US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power is addressing students at the Israel Middle East Model UN Conference in Even Yehuda, Israel, in a key speech during her visit to the Jewish state.
Power noted on the serious problems facing the world, especially highlighting the plight of those escaping war zones in the Middle East.
She slammed UN member states who "cross the line" from legitimate criticism of Israel into "attempts to delegitimize the state of Israel itself." Power added that UN bias eventually undermines the legitimacy of the UN itself.
Likewise she noted the discrimination being suffered in the UN by ZAKA, a disaster response team, since being nominated in 2013. It was blocked five times by the UN, "simply because ZAKA is an Israeli organization." Now through Israeli and US lobbying efforts, ZAKA a few weeks ago finally won the accreditation it deserves.
According to Power, the problem is not the UN, but rather the "players" who are present there, and she went on to call for improving the world and international relations so as to improve the UN, which she reminded the audience is itself merely a forum.
She called to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, calling for the two-state solution dividing Israel and stating that some day, members of the Model UN may sit at the real UN behind the placard "Palestine."
Addressing the lethal attack by Arab Israeli terrorist Nashat Milhem in Tel Aviv last month in which he gunned down three Israelis, she spoke about how one member of the Model UN from Milihem's hometown showed "courage" by coming to the Model UN and saying that terrorism doesn't define all members of the town. Many residents of Arara were shown to have cooperated in hiding Milhem.
Speaking about the lack of representation of women in the UN and governments worldwide, she praised Israel's Knesset for having women as a fourth of its members, whereas the Congress only has women as a fifth of its members.
Power also spoke about the positive role the UN can play, noting how it played a key role in ending the Ebola epidemic, and how its sanctions helped together with US sanctions in bringing Iran to the negotiation table on its nuclear program.
Model UN (MUN) is an extracurricular activity in which high school and college students world-wide simulate the activity of the different UN committees.
The culmination events are the conferences, in which students from different schools cooperate with each one of them representing a different country.