The United Nations Security Council has scheduled a critical meeting on the Gaza war for Tuesday afternoon—as the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah is in full swing. The move is meant to sideline Israeli officials who will be observing the holiday, sources familiar with the meeting told the Washington Free Beacon.
The Security Council's public calendar shows only that a "Middle East" briefing is slated for Tuesday—the first day of high-level debate at the U.N. General Assembly (UNGA)—in the council's Turtle Bay chambers. Though the council did not disclose a specific topic, sources familiar with the meeting said that it will focus on the war in Gaza and that it was scheduled during Rosh Hashanah thanks to pressure from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the self-described "collective voice of the Muslim world" that maintains a permanent delegation to the U.N. and counts the likes of Iran, Qatar, Turkey, and Pakistan as members. Another member, Algeria, was especially aggressive in pushing for the Gaza meeting to fall within Rosh Hashanah, the Free Beacon has learned.
The Jewish holiday begins at sundown on Monday and concludes at nightfall on Wednesday. UNGA high-level debate does not end until five days later, leaving plenty of time for the Security Council to hold the Gaza meeting after Rosh Hashanah. South Korea, which holds the Security Council presidency, ultimately decided on the date and time, suggesting the country capitulated to the OIC’s demands.
The meeting will come amid a larger push by Arab nations and European allies to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state during the UNGA, a move meant to increase pressure on Israel to end its war against Hamas with no conditions. One source familiar with the meeting said its schedule is "yet another example of how the U.N. is a fundamentally unserious institution."
"It’s a farce for the Security Council to schedule this meeting on Rosh Hashanah, knowing Israel can’t participate or respond to the anti-Semitic dogpile that will take place," the source told the Free Beacon.
The meeting is likely to include discussion of the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia's joint recognition of the state of "Palestine" on Sunday. Any meaningful recognition of such a state would need to come with full U.N. membership, a designation that requires Security Council approval. The United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia are all Security Council members, and the UNGA voted in favor of a Palestinian membership bid last year.
One former U.S. diplomat who worked on U.N. matters said the Security Council’s Rosh Hashanah meeting on Gaza amounts to "outright anti-Semitism."
"The United Nations has long had an anti-Israel problem—if not actual outright anti-Semitism—but purposely hosting such a meeting on one of the holiest days for the Jewish community is them going out of their way to exclude Jews who observe Rosh Hashanah and serves as a statement against the world’s only Jewish state," the former diplomat said. "When leaders go out of their way to exclude or single out one religious minority, that’s discrimination—and when it’s the Jewish faith that’s anti-Semitism."
Jonathan Harounoff, the spokesman for Israel’s mission to the U.N., told the Free Beacon that the international grandstanding around a Palestinian state is making it harder for Israel to bring its remaining hostages home.
"We’re seeing a lot of performative gestures and empty declarations that aren’t advancing peace—or anything in the region," Harounoff said. "You cannot have serious conversations or conferences on these matters while 48 hostages remain in brutal Hamas terror tunnels and while Hamas continues to reign over Gaza."
The families of those hostages agree. Sixteen hostage relatives—a group that includes the mothers of Evyatar David and Rom Braslavsky, two hostages who remain in Hamas captivity and were last seen "starved, tortured, and abused" in propaganda videos that the terrorist organization released last month—recently sent a letter to U.K. prime minister Keir Starmer taking him to task for rewarding terrorism by recognizing a Palestinian state.
"Your regrettable announcement … has dramatically complicated efforts to bring home our loved ones," they wrote.
The Security Council’s Gaza meeting has also raised eyebrows among prominent pro-Israel groups.
Sacha Roytman, CEO of the Combat Antisemitism Movement, said the scheduling of a major Gaza meeting on Rosh Hashanah "is not an oversight" but rather "a blatant act of exclusion."
"It tells Jews worldwide that their faith, their holy days, and even their very presence are irrelevant," he told the Free Beacon. "By deliberately silencing Jewish voices at the very moment when decisions about Israel—the world’s only Jewish state—are being discussed, the U.N. is sending a chilling message: that Israel and the people it represents are unwelcome at the table."
