Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan slammed the election of several countries with poor rights records to the U.N. Human Rights Council.
“Today’s Human Rights Council elections prove once again that this council has nothing to do with protecting human rights and everything to do with violating them. Since 2006, the council has adopted 90 resolutions condemning Israel, more than all the resolutions against Syria, North Korea and Iran, combined,” he said in a statement.
“The obsessive focus on Israel, along with its protection of oppressive, dictatorial regimes, shows that the Human Rights Council is in the business of white-washing the crimes of these countries,” continued Erdan. “I call on all democracies that are still members of the council to immediately resign from this shameful and anti-Semitic body.”
On Tuesday, the UNHRC elected China, Russia, Pakistan and Cuba, which all have poor human-rights records, among several other countries to fill 15 vacant seats on the council. Notably, Saudi Arabia, which has received criticism over its purported role in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, did not win election to the council.
In particular, the election of China has received widespread condemnation, especially given its ongoing treatment of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province, as well as protesters in Hong Kong.
In 2018, the Trump administration pulled the United States from the UNHRC in protest of the council’s frequent criticism of Israel.
Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Tuesday that “the U.N. Human Rights Council is a total farce not worthy of its name or the United States giving it any credibility.”
Israel is also the only country that also has a permanent item on the UNHRC’s annual agenda dedicated to the state’s condemnation.
