This claim is a textbook example of deliberate historical truncation: citing one half of a completed two-part UN action while erasing the other. The United Nations General Assembly did pass Resolution 3379 on November 10, 1975, determining that "Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination." However, on December 16, 1991, the General Assembly adopted Resolution 46/86, which explicitly and unambiguously decided "to revoke the determination contained in its resolution 3379." The revocation passed by an overwhelming vote of 111 to 25, with 13 abstentions. No binding UN designation of Zionism as racism exists today — the opposite determination is what stands.

The Facts: What the UN Record Actually Shows

Resolution 3379 was a product of Cold War politics and the cynical bloc-voting dynamics of 1975, in which the Soviet Union, the Arab League, and newly decolonized states combined forces to target Israel. The United States vigorously opposed the resolution from the moment of its adoption. President George H.W. Bush formally called upon the UN to repeal the resolution, and his administration worked actively to marshal the international support necessary to do so. The 1991 Gulf War and the collapse of the Soviet Union fundamentally shifted the geopolitical calculus, weakening the radical anti-Western bloc that had sustained the resolution for sixteen years.

The October 1991 Madrid Peace Conference opened new diplomatic horizons and provided the political cover for moderate Arab states to stand aside. The revocation resolution was deliberately kept to a single sentence — "Decides to revoke the determination contained in its resolution 3379 of 10 November 1975" — to prevent procedural manipulation or hostile amendments. Its adoption by 111 member states constitutes a far broader international consensus than the original 1975 resolution ever achieved. The AJC has noted that by revoking Resolution 3379, the UN effectively determined that Zionism is not a form of racism — a determination it has not reversed since.

• Resolution 3379 (1975): Passed during Cold War bloc-voting; equated Zionism with racism; vigorously opposed by the United States and Western democracies.
• Resolution 46/86 (1991): Explicitly revoked Resolution 3379 by a vote of 111–25; one of the only instances in UN history of a General Assembly resolution being rescinded.
• Current UN legal status: No designation of Zionism as racism exists in any binding or operative UN framework.
• U.S. position: President Bush signed congressional legislation condemning Resolution 3379 and called its premises "pernicious" and "totally counterproductive."

Historical Context: Cold War Propaganda and Its Afterlife

The 1975 resolution was never a dispassionate legal or scholarly finding — it was a geopolitical weapon forged in the crucible of Cold War ideological warfare. The Soviet Union, which co-authored the campaign, used the Zionism-racism equation as part of a broader strategy to delegitimize Israel and weaken American influence in the Middle East. The Non-Aligned Movement provided numerical support, and several Arab governments used the resolution to justify their refusal to recognize Israel's right to exist. Leading Western democracies, including the United States, Canada, Australia, and the members of the European Community, voted against it.

The resolution's revocation in 1991 did not, however, end attempts to recycle its logic. As AJC analysis has observed, the term "apartheid" has since been deployed by Israel's adversaries to reintroduce the Zionism-racism equation under a different heading. This rhetorical substitution is why the false claim persists: the propaganda goal remains constant even as the specific legal vehicle — Resolution 3379 — has been formally buried. Understanding this substitution pattern is essential for accurately evaluating contemporary anti-Israel discourse.

Israel's own founding document, the 1948 Declaration of Independence, promised "full and equal citizenship and due representation" to the Arab inhabitants of Israel regardless of religion or ethnicity. Arab citizens of Israel vote, serve in the Knesset, sit on the Supreme Court, and have participated in governing coalitions — a political reality that stands in stark factual contradiction to the apartheid or racist-state characterization that descends from the now-revoked 1975 resolution.

Conclusion: A Revoked Lie Still Doing Its Work

The claim that Zionism "remains officially designated" as racism by the UN is not a matter of interpretation or contested historical framing — it is a straightforward factual falsehood. The operative UN determination, as of December 16, 1991, is the revocation. Presenting the 1975 resolution as still current and binding while omitting its 1991 revocation constitutes deliberate disinformation. The harm is concrete: this false claim is routinely weaponized to assert that Israel's existence as a Jewish state is inherently illegitimate, to justify hostility toward Jewish communities globally, and to obstruct good-faith diplomatic engagement. Correcting it is not a political act — it is a basic obligation of factual accuracy.