A surge of anti-Israel and antisemitic activity followed the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught on Israel and the Gaza war, revealing and intensifying long-standing currents of hostility. A key historical driver is the 1975 U.N. General Assembly resolution that labeled Zionism as racism, which legitimized anti-Jewish discrimination under the banner of anti-Zionism and deeply shaped U.N. behavior toward Israel.

Although the resolution was revoked in 1991 and later criticized by U.N. leadership, its effects persisted—U.N. structures and political dynamics continued to amplify campaigns challenging Israel’s legitimacy. The original equation caused lasting institutional and political damage that still fuels contemporary hostility and diplomatic distortions.

In the immediate aftermath of the brutal and tragic Hamas massacre of Israeli and foreign citizens on Oct. 7, 2023, and the ensuing Gaza war, and since then up to present day, the world is witnessing perhaps the most violent, virulent and unbridled outbreak of anti-Israel and antisemitic activity and Islamic fundamentalist incitement—whether on the streets and campuses in the U.S., Canada, Australia and Europe, or through extensive social media activity.

The effects of such activity cannot be underestimated, and the antisemitic “genie” that, for many years, had remained restrained, existing under the surface, has been released, with catastrophic consequences.

This should come as no surprise, as its sources had been generated in the infamous equation that equated Israel and its national liberation movement, Zionism, with racism. This equation was formalized and granted international legitimacy exactly 50 years ago with the November 1975 U.N. General Assembly Resolution 3379, adopted by an absolute majority of states, which coined the antisemitic trope “Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination.”

The resolution formalized anti-Jewish discrimination and hatred under the artificial guise of anti-Zionism. This guise remains up to the present day the main vehicle and platform for undermining Israel’s legitimacy throughout the world.

In adopting this resolution, the U.N. formally transformed itself into the main international vehicle openly generating, advocating and sanctioning discrimination against Israel, in stark violation of its own Charter principle of “sovereign equality of all its members.”

As stated by the then-U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Daniel Moynihan, “The United Nations is about to make antisemitism international law. The U.S. does not acknowledge, it will not abide by, it will never acquiesce in this infamous act. … A great evil has been loosed upon the world.”

The offensive determination equating Zionism with racism was subsequently formally revoked by General Assembly Resolution 46/86, adopted on Dec. 16, 1991, and supported by a majority of 111 states, with 25 Arab League, Muslim and African states opposing.

In introducing the revocation motion during his address to the 45th session of the United Nations General Assembly on Oct. 1, 1990, then-U.S. President George H.W. Bush stated, “NGA Resolution 3379, the so-called ‘Zionism is racism’ resolution, mocks this pledge and the principles upon which the United Nations was founded. And I call now for its repeal. Zionism is not a policy; it is the idea that led to the creation of a home for the Jewish people, to the State of Israel. And to equate Zionism with the intolerable sin of racism is to twist history and forget the terrible plight of Jews in World War II and, indeed, throughout history. To equate Zionism with racism is to reject Israel itself, a member of good standing of the United Nations. This body cannot claim to seek peace and at the same time challenge Israel’s right to exist. By repealing this resolution unconditionally, the United Nations will enhance its credibility and serve the cause of peace.”

On June 21, 2004, at a U.N. Conference on Antisemitism, then-Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan stated, “The actions of the United Nations on the issue of antisemitism have not always been worthy of its ideals. It is deplorable that the General Assembly adopted in 1975 a resolution which assimilated Zionism with racism and I welcome that it later came back on its position.”

But despite its revocation in 1991 and the 2004 condemnation by Annan, the Zionism-racism equation has remained engraved in the annals of the U.N. as an integral component of its operating mode. The damage had been done. The equation enabled the creation and continued permanent financing of an extensive bureaucratic apparatus within the U.N. system of bodies, committees, international organs and specialized agencies designed to amplify and encourage an ongoing Muslim, Arab and Palestinian campaign aimed at undermining Israel as a sovereign state member of the international community.

The resolution paved the way for the formalization of an artificially devised “status,” uniquely tailored for the Palestinian observer representation in the U.N., denominated as a “non-member-observer-state status.”

This anomaly has regrettably become a permanent fixture in the realities of the organization as well as in the present-day realities of the Middle East.

Under the false guise of “statehood,” this anomalous “status” granted to the Palestinians has subsequently been used as a pretext for manipulating a willing U.N. Secretariat and various U.N. bodies, including the International Court of Justice, individual states, and international and intergovernmental bodies, including the International Criminal Court, into acknowledging, recognizing and accepting into their membership a nonexistent Palestinian state. This, despite the nonexistence of any sovereign Palestinian entity and despite the fact that no binding or authoritative international instrument has ever acknowledged the existence of any sovereign Palestinian territory.

Such recognition clearly undermines, runs counter to and prejudges the intended outcome of the negotiations agreed to in the internationally recognized and internationally witnessed Oslo Accords, an integral component of the Middle East peace process, in which the Palestinian leadership committed to negotiating with Israel the issue of the permanent status of the territories.

Conclusion

The effects of the1975 Zionism-Racism resolution remain an indelible component of the realities in today’s Middle East. The subsequent apparent revocation of the offensive determination in that resolution did not diminish the long-term damage that it caused.

This damage still plagues the international community and, more significantly, the Jewish people and the State of Israel.

The genie cannot be returned to its bottle.

Originally published by the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs.

The post The 50th anniversary of the infamous UN ‘Zionism is Racism’ resolution appeared first on JNS.org.