Edelstein speaks at the UN (archive)
Edelstein speaks at the UN (archive)Shahar Azran

Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein on Tuesday criticized the UN’s continuing bias against Israel, at a special meeting of the Knesset marking 40 years since the historic speech of then-Israeli ambassador to the UN Chaim Herzog, who stepped up to the podium at the General Assembly and tore up the resolution stating that Zionism is racism.

"Even as years have passed, the United Nations proves again its deep alienation from what is happening in our region and its unilateral stance on the conflict that exists here," Edelstein said in his speech.

"Even today, 24 years after that miserable UN resolution equating Zionism with racism was canceled, the UN leads a pronounced anti-Israel stance, which often does not fall far in its severity from that resolution on Zionism," he continued.

"In many ways, nothing has changed even after 40 years. Israel is still demonized and boycotted around the world and words of incitement directly or indirectly promote hatred and attacks against it," said the Knesset Speaker.

Edelstein stressed, "We are not going to keep silent about the spreading of falsehoods that defame the Jewish people and the State of Israel. If our destiny is to remain always in the minority, we will not stop fighting for our rights and our morals, in the same spirit, resolve and courage demonstrated by Chaim Herzog on the UN stage.”

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu also spoke at the meeting and said, "16 years after the resolution passed it was canceled, but we've not yet seen peace and quiet. The hostility towards Israel in the UN continues today. The pattern of automatically voting against Israel continues. In the past year the General Assembly has passed 20 anti-Israel resolutions, while against Iran, for example, only one resolution was made.”

The comments by both Edelstein and Netanyahu can be illustrated in the fact that the UN General Assembly in November adopted six resolutions, all of which condemned Israel and none of which condemned the wave of Palestinian Arab terror attacks.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has admitted in the past that the UN is biased against Israel. The UN Watch NGO recently exposed a video of his remarks, made in 2013 during a meeting with Israeli students which was largely not covered by the media but was reported in Arutz Sheva.