So, Israel has been added to the UN’s hall of shame for sexual violence in conflict. The world gasps. The usual suspects applaud. And I am left wondering: is this a genuine stand against atrocity, or another ritual dance of hypocrisy from an institution that has long since lost its moral compass?
Let us first recall that this is the same United Nations that watched Rwanda burn, that turned a blind eye to the Srebrenica massacre, and that has allowed the Human Rights Council to become a rogues’ gallery of abusers. Now, with great fanfare, they place a democratic ally of Britain on a blacklist alongside the likes of ISIS and the Lord’s Resistance Army. One must ask: what standard is being applied?
I do not deny that allegations of sexual violence in any context demand investigation. But the selective outrage is telling. Where is the blacklist for Iran, whose regime executes teenagers for sodomy and uses rape as a weapon against protesters? Where is the condemnation of Hamas, whose very charter is soaked in anti-Semitic venom and whose fighters have been documented committing atrocities? The UN, it seems, has a peculiar myopia: a laser focus on Israel, a permanent blind spot for its enemies.
This is not to excuse any wrongdoing by Israeli forces. If soldiers have committed crimes, they must face justice. The Israeli legal system, imperfect as it is, has a record of prosecuting such cases. But the UN’s blacklist is not a legal instrument; it is a political weapon. It is designed to delegitimise a state, to erode its right to self-defence, and to pander to the worst kind of moral equivalence.
What does this mean for Britain, Israel’s steadfast ally? Our government must tread carefully. To endorse this blacklist uncritically is to abandon a friend in a hostile forum. To reject it outright is to be branded an apologist for sexual violence. The only honourable path is to demand due process, to insist on evidence, and to call out the UN’s hypocrisy when it falls short.
We live in an age where institutions relentlessly undermine the very values they claim to uphold. The UN sexual violence blacklist is a microcosm of this rot. It is a shame that Israel joins such grim company, but the greater shame is that the blacklist exists at all, a tool for selective shaming rather than universal justice. The West should take note: today it is Israel, tomorrow it could be us.
