CFI Officer Bob Blackman MP this week urged the UK Government to review its voting pattern at the United Nations, after the UK supported a series of resolutions singling out Israel at the UN General Assembly.
The MP for Harrow East welcomed “the Government’s strong condemnation of anti-Israel bias at the UN Human Rights Council” but noted that this “robust stance” conflicts with the UK’s voting pattern at the UN General Assembly.
The UK Government has “supported dozens of resolutions hostile to Israel, even one erasing the Jewish connection to Jerusalem”, Mr Blackman added.
He asked the Foreign Secretary to “commit to ensure that going forward, our actions will better reflect our words?”
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said Mr Blackman was “right to talk about the importance of balance” in UN resolutions, defending the UK’s record as being “consistent” with this aim.
The UN General Assembly approved 17 resolutions on Israel and the Palestinians in December 2020, many of which singled out Israel for criticism. These resolutions are passed annually with minimal textual changes.
According to the UN Watch monitoring organisation, the UK annually votes for more than 70% of the anti-Israel resolutions adopted by the General Assembly.
One of the resolutions supported by UK in December 2020 only used the Islamic term “Haram al-Sharif” to describe Jerusalem’s Temple Mount (Judaism’s holiest site), ignoring the Jewish connection to the site.
