At least four Arab nations voted in favor of Israel’s successful and historic candidacy to head a major United Nations committee, the pan-Arab newspaper Al-Quds al-Arabi reported earlier this week.

Committee chairs are normally approved by consensus, but Danon’s candidacy, sponsored by the Western Europe and Others group of UN members, was protested by Arab and Muslim-majority countries. Danon was nonetheless elected in a secret ballot on Monday to chair the UN General Assembly’s Sixth Committee, which deals with issues of international law. All 193 UN member states were eligible to vote, and Danon received “ayes” from 109 ambassadors. That number may have included Arab states that formally opposed his appointment — according to the Al-Quds al-Arabi report, “diplomatic sources say that at least four Arab countries supported the Israeli candidate.”

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian Permanent Observer to the United Nations, complained that Israel won the election “only thanks to the efforts of the U.S., Canada, and Australia, which used all manner of blackmail and threats to guarantee a vote for Israel.” Mansour, who does not represent a full UN member state and therefore cannot vote, threatened that because of objections to Israel’s new UN role, “the Sixth Committee will grind to a halt.”

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