In its latest report concerning the worldwide state of women’s rights, the United Nations reached only one conclusion against a nation: the “occupation of Palestine” by Israel is wrong.

What does that have to do with women’s rights? Good question. The UN’s Commission on the Status of Women resolution had very little to do with women’s rights, if anything at all.

The resolution, which condemned Israel for the injustices “the occupation of Palestine imposes on Palestinian women,” passed almost unanimously—by a vote of 40 to 2. It doesn’t take much to see under the surface of such rhetoric. Anne Bayefsky wrote, “Only the United States and Canada confronted the move for what it was: the hijacking of yet another UN body to spin world opinion against Israel and toward the Palestinian Authority” (National Review Online, March 19).

No other nation besides Israel was condemned over women’s rights issues—despite the mountains of atrocities occurring against women around the world, particularly within Muslim nations. Even among Palestinians, supposedly the victims of Israeli crimes against women, “honor killings” of a female by a male member to protect the family name, for example, are regarded as a minor crime, and sometimes not a crime at all, according to Palestinian law. “The Women’s Center for Legal Advice and Counseling (wclac) report for 2000 states that the Palestinian judiciary exhibits views of women as ‘inferior’ and that women generally are ‘looked down upon and treated with scorn’” (www.freedomhouse.org). Is Israel to blame for this?

For a specifically commissioned group to target Israel while overlooking reports of harsh governmental crackdowns against women in Iran, Saudi Arabia and Sudan is preposterous. In Israel, women are not beaten or legally discriminated against for being raped, as they are in surrounding nations. The UN’s Commission on the Status of Women bilked its responsibility to promote women’s rights in exchange for an opportunity to bash Israel.

The deprived women of the world could lodge a complaint, if they were allowed freedom of speech.