Diplomacy

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UN Rights Council Preparing to Once Again Single Out Israel for Condemnation

The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is set to disproportionately single out Israel in the body’s upcoming 40th meeting in Geneva, which will take place from February 25 to March 22, The Jerusalem Post reported on Wednesday.

Of a list of 79 reports to be dealt with, seven separate papers blast Israel’s conduct, including during the Hamas-orchestrated Gaza border riots that have taken place since March 2018. No other country has as many reports against it.

In comparison, not a single report is expected to address China’s crackdown on Muslims. The UN learned last year that up to one million Uyghur and Turkic Muslims could be being detained in the western Xinjiang region, where they’re said to be undergoing “re-education” programs.

Only two reports each address Iran and Syria, criminal regimes that are responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. Additional reports will examine Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, and Tunisia.

The UNHRC has not yet published a list of resolutions that the Council will vote on, the majority based on those reports. However, the body is likely to continue its discriminatory treatment of Israel.

UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer told the Post that he estimates that the UNHRC will vote on at least five anti-Israel resolutions.

“With an unprecedented amount of seven reports and five resolutions, the UN is planning to attack Israel – more than any other country in the world – at its upcoming 40th Human Rights Council session in March, when it devotes an entire agenda item and day to scapegoating the Jewish state,” said Neuer.

The U.S. withdrew from the UNHRC in June 2018, branding it a “cesspool of political bias,” citing its chronic obsession with Israel in the face of other pressing human rights issues.

Former United States Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, said at the time that, “The UN has failed to adequately address major human rights crises in Iran, North Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and elsewhere, or stop its chronic, disproportionate obsession with Israel.”

[Photo: xiquinhosilva / Flickr ]