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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