The UNHRC has “lost its legitimacy as it focuses obsessively on attacking Israel instead of working on resolving the real human rights problems,” Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon charged.
Israel’s Ambassador the United Nations (UN) Danny Danon on Thursday harshly criticized the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) Special Rapporteur on the “human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” saying he is exploiting his position to spread hateful incitement against Israel.
UNHRC Special Rapporteur Michael Lynk called on the Security Council (UNSC) to level sanctions against Israel.
The Canadian law professor told a press conference earlier in the day that the international community had “recoiled from answering Israel’s splintering of the Palestinian territory and disfiguring of the laws of occupation with the robust tools that international law and diplomacy provide.”
Lynk called for “appropriate diplomatic and legal strategies” against Israel and described the anti-Israel BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanction) movement as “a non-violent movement” and “a form of free expression for people anywhere to protest any company or country.”
“Israel is very dependent on trade with the outside world… If there was an understanding that all of a sudden Israelis wanted to travel abroad needed to have visas, if there was an understanding that Israel wasn’t going to get preferential trading agreements with the EU, if all of a sudden, the many and multitude forms of military, economic or academic cooperation with Israel were now going to come to an end… I think you’d begin to see a sea-change in the attitude of ordinary Israelis and the Israeli government. But that has to happen. Every journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. This might be the first step that we have to start taking,” Lynk said.
The UN’s Anti-Israel Obsession
Danon slammed Lynk’s call for sanctions against Israel, charging Lynk with “exploiting his position to spread hateful incitement against the State of Israel and … acting as a BDS activist under the auspices of the UN.”
“The UN Human Rights Council has lost its legitimacy as it focuses obsessively on attacking Israel instead of working on resolving the real human rights problems plaguing the world. The Council has lost all touch with reality and the original intent upon which it was founded.”
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 world.
Israeli leaders and officials have cited the UNHRC for its “obsessive hostility” toward Israel and its “one-sided mandate.”
Over the past 10 years, the UNHRC has passed 62 resolutions condemning Israel. Meanwhile, the world’s worst human rights abusers in Syria, Iran, and North Korea received far fewer condemnations.
US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley has threatened more than once to withdraw from the UNHRC over its anti-Israel bias.
In March, the UK put the UNHRC “on notice” for its anti-Israel bias.
“If things do not change, in the future we will adopt a policy of voting against all resolutions concerning Israel’s conduct,” said UK Ambassador Julian Braithwaite.
American envoy Erin Barclay told the UNHRC earlier that month that Washington was considering its future engagement with the Council “with an eye toward reform,” saying that its “obsession with Israel” threatens the Council’s reliability.
The US contributes 22 percent of the UN’s budget, and has been discussing whether to cut funding.
By: United with Israel Staff
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