The last few months have seen Israel seek to engage the United Nations in general, and the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in particular, on the hope that active participation in the global body and its forums may alleviate what both Israeli and American diplomats have criticized as a near-obsession with condemnation of the Jewish state.

Last October Israel rejoined the UNHRC after an 18 month boycott over the UN organ’s nearly exclusive targeting of Jerusalem and its deployment of investigators dogged by accusations of anti-Semitism. The UNHRC subsequently allowed the election and ascension of among others China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia, three countries that regularly block UNHRC investigators from pursuing claims of human rights abuses. The new members – according to Hillel Neuer, the executive director of UN Watch – also regularly “perpetrate gross and systematic human rights abuses, including massive violations of the freedoms of speech, press, religion, and assembly.” Nonetheless observers expect that the UNHRC’s targeting of Israel to continue apace.

As for the wider U.N., last Thursday saw the General Assembly (UNGA) pass nine resolutions condemning Israel and exactly zero condemning human rights violations in other countries. One of the resolutions mentioned “Syria” 10 times in the context of criticizing Israel’s stance on the Golan Heights, but found no space to call attention to the behavior of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad regime, which is widely believed to have used poison gas against civilians as part of that country’s two and a half year war, which has killed over 100,000 people. By the time the UNGA wraps up this session 22 resolutions will have been passed condemning Israel, out of 26 total.

An interpreter observing the proceedings drew the obvious conclusion and, thinking that her mic was turned off, made commented somewhat acerbically to her colleague about the disproportionate focus. Her mic, however, was in fact the exact opposite of turned off:

I mean I think when you have five statements, not five, but like a total of 10 resolutions on Israel and Palestine, there’s gotta be something, c’est un peu trop, non? [It’s a bit much, no?] I mean I know, yes, yes, but there’s other really bad shit happening, but no one says anything about the other stuff

The faux pas triggered giggles from other interpreters and an immediate apology, but the incident quickly spread. It came up during the Israeli government’s weekly cabinet meeting, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to give a job to the interpreter if she was subjected to professional retribution.

Commenting on the incident, Neuer pointed to one resolution as a particularly absurd instance of the U.N. going out of its way to reserve condemnation only for Israel:

That’s right: the UN adopted a resolution today that mentions the word “Syria” no less than 10 times—yet said nothing of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s massacre of more than 100,000 of his own people. Entitled “Occupied Syrian Golan,” the resolution condemned Israel for allegedly mistreating Syrian citizens in the Golan Heights. Israel was also condemned for violating the rights of Syrian citizens under international humanitarian law. The UN found no time today, however, to comment on the international legality of President Assad gassing his own citizens to death.

A video of the incident: