UN General Assembly singles out Israel, declares it must give up nuclear weapons

Resolution also made no mention of Iran’s ongoing nuclear activities

The United Nations General Assembly decided that Israel must “give up its nuclear weapons” even though the Jewish state has never confirmed whether it has nuclear weapons.

Singling out Israel, while citing the “risk of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East,” Wednesday’s resolution also made no mention of Iran’s ongoing nuclear activities or diminishing breakout time cited by other world leaders.

The vote was an overwhelming 149 to 6.

Israel is the regular target of UNGA resolutions and has complained that countries with much worse human rights records are ignored while it is singled out. The United States, Canada, Micronesia, Palau, Liberia and Israel voted against this week’s declaration; while an additional 26 nations, including many European countries and India, abstained from voting.

A prior declaration in October during the UNGA’s Fifth Committee also voted 152-5 against Israel. While Ukraine was absent from this week’s proceedings, the war-beleaguered country voted against Israel in October and was criticized by many in Israel for demanding aid while consistently voting against the Jewish state.

In a warning in October, Michael Maayan, Israel’s deputy ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, said, “For decades now, Iran has been rapidly advancing its illicit nuclear programs and currently possesses large quantities of highly enriched nuclear material.”

UNGA has never addressed these actions, despite their violation of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

This week’s vote calling on Israel to give up nuclear weapons comes one week after the U.N. voted 90-30 to commemorate the founding of Israel as Nakba Day – “nakba” is the Arabic word for “disaster,” or “catastrophe.” Forty-seven countries abstained.

Abraham Accords co-signer, the United Arab Emirates, co-sponsored the Nakba Day resolution and all the Arab signers of the Abraham Accords voted in favor of both the Nakba Day resolution and this week’s demand that Israel give up nuclear weapons.

The UAE-sponsored resolution calls on the UNGA to commemorate the nakba next year at the U.N. headquarters in New York City.