by Shlomo Cesana, News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff
U.S. calls on the United Nations Human Rights Council to eliminate its "chronic anti-Israel bias"
Israeli Ambassador to the
United Nations Danny Danon
|
Photo credit: AFP  |
Israel is spearheading a move that could see
multiple members exit the United Nations Human Rights Council unless it
relinquishes its anti-Israel bias.
Israel is a fixed item on the agenda of the
47-member body, set up in 2006, and it has passed over 70 resolutions
against the Jewish state.
Israel is demanding that the UNHRC cancel its
annual session that focuses solely on alleged human rights violations
committed by Israel against the Palestinians. Another demand is that the
council cancel the committee tasked with maintaining a database of
companies doing business beyond the Green Line.
Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny
Danon told Israel Hayom on Tuesday that "the time is right for a major
change in the U.N., mainly over the new administration in the U.S."
He also credited U.S. Ambassador to the U.N.
Nikki Haley for "working tirelessly" to change the "aggressive and
unjustified anti-Israel bias in the U.N."
The Trump administration on Tuesday gave
formal notice that it was reviewing its participation in the Human
Rights Council and called for reforming the body to eliminate what it
called its "chronic anti-Israel bias."
"The United States is looking carefully at
this council and our participation in it. We see some areas for
significant strengthening," Haley told the Geneva forum at the opening
of a three-week session.
Washington says the council is stacked with
opponents of Israel and boycotted it for three years under President
George W. Bush before rejoining under President Barack Obama in 2009.
"Tragically, we've been down this road
before," Haley later told the Graduate Institute of Geneva. "America
does not seek to leave the Human Rights Council. We seek to re-establish
the council's legitimacy."
Haley named Venezuela, Cuba, China, Burundi,
and Saudi Arabia as council members that do not uphold the highest
standards, and said the forum was becoming as "discredited" as its
predecessor body, the Human Rights Commission.
"This relentless, pathological campaign
against a country that actually has a strong human rights record makes a
mockery not of Israel, but of the council itself," Haley said, as some
in the audience interrupted briefly with laughter at the remark.
She called for the council to address serious
human rights violations in Venezuela and for the government of President
Nicolas Maduro to address them.
"If Venezuela cannot, it should voluntarily
step down from its seat on the Human Rights Council until it can get its
own house in order. Being a member of this council is a privilege, and
no country who is a human rights violator should be allowed a seat at
the table," she said.
Haley called for the council to adopt strong resolutions
on abuses in Syria, Eritrea, Belarus, Ukraine, and the Democratic
Republic of Congo at its session.
Shlomo Cesana, News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=42953&hp=1
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