The Hijacked Majority: How the U.N. Changed Course in 1971

When last week, during Netanyahu’s U.N. speech, we saw about 100 overpaid diplomats leaving the hall through the aisles, I had to think back to a similarly remarkable incident in 1971 on this same world stage. Back then, the predecessors of these “representatives of the people” in the General Assembly were also dancing in the aisles to celebrate an American defeat. It would prove to be a turning point for the U.N.

On 25 October of that year, the Assembly threw out the Republic of China (Taiwan) and gave a seat to Mao’s communist regime. The then U.N. ambassador George H.W. Bush (from 1971 to 1973) witnessed in part how the hall turned into a vulgar school party. He later wrote: "It wasn’t about Taiwan. It was about giving America a kick."

And that succeeded..

That evening, the U.N. ceased to be a club that the West could steer in the direction of its own values. The U.N. had started in 1945 with 51 mainly originally Western powers plus Poland. Through postwar "decolonization," the hall filled up with new voices that produced a new supermajority. In 1971 there were 132 member states in total, including 5 Islamic countries.

The bloc of non-aligned countries — a large part of which oriented itself toward the Soviet Union or China — now had control of the General Assembly. In the Security Council, the veto remained in place, but everywhere else the new majority could overrule the West at will.

And then that new majority turned its attention to…. Israel.

Then, on 14 October 1974, it invited Yasser Arafat to address the Assembly and explain the proposal to recognize the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. This was adopted by 105 votes to 4.

The PLO, which he led, was already a terrorist organization at that time, causing deadly victims everywhere. An Islamic mafia club without a country. Without state status, whose PLO charter called for “the destruction of Israel.” But that did nothing to spoil the fun. Israel was increasingly labeled the enemy and from that moment on was hit with more and more resolutions. By now they have become world record holders.

Two years earlier (1972), members of this PLO had brutally murdered Israeli athletes during the Olympic Games in Munich. That same Arafat arrived at the U.N. accompanied by Ali Hassan Salameh, the cruel mastermind behind that bloodbath! Arafat wore a pistol holster when he entered the chamber of this "house of peace." The next morning there was still discussion about whether the pistol was still in the holster when he stood behind the podium. What was indisputable, however, is that Arafat left the holster hanging visibly to make a point.

He never uttered the word "Israel." He called Zionism a form of racism and imperialism that "inevitably had to perish." He extended a so-called "olive branch," but only to Jews willing to live under Arab rule after the Jewish state had disappeared. The hall gave him a standing ovation.

Israel remained seated during the speech (they did not walk out out of respect for this global stage..), while a large part of the West simply remained silent.

Next, that same coalition tried to expel Israel from the U.N. Syria and Algeria took the lead in demanding Israel’s expulsion. The Islamic Conference in Jeddah supported this initiative. This attempt failed only thanks to strong American pressure. President Sadat’s refusal to let the peace talks over the Sinai collapse, and African states that refused to copy the “South African” apartheid scenario, also prevented Israel’s expulsion.

So they adopted what they could adopt. On 10 November 1975, the General Assembly determined that "Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination."

The Chutzpah!

Thanks to the automatic anti-Israeli majority, the motion was adopted by 72 votes in favor, 35 against, and 32 abstentions. The United States did not recognize "this infamous act" and said it would not abide by it. It would never acquiesce to it, and the resolution was repealed in 1991, after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The U.N. was once presented as the answer to the Nazi atrocities and the Holocaust.

In 1975, however, it was a meeting hall that applauded a man with a pistol holster. A terrorist leader who later received the Nobel Peace Prize.

Then, it went on to label the Jewish national movement a form of racism, because it could not expel the Jewish state.

That is a hijacked majority doing what hijacked majorities do.