“The Human Rights Council is only obsessed with the fate of the Palestinians, and prefers to close its eyes to other critical human rights violations. It consistently disregards the human rights of Israelis. In fact, it does not care for them at all,” said Israel’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Eviatar Manor.

The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Monday continued with its obsessed focus on Israel as it again debated the infamous Item 7 on its agenda which discusses Israel’s alleged human rights violations of Palestinians, while ignoring crucial issues around the globe.

The Council’s outgoing Special Rapporteur on the issue, Makarim Wibisono, voiced scathing criticism of Israel. Wibisono is to step down over what he claimed was a lack of access to areas he is meant to monitor.

In his final report to the UNHRC, the Indonesian diplomat alleged a “lack of cooperation” on Israel’s side which “regrettably seems to signal the continuation of a situation under which Palestinians suffer daily human rights violations under the Israeli occupation.”

Wibisono, while stressing that “any wanton act of individual violence, whether committed by Palestinians or Israelis, is unacceptable and must be investigated and prosecuted,” said in his report that the violence was happening “in a pre-existing context… against a backdrop of illegal settlements in the West Bank… (and) the blockade of Gaza,” basically justifying Palestinian terrorists attacks against Israelis.

The EU representative on the council, Peter Soerensen of Denmark, said he regretted that Israel had not allowed Wibisono to access the Palestinian territories. But he also noted that his mandate was “limited to investigate Israel’s violations”, and insisted that all rights abuses, regardless of who committed them, “should be subject to scrutiny.”

Meanwhile, the appointment of Wibisono’s successor is already triggering controversy, with two shortlisted law professors, Penny Green from the UK and Michale Lynk of Canada, both notorious for their anti-Israeli activism.

Responding to the baseless allegations, Israel’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Eviatar Manor pointed to the fact that over the course of the last three weeks, thousands had demonstrated outside the UN headquarters in Geneva, demanding the world body’s attention for various real and pressing issues.

“But we are sorry to tell them that they are wasting their time,” Manor said. “The Human Rights Council is only obsessed with the fate of the Palestinians, and prefers to close its eyes to other critical Human Rights violations. It consistently disregards the human rights of Israelis. In fact, it does not care for them at all.”

Manor warned that “as long as the HRC does not undergo a behavioral therapy to treat its obsession with Israel, we will not cooperate with these biased mechanisms.”

The UNHRC is infamously biased against Israel, with nearly half of its resolutions focused solely on Israel while completely ignoring war, strife and atrocities committed around the globe.

Israeli leaders and officials have cited the UNHRC for its “obsessive hostility” toward Israel and its “one-sided mandate.”

Challenge to UNHRC: Condemn Palestinian Terrorism and Incitement

While the UNHRC was occupied with bashing Israel, hundreds of supporters of Israel rallied outside the UN compound in Geneva, urging the HRC to shed its anti-Israel bias. Among them was Member of Knesset (MK) Yair Lapid.

Micah Avni, whose father Richard Lakin was murdered in a brutal Palestinian terrorists attack in Jerusalem in October, called on the UNHRC to condemn his father’s murder.

“My father, Richard Lakin, was a kind, gentle person – an elementary school principal who educated thousands of children, a human rights activist dedicated to promoting coexistence,” Avni told the UNHRC, according to the Jerusalem Post.

“He [Richard Lakin] marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. He founded a school in Israel where Muslim, Christian and Jewish children studied together. He wrote a book called Teaching as an Act of Love,” Avni noted.

“Last October, two Palestinian terrorists attacked a bus full of civilians in Jerusalem. They shot my 76-year old father in the head, and stabbed him multiple times after he fell, severing most of his vital organs,” Avni said.
“Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon came to visit my father in the hospital before he died. He wrote my mother a private condolence letter,” he added.

“What the secretary-general, and you – the UN investigator on Israel – and this council, did not do was publicly condemn these terrorists or the rampant Palestinian incitement that fuels this brutality,” Avni said.
“Palestinians are not preparing for peace. Instead, Palestinian leader [Mahmoud] Abbas praised my father’s murderer – calling him a “martyr,” Avni said.

“I am here today from Israel to issue a direct challenge to the secretary-general, the high commissioner, and this council: killing civilians on a bus is terrorism. I challenge you to specifically condemn the murder of my father, Richard Lakin. I challenge you to condemn President Abbas for calling my dad’s murderer a ‘martyr,’ and for his hateful incitement to violence. The passionate goal of my father and the people of Israel is peaceful coexistence. Your failure to condemn Palestinian violence and your continued rationalization of Palestinian terrorism is pushing peace away, making more death inevitable,” Avni charged.

Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan Joined Avni in challenging the UNHRC to condemn terrorism against Israelis.

“I join Micah and the victims of the latest wave of Palestinian terror in calling on the international community to stop its hypocrisy and unequivocally condemn the murderous terror attacks carried out against Israelis,” Erdan said in a statement. “Richard was murdered by Palestinians who were brainwashed by the Palestinian Authority’s schools and Palestinian social media to believe that those who kill Jews are heroes. Palestinian Authority President Abbas described Richard’s murderer as a noble martyr.”

He called on all of the countries involved in funding the PA’s incitement, including the schoolbooks used in PA and UNRWA schools, to stop their funding, and start it again only after “the messages of hate are replaced by messages of co-existence and peace.”

He also thanked Avni for “giving voice to the victims of Palestinian terror and their families.”

By: United with Israel Staff

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