Using the UN as a Moral Compass, Providence Divests From Israel — and Reality

Providence, Rhode Island, wants to be a moral beacon. To get there, it is relying on a woman notorious for her antisemitism. On Nov. 3, Providence became the largest US city to order divestment from Israel — doing so without mentioning the country. The motion depends on misplaced faith in the objectivity and moral infallibility of the UN system. Three-quarters of voters approved the initiative, backed by a coalition of extreme anti-Israel groups, one of which is allegedly a reconstitution of nonprofits shuttered for financing Hamas. The initiative seemed innocuous enough. It called for “divesting from foreign countries conducting severe violations of human rights such as ethnic cleansing, apartheid, illegal military occupation, or genocide.” But how to decide who might be guilty of such acts? The motion relies on “findings from investigations of any UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry, findings from any United Nations Special Rapporteurs, finding from the United Nations High Commissioners for Human Rights … and/or International Court of Justice rulings and advisory opinions.” One of these special rapporteurs is Francesca Albanese. Her mandate calls for investigating “Israel’s violations,” which not only presumes Israeli wrongdoing but also limits scrutiny to one side of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, demonstrating that the United Nations is not a neutral observer in the dispute. And Albanese has far exceeded a biased mandate. Germany, France, Austria, and the Czech Republic called for her removal in February after she said that humanity has a “common enemy” in a speech railing against Israel. Albanese’s comparison of Israel to Nazi Germany and claims that the United States is “subjugated by the Jewish lobby” have prompted American calls for her dismissal. In October, a top US representative to the United Nations called Albanese “a liar and a lunatic who spews hatred for America, the West, Jews, and Israel.” Albanese recently parroted the far-fetched allegation that Israel trains dogs to rape Palestinians, adding to the canon of conspiracy theories about Israel using animals for nefarious purposes. This “liar and lunatic” is one of Providence’s pillars for pronouncing Israel guilty of practicing apartheid. Albanese also wrote a lengthy report that arrived at a genocide conclusion by glossing over the difficulties of urban combat, Hamas’s tactics that led to civilian deaths in Gaza, and Israel’s efforts to minimize them. The city’s initiative also relies on UN commissions of inquiry (COIs), including the one formed in 2021 to investigate the “root causes” of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. By mentioning only “systematic discrimination and repression based on national, ethnic, racial, or religious identity” as a root cause, the current COI’s mandate presumed Israeli guilt, specifically of apartheid. But amid the war Hamas launched on Oct. 7, 2023, the COI leapfrogged this accusation to grasp at a genocide charge. The COI joined the genocide chorus in September 2025. That report, too, erased Hamas as a belligerent, relied on decontextualized quotes — many uttered by Israelis not in positions of power — to show genocidal intent, and ignored Hamas’s use of human shields. The initiative also cites the International Court of Justice (ICJ) as an arbiter. While the ICJ was reviewing South Africa’s ongoing case accusing Israel of genocide, the court had a president with a documented history of criticizing Israel. Of the five judges recently elected to join the court, two previously took part in ICJ proceedings on Israel and another accused Israel of war crimes just weeks after Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre. This month, the ICJ is expected to issue a judgment in a different case that critics fear would lower the threshold of intent for determining that genocide has occurred. Other examples of the United Nations’ overwhelming bias against Israel include the Human Rights Council’s standing agenda item to scrutinize Israel (something no other country faces), a refugee agency dedicated exclusively to Palestinians with a uniquely expansive definition of refugees, and a committee and a division dedicated to promoting Palestinian interests — at Israel’s expense. According to Alice Edwards, a former UN special rapporteur on torture, the United Nations has “an atmosphere of bullying and intimidation that you have one view only, and you cannot and should not be seeing the other side in the Israel-Palestine conflict.” To the uninitiated, relying on UN expertise might seem reasonable. But this is not the idealistic United Nations of Eleanor Roosevelt. This is a co-opted body hopelessly biased against Israel. By relying on these UN instruments to determine human rights violations, Providence has selected arsonists to be fire marshals. David May is a research manager and senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). For more analysis from the author and FDD, please subscribe HERE. Follow David on X @DavidSamuelMay. Follow FDD on X @FDD. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.