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In December 1969 the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 2535 B, which for the first time used the word «Palestinians» in U.N. resolutions. Until then they had been called «Arab refugees.» That resolution referred to the «inalienable rights of the Palestinians» and their right to «self-determination.» Subsequently, the U.N. reaffirmed this «right» in many more resolutions.

And so we arrive at this year’s session of the Geneva-based United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR), which recently debated under Item 5 of its agenda, «The right of peoples to self-determination and its application to peoples under colonial or alien domination or foreign occupation.»

On the first day, even before the Item 5 deliberations, the chairperson of the UNCHR, Libyan ambassador Najat Al-Hajjaji, mentioned the Palestinians’ right to self-determination in her opening speech — a speech that she pronounced in Arabic, «In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful.» When Item 5 was addressed, many Arab nations accused Israel of denying the exercise of this right to the Palestinians.

Anyone listening to the Arab delegates’ passionate plea on behalf of the Palestinians might reasonably conclude that Arab countries care deeply about the Palestinians’ plight. Alas, one would be wrong. The Arabs are less concerned about the lack of Palestinian self-determination than they are troubled by Israel’s exercise of her right to self-determination. They simply use the Palestinians as a rhetorical weapon to attack Israel in international forums.

The history of Arab-PLO and Arab-Palestinian relations is characterized by manipulation, deceit, treason and violence. Jordan and Egypt occupied the West Bank and Gaza for almost two decades; yet, neither country granted the Palestinians the right to self-determination. Jordan expelled the PLO from Amman to Beirut in 1970 the Syrians attacked the PLO there in 1976, and when the Israelis sent the PLO packing from Lebanon in 1982, no Arab nation (with the sole exception of Syria) intervened to help the «legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.» Colonel Moammar Gadhafi even called on PLO militants to commit suicide rather than surrender to the Israelis. Naturally, Arafat declined to accept the Libyan’s suggestion.

After its expulsion, no Arab country wanted to host the PLO. Finally, Arafat and his henchmen ended up in faraway Tunisia. In the early ’90s, when Arafat sided with Saddam Hussein, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait froze their financial contributions to the PLO and expelled hundreds of thousands of Palestinian workers from their lands, even though these Palestinians had never participated in PLO decision making. A sober assessment led Arafat to state in 1985: «Honestly, the problems we face in our relations with some of our Arab brothers are much worse than those we face vis–vis Israel.»

So don’t be misled by the flamboyant declarations of Arab diplomats about Palestinian independence. They don’t care. They never did. Nor do they care about other people’s right to self-determination either, such as Tibetans or Kurds, who hardly received any mention during the Item 5 proceedings of this commission.

In a broader sense, we can affirm that all peoples living under a totalitarian yoke are being denied their right to self-determination. In a statement delivered this week to the UNCHR on behalf of U.N. Watch, I said: «Democracy. Government with the consent by the people. That is the essence of self-determination as a human right. The right to self-determination is not the right to have your own dictator.» I continued: «This agenda item on self-determination has been dominated for too long by this issue — the Palestinians. By focusing on one people, this commission does a disservice to more than 2 billion — yes, 2 billion — people who are ruled without their consent. . . . [Totalitarian] states have no credibility when they pronounce on self-determination for others, having denied it to their own people.»

So long as repressive states such as Cuba, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Syria, China and Pakistan sit as members of the UNCHR, the rights     ‘ of the Arabs living in the West Bank and Gaza will continue to receive much of this commission’s time, coddling and attention. International actors who truly care about freedom and democracy should do all that is in their power to make sure that the legitimate right to self-determination of all the peoples of the world be addressed by this body — and not just the Palestinians’.

Julián Schvindlerman, a political analyst, is author of Land for Peace, Land for War and a member of the American Jewish Committee.