The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is launching a new round of anti-Israel activity, with as many as 5 new resolutions in the works this coming week. In conjunction with the UN’s year of solidarity with the Palestinian people, the Council, which has only one resolution pending this session addressing the bloody civil war in Syria, is set to introduce a series of resolutions – sponsored by Syria and the Palestinian Authority – condemning Israel. According to UN Watch:
While Israeli diplomats remain on strike, the 47-nation UN Human Rights Council is planning to launch a massive attack on the Jewish state next week in a series of five resolutions that — expressly citing controversial UN official Richard Falk — include new accusations of racism, along with calls to impose “international criminal liability” on businesses with indirect links amounting to “corporate complicity in breaches of international law related to illegal settlements.”
Falk, the outgoing special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories since 1967 has been in the news in recent years. Last year the American ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice called for Falk’s dismissal after he blamed the Boston Marathon bombings on “American ‘global domination project’,” writing, “Someone who spews such vitriol has no place at the UN.” He ran afoul of American authorities again in December of last year, when he claimed that Israel was “genocidal.” In response, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said, “we reiterate our calls for him to step down from this role.”
As such it is carrying on the work of its predecessor, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR). The discredited UNCHR, which was disbanded in 2006 due to what the New York Times called its “disgraceful” performance, by allowing “abusive regimes” seats on the commission to “insulate themselves from criticism.” In addition to having countries like Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Nepal as members the commission made Israel a frequent target of its condemnations while ignoring the records of rights abusers.
The commission’s successor, the UNHRC, has continued in this path. Although it was created with the intent of correcting the failings of the commission, the Council has adopted “agenda item 7,” the only such agenda item focusing on a single country, singling out Israel, while continuing to allow human rights abusers to avoid scrutiny.
The UN’s dedicated assaults on Israel have reached a point where disinterested observers can no longer keep silent. Yet the timing of this round of anti-Israel resolutions is especially inauspicious, just when a strike at the Foreign Ministry has left Israel unable to effectively fight back through diplomatic channels.
For an in-depth look at how the UN is divided between more noble and more ignominious bodies, read Ben Cohen’s exposé in the September 2013 issue of The Tower Magazine. See also Claudia Rosett’s The Twisted Conundrum of Funding the United Nations in the February, 2014 of the Tower Magazine that shows how American funding enables an anti-American agenda at the UN.
[Photo: Jason Kenney / YouTube ]