 00:03:25,340 --> 00:03:26,879 Here's the UN's. 38 00:03:26,879 --> 00:03:35,419 In 1949, when the UN admitted Israel as a member state, the UN had 58 member countries 39 00:03:35,420 --> 00:03:43,980 and a clear democratic and pro-Western orientation. Today the UN has 193 member countries, 40 00:03:44,239 --> 00:03:47,879 most of which are not even free. 41 00:03:47,879 --> 00:03:53,900 Among its many negative changes, the UN changed the principle of "self-determination" from 42 00:03:53,900 --> 00:04:02,019 a post-World War II, post-Holocaust human rights principle to a tool to wield against 43 00:04:02,019 --> 00:04:05,219 the West, especially against Israel. 44 00:04:05,219 --> 00:04:12,259 This reached its fullest expression at the notorious Durban Conference, held in South Africa in 2001. 45 00:04:13,540 --> 00:04:18,240 The Durban Conference was billed as a UN world conference against racism 46 00:04:18,250 --> 00:04:25,250 and intolerance, but it turned into an orgy of anti-Israel and anti-Jew propaganda. 47 00:04:27,070 --> 00:04:33,790 Of all the bad actors in the world, the final Durban Declaration found one state guilty 48 00:04:33,790 --> 00:04:40,790 of racial discrimination -- you guessed it, Israel. The Durban Declaration, however, remains 49 00:04:41,380 --> 00:04:48,380 to this day the centerpiece of the UN's allegedly anti-racism agenda. 50 00:04:48,560 --> 00:04:55,450 There's only one country in the world whose very legitimacy is questioned, only one country 51 00:04:55,450 --> 00:05:02,450 that is openly threatened with annihilation. That country is Israel. And what has the United 52 00:05:02,580 --> 00:05:09,580 Nations done about it? Worse than nothing. It has itself become a global platform for 53 00:05:10,390 --> 00:05:15,560 anti-Semitism and the destruction of the Jewish state. 54 00:05:15,560 --> 00:05:21,100 I'm Anne Bayefsky director of the Touro Human Rights Institute for Prager University.