U.S, Israel’s bid to oppose U.N’s annual budget over alleged bias against Jerusalem receives no support at the forum

On Thursday, the outgoing Trump Administration launched a last ditch appeal supporting Israel in the United Nations, by voting against the organisation's annual budget - which found no international support.

As a result, the United Nations General Assembly approving a $3.231 billion budget for 2021, with 167 nations in favour and only the United States and Israel in contention.

United States' Ambassador to the United Nations, Kelly Craft, voiced objections that the annual budget would fund a 20th-anniversary event for the 2001 U.N conference on racism in Durban (South Africa), where the United States walked out in solidarity with Israel after countries advanced a motion equating Zionism with racism.

Craft mentioned in an official statement that the United States "called for this vote to make clear that we stand by our principles, stand up for what is right and never accept consensus for consensus’s sake", adding that "Twenty years on, there remains nothing about the Durban Declaration to celebrate or to endorse. It is poisoned by anti-Semitism and anti-Israel bias".

Gilad Erdan, Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations, stated that the Durban Conference will "become another meeting demonising the Jewish state — it will be used once again to slander us and to launch false accusations of racism against Jewish self-determination".

Erdan added that “Israel opposes any measure aimed at allocating a budget for this purpose, we all know that such funds will not be used to support human rights but to spread even more anti-Semitism and hate towards Israel [...] It is part of a wider anti-Israel bias at the UN".

Ambassador Craft also complained that the United States received "almost no support" from the international community in September, when it declared that sanctions against the Iranian regime come back into force.

Craft added that "The US doesn’t need a cheering section to validate its moral compass, we don’t find comfort based on the number of nations voting with us, particularly when the majority have found themselves in an uncomfortable position of underwriting terrorism, chaos and conflict".

Craft said that the US vote would not change its UN contribution, including 25 percent of peacekeeping expenditures and nearly $9 billion a year in humanitarian relief.