The 50th Anniversary of the Infamous UN “Zionism is Racism” Resolution

In the immediate aftermath of the brutal and tragic Hamas massacre of Israeli and foreign citizens on October 7, 2023, and the ensuing Gaza war, and since then up to present day, the world is witnessing perhaps the most violent, virulent, and unbridled outbreak of anti-Israel and antisemitic activity and Islamic fundamentalist incitement – whether on the streets and campuses in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and Europe, and through extensive social media activity.

The effects of such activity cannot be underestimated, and the antisemitic “genie” that, for many years, had remained restrained, existing under the surface, has now been released, with catastrophic consequences.

This should come as no surprise, as its sources had been generated in the infamous equation that equated Israel and its national liberation movement, Zionism, with racism. This equation was formalized and granted international legitimacy exactly 50 years ago with the November 1975 UN General Assembly Resolution 3379, adopted by an absolute majority of states, that coined the antisemitic trope “Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination.”¹

The resolution formalized anti-Jewish discrimination and hatred under the artificial guise of anti-Zionism. This guise remains up to the present day the main vehicle and platform for undermining Israel’s continuing legitimacy throughout the world.

In adopting this resolution, the UN formally transformed itself into the main international vehicle openly generating, advocating, and sanctioning discrimination against Israel, in stark violation of its own Charter principle of “sovereign equality of all its members.”²

As stated by the then-U.S. ambassador to the UN, Daniel Moynihan: “The United Nations is about to make anti-Semitism international law. The U.S. does not acknowledge, it will not abide by, it will never acquiesce in this infamous act … A great evil has been loosed upon the world.”³

The offensive determination equating Zionism with racism was subsequently formally revoked by General Assembly Resolution 46/86, adopted on December 16, 1991, and supported by a majority of 111 states, with 25 Arab League, Muslim, and African states opposing.

In introducing the revocation motion at the UN, former U.S. President George H. W. Bush stated:

UNGA Resolution 3379, the so-called “Zionism is racism” resolution, mocks this pledge and the principles upon which the United Nations was founded. And I call now for its repeal. Zionism is not a policy; it is the idea that led to the creation of a home for the Jewish people, to the State of Israel. And to equate Zionism with the intolerable sin of racism is to twist history and forget the terrible plight of Jews in World War II and, indeed, throughout history. To equate Zionism with racism is to reject Israel itself, a member of good standing of the United Nations. This body cannot claim to seek peace and at the same time challenge Israel’s right to exist. By repealing this resolution unconditionally, the United Nations will enhance its credibility and serve the cause of peace.⁴

On June 21, 2004, at a UN Conference on antisemitism, then-Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan stated:

The actions of the United Nations on the issue of antisemitism have not always been worthy of its ideals. It is deplorable that the General Assembly adopted in 1975 a resolution which assimilated Zionism with racism and I welcome that it later came back on its position.⁵

But despite its revocation in 1991 and the 2004 condemnation by Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the Zionism-racism equation has remained engraved in the annals of the UN as an integral component of its operating mode. The damage had been done. The equation enabled the creation and continued permanent financing of an extensive bureaucratic apparatus within the UN system of bodies, committees, international organs, and specialized agencies designed to amplify and encourage an ongoing Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian campaign aimed at undermining Israel as a sovereign state member of the international community.⁶

The resolution paved the way for the formalization of an artificially devised “status,” uniquely tailored for the Palestinian observer representation in the UN, denominated as a “non-member-observer-state status.”

This anomaly has regrettably become a permanent fixture in the realities of the organization as well as in the present-day realities of the Middle East.⁷

Under the false guise of “statehood,” this anomalous “status” granted to the Palestinians has subsequently been used as a pretext for manipulating a willing UN Secretariat and various UN bodies, including the International Court of Justice, individual states, and international and intergovernmental bodies, including the International Criminal Court, into acknowledging, recognizing, and accepting into their membership a non-existent Palestinian state. This, despite the non-existence of any sovereign Palestinian entity and despite the fact that no binding or authoritative international instrument has ever acknowledged the existence of any sovereign Palestinian territory.

Such recognition clearly undermines, runs counter to, and prejudges the intended outcome of the negotiations agreed to in the internationally recognized and internationally witnessed Oslo Accords, an integral component of the Middle East Peace Process, in which the Palestinian leadership committed to negotiate with Israel the issue of the permanent status of the territories.

Conclusion

The effects of the 50-year-old 1975 Zionism-Racism resolution remain an indelible component of the realities in today’s Middle East. The subsequent, apparent revocation of the offensive determination in that resolution did not diminish the long-term damage that it caused.

This damage still plagues the international community and, more significantly, the Jewish People and the State of Israel.

The genie cannot be returned to its bottle.

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Notes