The first official visit to Israel by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres this week presents a great opportunity for him to reverse the UN’s discriminatory policy against Israel, Benjamin Weinthal wrote on Fox News.
Nearly half of the states in the United States and many Europeans governments over the last two years have passed anti-BDS legislation, recognizing the dangerous nature of the movement and its potential to undermine peace between Israelis and Palestinians. However, Weinthal argues, “the United Nations is set to engage in full-throated BDS by the end of this year.”
Last week it was reported that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Jordanian Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al-Hussein, plans to publish a “blacklist” of Israeli businesses and international corporations that have ties with the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights to facilitate the launching of boycotts.
According to Weinthal, “the blacklist is UN-sanctioned BDS” and “by attempting to blacklist Israel companies and U.S. companies like Caterpillar, TripAdvisor, Priceline.com, and Airbnb, the UN high commissioner is discouraging bilateral peace talks.”
Weinthal added, “put simply, the UNHRC should not be in the business of using the tools of economic warfare to bring about precisely the result it claims it wishes to avoid: a powerful setback to the Israel-Palestinian peace process”
On Wednesday, U.S. ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley warned that the U.S would cut funding to the UN Human Rights Council if it releases the blacklist.
Haley sharply criticized the discriminatory targeting. She said: “It is an attempt to provide an international stamp of approval to the anti-Semitic BDS movement. It must be rejected.”
Reiterating his commitment to fighting anti-Semitism, Secretary General Guterres vowed in response to Israeli President Reuven Rivlin’s concerns over anti-Israel bias at the UN that “impartiality means treating all states equally, and I am totally committed to that in my action and in everything I can do for the organization I lead.”
[Photo: Liberal Arts Voices/ Wikicommons]