UN abandons moral compass in waging semantic warfare on Israel

The language being used by the United Nations (UN) and its officials to characterise the unresolved 100-years old conflict between Jews and Arabs disqualifies the UN from having any meaningful role to play in ending that long-running dispute.

The Report to the Security Council on 30 November by Tor Wennesland – Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process – is the latest in the ongoing saga of semantic warfare being waged against Israel.

Wennesland's Report is peppered with the following terminology that reeks of prejudice against Jewish claims but is heavily-biased in favour of Arab claims:

· "Occupied Palestinian Territory"

"Occupied Palestinian Territory" is in fact "Disputed Territory": Territory which is claimed by both Jews and Arabs.

Use of "Occupied Palestinian Territory" rather than"Disputed Territory" signals that the UN does not accept Jewish claims to any of this "Disputed Territory " – notwithstanding that article 80 of the UN's own Charter preserves the right of Jews to live in that Territory for the purposes of reconstituting the Jewish National Home there under the terms of the 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine.

· "West Bank"

The term "West Bank" was coined in 1950 to designate 4% of the territory of former Palestine west of the Jordan River - called "Judea and Samaria" for the previous 3000 years - which was unified with an additional 78% of the territory of former Palestine east of the Jordan River - called Transjordan - to form a new territorial entity renamed"Jordan".

Wennesland's use of the stand-alone term "West Bank" without any reference to its 3000 years oldhistoric name indicates the immoral depths to which the UN and its officials have sunk.

After all - the UN itself had used the term "Judea and Samaria" in Resolution 181 (II) on 29 November 1947:

The boundary of the hill country of Samaria and Judea starts on the Jordan River at the Wadi Malih south-east of Beisan