Israel strongly condemned the “obsessive bias” of the U.N. Human Rights Council after the world body passed four resolutions this week condemning the country over its treatment of the Palestinians.
“The Human Rights Council has once again proven itself to be an anti-Israel, discriminatory and hypocritical body,” Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi wrote on Twitter. “I thank all the countries who chose not to lend a hand to this circus and the systematic discrimination against Israel.”
One resolution, “Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory” featured 19 paragraphs criticizing Israel, while only one paragraph criticizing rocket fire on Israel with no mention of Hamas.
Israel’s allies such as France, Germany, Japan, Denmark, France, Poland, South Korea, Italy and the Netherlands all voted for the measure, which expressed “grave concern at reports of serious human-rights violations and grave breaches of international humanitarian law, including of possible war crimes and crimes against humanity, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.”
Bahrain, which signed a peace deal with Israel last year, skipped the vote.
Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, blasted the passage of the resolution and its support from rogue regimes such as Venezuela.
“The fact that this resolution was literally written by the Palestinians, with co-sponsors that include Pakistan on behalf of the Islamic states as well as Venezuela’s [Nicolás] Maduro regime, is clear from the text’s pervasive condemnation of Israeli actions, with no mention whatsoever of Hamas, Islamic Jihad or the Palestinian Authority,” said Neuer.
The three other resolutions were passed under Agenda Item 7 that calls for a mandatory discussion of Israel at every UNHRC meeting. One resolution that passed criticized Israel for its “human rights” policy in the Golan Heights; the two other resolutions were on “Palestinian’s right to self-determination” and Israel’s settlement policies.
Even though the resolutions were adopted, Israeli officials were able to reduce some support for them with the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic voting against all three Agenda Item 7 resolutions.
“Yesterday & today’s vote on four anti-Israel resolutions at the UNHRC represents a moral stain on the U.N., and is additional proof of the hypocrisy of those countries who supported these resolutions,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lior Haiat wrote on Twitter.
“Instead of acting to advance human rights across the world, the council continues to engage in an obsessive and biased manner against Israel, effectively being a political platform in the hands of countries who have absolutely no connection to human rights,” the spokesperson said.
With the closing of the latest UNHRC session, only the State of Israel had four resolutions passed against it. Countries with severe human-rights violations, including North Korea, Myanmar, Iran, Syria and Belarus, had just one resolution each. Others such as Venezuela and China had none.
The United States under President Donald Trump pulled out of the UNHRC in 2018 due to its disproportionate focus on Israel. The Biden administration announced that it will rejoin the council.
