Israeli Ambassador Elected a Vice President of UN General Assembly

By Hamodia Staff

YERUSHALAYIM – In what was hailed by Israel as “a major achievement,” its Ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, was elected a Vice President of the General Assembly on Tuesday.

Erdan’s duties will include chairing General Assembly meetings and taking part in setting the agenda for GA deliberations.

He takes over the post in September when the 77th General Assembly convenes and will hold the position for a year.

Ambassador Erdan said, “I will now be representing Israel in a position at the heart of the U.N.  Nothing will stop me — and I mean nothing — from fighting the discrimination in the U.N. against Israel.

“This new position gives Israel another platform to present the truth about our country and our contributions to the world, despite the ongoing lies of the Palestinians and others at the U.N.  This triumph sends a clear message to our enemies that they will not prevent us from participating in leading roles at the U.N. and in the international arena.  Hatred must never triumph over the truth. I won’t allow it.”

Erdan will be one of 21 ambassadors serving as vice presidents, according to The Times of Israel.

When asked by Hamodia if the election were not merely symbolic, Joshua Z. Lavine, adviser to the ambassador, answered in an email: “It is not symbolic when Iran and Syria made objections but refrained from calling for a further vote out of fear that Israel would win and they would lose. It shows the continuation of a change for Israel at the U.N. Change is not coming overnight but the path has begun,” he said.

The vice presidency represents the latest in a series of recent milestones at the U.N., including its election to serve for the first time ever as a member of the U.N. Economic Council (ECOSOC), the election of Odelia Fitoussi to serve on the Committee of Experts on Disability, Sarah Weiss-Maudi to serve as the Vice Chair of the U.N. Legal Committee and the passing of the historic resolution in the General Assembly against Holocaust denial and distortion, initiated by the Israeli Mission to the U.N. and led by Ambassador Erdan.