Israeli UN ambassador hosts Passover seder, noting that Israel and Ukraine are largely alone

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan held an early Passover seder at the organization’s headquarters in Manhattan on Wednesday with 50 diplomats from all over the world who got to participate and learn about the rituals of the Jewish holiday. 

Erdan used the occasion to highlight the plight of Ukraine under attack by Russia and to stress that, like Ukraine, Israel is largely on its own.

“As Israel's ambassador, witnessing the atrocities in Ukraine continue makes me think that if Israel is faced with an existential threat, no international agreement or international organization will come to our rescue: We can only rely on ourselves,” Erdan said. 

Erdan’s predecessor at the UN, Danny Danon, introduced the early Passover seder tradition in 2016, as part of Israel’s efforts to shore up support from other nations in the Jewish state’s ongoing fight against the endless anti-Israeli resolutions that are continuously put forward in the UN. 

“No other country has as many resolutions leveled against it as Israel does each year, even countries accused of human rights abuses,” Erdan said in December 2020.

Most recently – highlighting the absurdity of the UN system, at least when it comes to Israel – the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) concluded its main annual session by passing four anti-Israel resolutions. One of the resolutions called for a limited arms embargo against Israel and was approved by the UNHRC in a 37-3 vote with seven abstentions. Only the United States, Brazil and Malawi voted against the resolution, while all European Union members of the UNHRC endorsed it. Ukraine and the United Kingdom were among the countries that abstained.

 As is always the case, most of the worst human rights abusers of the world, such as China and Saudi Arabia – both of which lead world statistics on death penalties, torture and gruesome punishments – did not receive a single reprimand. 

The member states of the UNHRC only passed a single resolution against Russia, even though the country is being accused of some of the worst war crimes and atrocities seen on the European continent in decades. 

However, Israel has occasionally had some success in bringing its causes before the UN and in lowering the support of other nations for the anti-Israeli resolutions that are presented in the UN. In 2020, for instance, support for anti-Israeli resolutions at the organization dropped due to an “intense diplomatic effort” by Israel in the United Nations and the aftermath of the Abraham Accords. The number of anti-Israeli resolutions was still high, but the resolutions were adopted with less support than usual. 

In July 2021, the UN adopted two resolutions condemning anti-Semitic terrorism and using the Internet to recruit terrorists – another win for Israel. At that time, the UN General Assembly also passed a resolution condemning the use of civilians as human shields by terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah. 

Most recently, on Jan. 20, Israel succeeded in having the General Assembly unanimously adopt an Israeli proposal for a resolution about combating Holocaust denial. It was only the second time in the history of the UN’s General Assembly that it had endorsed a resolution put forward by the State of Israel. 

While much of the UN displays considerable bias against Israel, the Jewish state now has more allies – including Arab states – than it has at any point in its 74-year history.