The Weaponization of Human Rights and What to Do About it
[Excerpts]
Israel is in the middle of a very difficult war – the most painful since 1973, and perhaps even the 1948 War of Independence. Accompanying the brutal slaughter of October 7 and thousands of rockets, a parallel battle is being fought in the form of the demonization of the Jewish state as the world’s most evil violator of human rights and international law. In universities, hated Zionists (meaning most Jews) are the targets of antisemitic attacks, and in major cities, violent mobs attack Jewish targets.
The weapons of this demonization have been twisted out of the same principles and institutions that were originally forged to protect the Jewish people and mankind from a repetition of the atrocities perpetrated by Nazi Germany and its allies. These principles were enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, both adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948. In the years that followed, institutions were established to monitor and implement these instruments, including UN agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
Yet, for the past fifty years, these frameworks, created as a direct result of the Holocaust, have been systematically subverted and weaponized to demonize the Jewish State. A toxic brew was concocted from the antisemitism emanating from the Kremlin and assorted Arab capitals, combined with Cold War political dynamics. In the Soviet bloc, Jew hatred was rampant, and it was amplified within the UN and elsewhere by the 21-country Arab League. In debates on human rights and racism, whenever the US and Israel would raise the issue of Soviet Jewry, the Soviets and Arabs countered with attacks against Zionism. Just 30 years after the UN was created, these forces produced the infamously antisemitic 1975 “Zionism is Racism“ Resolution 3379 in the General Assembly. And though the resolution was repealed in 1991, the accompanying UN committees and funding mechanisms for demonizing Israel remain.
