Israel on Trial: The 2026 UN General Assembly

The Assembly’s theme was: "Restoring trust, managing transformation: a United Nations that delivers for all". But whom does ‘all’ include?

The 2026 General Assembly further proved the United Nations’ faulty commitment to its own founding principles. How does an institution claim to represent the international community impartially when Israel is continuously the focal point of international disparagement?

From the readoption of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action to the walkout during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address, this year’s assembly displayed the true colours of the institution’s so-called efforts toward peace. Meanwhile, Canada’s announcement of additional assistance for Palestine and proposed trade restrictions targeting goods produced in Israeli settlements used Israel as the scapegoat yet again, turning international pressure for Carney to enter the world stage into detrimental political and economic measures.

All of this is making Jewish communities around the world wonder: will the disproportionate, unjust targeting of our statehood ever end?

What is the UN General Assembly?

The United Nations General Assembly is the central policy-making and representative organ of the United Nations, composed of 193 member states, each with one vote, with its headquarters located in New York City. Some of the responsibilities that the UNGA deals with include the maintenance of international peace and security, the determination of the UN’s annual budget, and the admission, expulsion, and suspension of rights and privileges of UN members. Every September, the General Assembly hosts a gathering to discuss these very issues and assign recommendations and budgeting for the coming year. 

The General Assembly relies on majority voting, with its political alliances and appointed leaders undermining international fairness. When a resolution passes, the result demonstrates the position of the states that voted for it; it does not, by itself, establish the legal or moral correctness of every claim it contains. This fact has time and time again allowed for the world’s most severe dictatorships to have a field day challenging Israel’s existence. To understand the controversy surrounding Israel at the most recent 2026 UNGA, it is necessary to look beyond votes and examine what exactly member states were endorsing.

The UN’s Antisemitic Durban Declaration in Effect

The Durban Declaration and Programme of Action (DDPA) was established in 2001 following the World Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa. Its stated objective centered on anti-racism, discrimination, and the protection of universal human rights. Yet, the conference became notorious for the antisemitism and anti-Israel rhetoric it contained, categorizing Israel as a racist, apartheid, and genocidal state, making an initiative intended to combat discrimination a platform itself for it. Its adoption resulted in praise for Hitler, the equating of Zionism with racism, and the harassment of Jewish Durban participants. Twenty-five years later, it makes a return, having been commemorated at the GA—with Israel being more heavily alienated than ever. 

The October 12, 2026 vote resurfaced these unresolved concerns. During the General Assembly, an alarming 95 states supported a political declaration implementing the DDPA, while 5 voted against it and 37 abstained. It is overwhelmingly worrying to see that an initiative which initially promoted an antisemitic zeitgeist is being endorsed so strongly. This both trivializes its claim to help eliminate forms of hate and proves that prioritizing the safety of Jewish people is entirely insignificant. 

For Jewish communities, the concern is that an institution committed to opposing discrimination and international peace must confront antisemitism and anti-Israel terrorist movements when it occurs within its own forums.

Netanyahu’s Speech & Walkout

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood to speak at the podium at the 2026 General Assembly, to bravely present himself to the world stage while also appealing to his domestic audience in light of the upcoming Israeli elections. He criticized Turkey, Iran, and Qatar for their support of terrorism and exposed the hypocrisy of the United Nations, while defending Israel’s right to protect itself and its citizens. Unfortunately, as he approached the podium to deliver this powerful speech, a hostile response from numerous delegations ensued. They walked out.

This walkout, conducted as a form of opposition to Netanyahu's government, sends a clear message to Israel and its supporters: equitable international diplomacy is scarcely within reach when those opposing choose not to hear the other side. When an institution founded on the ideals of negotiation, cooperation, and durable peace focuses instead on stonewalling and unequivocally condemning governments, those foundational ideals seem to no longer hold any meaning.

PM Carney at the UN: the Destination of Canadian Tax Dollars 

At the 2026 GA, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced an additional $100 million in assistance for Palestine, in addition to the cumulative $500 million since 2023, the majority of which was revealed to have funded UNRWA and its terrorist employees. This recent pledge includes $80 million in humanitarian aid and $20 million for peace and security capacity-building. He also reiterated Canada's intention to pursue trade restrictions targeting Israeli goods produced in the West Bank.

Carney’s government, in an attempt to gain more international relevance, denounced Israeli “settlement expansion” while downplaying Israel’s security concerns, and sent aid to Gaza without addressing Hamas’s responsibility for the war. The same scrutiny should apply to trade restrictions. Canada describes its proposed restrictions as a targeted response to the Israeli government’s activity rather than a general boycott of Israel. This economic sanction ignores Canada’s stated commitment to Israeli security and furthers political polarization. Carney placing any safeguards to ensure this assistance reaches its intended recipients is highly doubtful. Canadian taxpayers should be able to know where their money goes, whether it actually reaches civilians, and whether it advances peace or strengthens the actors perpetuating the conflict.

As we’ve already seen over the last three years, Canada’s oversight results in pouring millions into a system that harms its civilians and allows terrorist leaders to retain power. Canadian tax dollars should go towards humanitarian relief and a safer future and not fund corruption and terrorism at Israel’s expense.

António Guterres’ Double Standard

During the 2026 General Assembly, UN Secretary-General António Guterres described the situation in Gaza as among the worst humanitarian crises he had witnessed during his entire tenure. This absolutely false statement ignores the devastating humanitarian crises continuing to unfold all over the world, one which has somehow seemed to escape his attention.

Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch, challenged Guterres's characterization, pointing to the mass killings and humanitarian catastrophes in Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, Yemen, Ethiopia, and China’s Uyghur communities. The scale of these ignored conflicts undermined the Secretary-General's sweeping comparison, since the same urgency is clearly not being applied to suffering elsewhere. Neuer also emphasized the context in which the war began, with Hamas' October 7, 2023, massacre, in which approximately 1,200 people were killed in Israel. Guterres's rebuke failed to account for Hamas's role in initiating the war and Israel's stated objective of dismantling the terrorist organization. Focusing exclusively on Israel obscures the actions that precipitated the conflict.

Israel is repeatedly at the centre of the institution's condemnation, an institution committed to universal human rights which does not demonstrate that universality in practice. Human rights cannot be universal in principle yet selective in the attention they receive.

The Pushback: ADL, AJC, SWU, UJA, WJC, YU, and more

With antisemitic and anti-Israel hate boiling inside the UN halls, Jewish and anti-hate organizations were making their own demands outside its doors. On September 23, a broad coalition of Jewish organizations and advocacy groups rallied with about 1000 participants in New York, representing the voices of the Jewish people of America and worldwide.

The organizations participating in the rally invoked political leaders to confront the virus of antisemitism, improve Jewish community security, and eliminate the institutional bias against Israel. The rally featured survivors of the Bondi Beach terrorist attack and the Nova music festival attack, showing the UN how their debate over Israel’s existence is not confined to diplomats and governments. It has dire consequences for Jewish communities across the world. The rally’s participants showed how political criticism has crossed a dangerous line with the perpetration of antisemitic stereotypes, holding Jewish communities collectively responsible for the Middle Eastern conflict, and applying discriminatory double standards to Jews that would not be applied to other groups.

The United Nations has long strayed from its once-honourable purpose, dismissing pressing global crises in order to repeatedly single out the world’s only Jewish state. In doing so, it has further destroyed the little trust it had left among Jewish communities. If the UN hopes to remedy this, it must commit to peace and human rights that extend to all.