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Monday, January 18, 2016

The UN mightily tries to pretend Israel doesn't exist

Israel's existence in the center of the Middle East remains a thorn in the UN's side.

The UN has five economic regional councils:

  • United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE)
  • United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)
  • United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC)
  • United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)
  • United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA)

One would naturally think that Israel would be part of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, because that is where it is located. Of course, Arab nations don't want Israel to exist, so Israel was forced to join the ECE instead.

But Israel's physical presence is still a problem when ESCWA wants to issue infographics that include maps:


I'm not quite sure why Egypt isn't on the map, but we know very well why Israel isn't mentioned. (Israel's has 3.54 million tourists in 2013, which would place it at #3, ahead of Jordan.)

ESCWA cannot completely ignore Israel by calling the area the "Middle East" or "MENA" or something like that, so the UN came up with another way to describe the Middle East while excluding Israel:

They call it the "Arab Region." 

Because they know that when they issue statements on the problems of forced migration or women's rights in the region, they don't want to keep adding "...except for Israel." By doing that they would highlight how much better off Israelis, including Arab Israelis, are than their neighbors.

And that is a message that must not be mainstreamed.


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