Britain puts UNHRC 'on notice' over Israel

Video of the week - "UN Watch" silences UNHRC: http://tinyurl.com/kstfkdz

For the full Article go to: http://tinyurl.com/mexljcn

Britain on Friday placed the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) “on notice”, announcing that it would vote against all future UNHRC resolutions criticizing Israel until the body ends its “disproportion and bias” against the Jewish state.

“Israel is a population of eight million in a world of seven billion,” said a statement from the British government, quoted by The Jewish Chronicle.

“Yet since its foundation, the Human Rights Council has adopted 135 country-specific resolutions; 68 of which against Israel. Justice is blind and impartial. This selective focus on Israel is neither,” added the statement, which pointed out that that “Israel is the only country permanently on the Human Rights Council’s agenda."

“Indeed when the Council voted to include Israel as a permanent item in 2007 – the so-called agenda Item 7 – it was Ban Ki-moon who expressed his deep disappointment given the range and scope of allegations of human rights violations throughout the world.”

Britain, which voted against a resolution at the UNHRC “on the occupation of Syria’s Golan”, said that while it did not recognize Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights, the UNHRC resolution on it was unjust.

“Nowhere is the disproportionate focus on Israel starker and more absurd than in the case of today’s resolution on the occupation of Syria’s Golan,” said the statement, adding, “Syria’s regime butchers and murders its people on a daily basis. But it is not Syria that is a permanent standing item on the Council’s agenda; it is Israel.”

“We cannot accept the perverse message sent out by a Syria Golan resolution that singles out Israel, as Assad continues to slaughter the Syrian people,” said the statement.

The British move came days after the United States also condemned the UNHRC’s bias against Israel.

On Monday, the United States boycotted a meeting on anti-Israel resolutions, while the State Department issued a statement against the meeting.

Secretary of State Rex Tilleson recently threatened that the U.S. would withdraw from the UNHRC unless it stops its anti-Israel bias.

Meanwhile, Jonathan Arkush, President of the UK Board of Deputies praised Friday’s statement as “a hugely significant step by the UK Government.

“We would like to thank the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary for showing this international leadership”, he said, according to The Jewish Chronicle.

“Human rights is not served by an body so clearly partisan that its judgements cannot be taken seriously, so the UK's decision represents a clear victory for both fairness and human rights," added Arkush.

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How Brexit negotiations can help Israel

Video - Myths exposed by Canadian reporter - http://tinyurl.com/kl3y9m3

Article by Manfred Gerstenfeld, JP 18-3-2017

For the full article go to: http://tinyurl.com/m9kaymr

 

The Brexit negotiations are likely to be useful for Israel in a number of ways. One is that the British government, and in particular the country’s media, will expose in much detail the problems and misbehavior of the EU. 

An article in the British daily The Telegraph forecasts: “The EU will soon be crippled by Britain’s departure, robbing it of its financial center and billions of pounds a year in net contributions. The EU’s modus operandi has always been to buy support with German and British money, especially in poorer regions and in France’s agricultural heartlands: when the cash runs out, or is replaced by some euro-tax, tensions will flare up again.”

A second reason is the exposure of the problems of Europe’s leading countries. Even though the negotiations have not yet started, examples of this can already be found. One concerns France, a country which has a disproportionately weighty role in criticizing Israel and inciting against it in the EU, both in the past and under the current presidency.

The Telegraph has published an article identifying France as the sick man of Europe. It mentions that France’s public debt has increased over the past eight years and is now approaching 100% of GDP. This puts it among the top six EU countries suffering from high public debt. The paper also shows that French government spending was as high as 57% of GDP in 2015. This puts it jointly with Finland at the top of the 28 EU members in terms of spending. France’s economic growth in 2015 was only 1.3% compared with the 2.2% average of the EU. It furthermore has the second highest level of labor disputes in the EU.

There are indications of a further advantage for Israel from the Brexit negotiations. International law has frequently been abused by the EU against Israel. Here also the UK has a vested interest in showing that international law is a vague and inconsistent construct. The European Commission had threatened to force the UK to make payments of about 450 billion pounds sterling when it leaves the EU. Yet a financial affairs sub-committee of the House of Lords said in a report that “under international law the UK will not be legally obliged to contribute to the EU budget if an agreement is not reached at the end of Article 50 negotiations.” The committee said that even if the EU member states bring a case against the UK based on international law, it will be slow to litigate and hard to enforce. The more the British detail the limitations and shortcomings of international law, the better.

The late Meir Rosenne, former Israeli ambassador to the United States and France, and an international law expert, has said, “There are two types of international law. One is applied to Israel, the other to all other states. This comes to the fore when one looks at the way Israel is treated in international institutions.”

Rosenne mentioned as a typical example the 2004 International Court of Justice advisory opinion on the Israeli security fence. “In its judgment The Hague court decided that the inherent right of self-defense is enforced only if one is confronted by a state. If this were true, that would mean that whatever the United States undertakes against al-Qaida is illegal. This cannot be considered self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter because al-Qaida is not a state.”

There is another likely source of problems which most probably will yield useful insights for Israel in its confrontations with both individual European countries and the EU.

Though formally the Brexit negotiations are between the EU and Great Britain, the EU has to reach a consensus of its member countries on the terms to be agreed. Their interests are all very different and the negotiations with the UK are likely to be a source of tension between them. The British will do their best to stoke these controversies.

The more internal dissension, the better for the UK.

About a year ago I had suggested in The Jerusalem Post that Israel prepare a black book on the EU’s misbehavior against it, as the European defamation of Israel and the undermining of its sovereignty are of major dimensions.

This proposal is now obsolete. What will come out in criticism of the EU by the UK will be far more encompassing than Israeli experts could ever have achieved.

Now another approach will, however, be useful. Israel should establish a committee of government officials and outside experts, who out of the huge flow of articles and data will identify those elements which can be used by Israel in its confrontations with the EU.

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Teachers funded by YOU tell pupils that terrorists are heroes

Video of the week- Golda Meir speaking; http://tinyurl.com/gpmgdzy

• Palestinian schools funded by British foreign aid are named after terrorists 
• Pictures of 'martyrs' and revolutionary slogans are posted all over the walls
• Despite this millions of pounds of aid continues to pour into the region
• The Mail on Sunday is calling on the government to end foreign aid madness 

By Ian Birrell In Hebron For The Mail On Sunday 11. 3. 2017

For the full article go to: http://tinyurl.com/jasuv4l  

Britain is pumping huge sums of foreign aid into Palestinian schools named after mass murderers and Islamist militants, which openly promote terrorism and encourage pupils to see child killers as role models.

A Mail on Sunday investigation has found 24 schools named after Palestinian terrorists and evidence of widespread encouragement of violence against Israel by teachers, with terrorists routinely held up as heroes for schoolchildren.

Pictures of ‘martyrs’ are posted on school walls, revolutionary slogans and symbols are painted on premises used by youngsters, sports events are named after teenage terrorists and children are encouraged to act out shooting Israeli soldiers in plays.

In a sick classroom play children at the Al-Surra School surround a classmate dressed as an Israeli soldier to play out a mock 'execution'

Head teachers openly admit flouting attempts by British and European donors to control the curriculum at schools. They print overtly political study aids for pupils, some even denying the existence of Israel, and teachers boast of encouraging pupils to emulate teenage attackers killed in the most recent wave of terrorist attacks in the region.

One senior teacher from a prominent West Bank school, asked what he would say to a pupil threatening to attack Israelis, told this newspaper: ‘I would tell them go in the name of God.’

This is all despite a review of the hundreds of millions of pounds in donations poured into Palestinian public services last year, which came after Western donors raised concerns about the indoctrination of children.

The changes to aid handouts followed a furore sparked by a previous Mail on Sunday investigation exposing how British taxpayers’ cash supported monthly payments to convicted terrorist killers and the families of suicide bombers.

After the soldier was 'shot' dead the photo was posted on the school's Facebook page.

The investigation also discovered that British aid was funding salaries for thousands of civil servants who had not worked for nine years, despite many admitting they had second jobs. These payments were stopped three months ago.

The investigation was part of this newspaper’s long-running campaign against the Government’s commitment to foreign aid which is set to reach £12 billion.

Joan Ryan, chair of Labour Friends of Israel and MP for Enfield North, said she supported sending aid to Palestine but urged Ministers to make the Palestinians stick to funding agreements. She said: ‘We cannot stand idly by while the Palestinian Authority sanctions anti-Semitic incitement which poisons young minds and makes a two-state solution ever more difficult to achieve.’

This year alone Britain is giving £25 million to the Palestinian Authority (PA). It will help fund salaries for 30,000 officials in West Bank health and education.

The EU, which gets one-tenth of its aid budget from Britain, is donating £272 million. More than half of this goes to public servants in education, health and social services in Gaza and West Bank.

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