The United Nations is often regarded as the global community’s foremost symbol of peace and problem solving. Each September, world leaders gather in New York City for the annual General Assembly, a week-long summit that is framed as the pinnacle of diplomacy and international cooperation. This year’s 80th session opened on Tuesday, September 23, under the theme: “Better together, 80 years and more for peace, development, and human rights.”

While the 2025 United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) boasts a laundry list of urgent global issues, the question of Palestine is poised to take center stage. Against the backdrop of deepening humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip, and a recent wave of announcements by many Western countries formally recognizing Palestinian statehood, the world is watching closely to see how global leaders will respond. 

However, despite a theme centered on peace and a strong commitment to safeguarding fundamental human rights, this year’s session is already exhibiting deep cracks that hint at a stark contradiction between the UNGA’s stated ideals and its actions. It is already evident– even before the proceedings have begun– that this forum is not structured to advance concrete action to end the atrocities unfolding in occupied Palestine but, rather, to further Israeli interests. 

In perhaps the most glaring example of UN hypocrisy, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu– who is currently the subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant and whose government has officially been charged with genocide by the UN itself– has been granted a prominent platform and is scheduled to address the UNGA this Friday, September 26. In stark contrast, Palestinian delegates have been denied U.S. visas, effectively banning them from attending in person. While virtual participation has been permitted, the message is unmistakable: Netanyahu will quite literally have the stage to blast propaganda in attempt to justify Israel’s genocide, while Palestinian voices remain largely sidelined.

This blatant evidence of UN bias in favor of Israel, and its broader complicity in Israel’s genocide, has been further reinforced by the election of former German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock as President of this year’s UNGA. During her tenure as Germany’s foreign minister, Baerbock pursued a staunchly pro-Israel agenda, offering unwavering support for Israel’s ongoing violence in Gaza and the West Bank. Notably, in October 2023, she blocked an EU declaration calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. 

As thoroughly detailed in a recent press release by the National Lawyers Guild International Committee, Baerbock’s record of militarism clashes with the stated mission of the United Nations and, of course, the theme of this General Assembly. Under Baerbock’s supervision, Germany approved arms deliveries to Israel totaling €485.1 million ($554.3 million), a record figure. She justified this support by echoing the Israeli government’s claims about Hamas’s alleged use of human shields, stating that Hamas was “playing with human suffering, using women and children in Gaza as human shields, hiding its weapons under supermarkets, apartment blocks, even hospitals.”

It should be noted that the very leaders who have feigned solidarity with Palestine over the past few weeks– offering merely inadequate recognitions of Palestine statehood but no meaningful actions to end the genocide– were the ones who elected Baerbock to this position and will, more likely than not, refrain from boycotting Netanyahu’s appearance before the UNGA. 

The overt influence of Israeli interests at this year’s UNGA reflects a longstanding pattern of systemic bias within the United Nations. From its early endorsement of resolutions that laid the groundwork for a Zionist ethnostate, to the enduring structural power imbalances– most notably the U.S. veto, consistently weaponized to enable Israel and block ceasefire efforts– the UN has repeatedly failed the Palestinian people. Far from being a neutral arbiter, it has proven both ill-equipped and, at times, complicit in the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Palestine.

The staunch unwillingness of the UNGA, and the broader UN system, to challenge Israel or intervene in its ongoing genocide was made starkly clear just last year. The UNGA set a September 18 deadline for Israel to withdraw from all occupied Palestinian territories, citing an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice that affirms the illegality of the Israeli occupation. Israel, of course, ignored the demand; the deadline came and went without consequences, once again exposing the UN’s reliance on empty words rather than meaningful action. 

And we are already witnessing a similar pattern of nonaction this year. While heads of state like France’s Emmanuel Macron attempt to use the UNGA to cleanse their reputations with hollow statements and symbolic gestures, it is crucial to recognize not only the UN’s ineffectiveness but also its role in perpetuating genocide and deflecting international outrage. Essentially functioning as a performative media spectacle, this year’s UNGA– with Netanyahu present and genocide apologists like Baerbock taking prominent roles–  allows global leaders to save face without delivering any substantive change.

Words alone are not enough. Merely recognizing a Palestinian state does not end the genocide. What’s needed is an arms embargo, targeted sanctions, and other concrete measures that exert real pressure on Israel and force an end to its ongoing extermination campaign against the Palestinian people. In the face of sustained atrocities, including Israel’s current brutal assaults on Gaza City, and broader regional aggression by Israel throughout the Middle East, these lukewarm gestures by world leaders and the UNGA are nothing short of unacceptable.

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