As its 49th sitting came to a close, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) passed four anti-Israel measures, including one calling for a restricted import ban.
Meanwhile, Russia got only one resolution denouncing its assault on Ukraine.
It’s So Onesided
Israel has been the only nation to face multiple resolutions condemning it. For human rights violations, North Korea, Myanmar, Nicaragua Iran, Belarus, and Syria each got one resolution.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry praised the decision, asking for a narrow import ban on Israel. The ministry stated it showed “the member nations’ fundamental stand on the significance of responsibility of the Israeli colonialist and racist system.”
After seven abstentions, the measure passed 37-3. Brazil, Malawi, and the United States voted no.
Three years after previous President Trump resigned from the United Nations body, citing its anti-Israel prejudice, the Biden government joined the committee last year.
#BREAKING: The Human Rights Council abolishes Item 7 from the @UN_HRC Permanent Agenda! After 16 years of diplomatic fight, the world came to reason! An important day for Israel and the world. An essential step for the credibility of the Council. #HRC49 pic.twitter.com/vPUXsNHmkR
— Israel in UN/Geneva🇮🇱🇺🇳 #HRC49 (@IsraelinGeneva) April 1, 2022
The Biden administration is “displeased that [UNHRC] member countries continued to unfairly target Israel, and are appalled by the many repetitions and one-sided motions that run every year,” according to President Biden’s ambassador to the UN, Michele Taylor.
“All nations should refrain from supplying armaments when they consider that such arms could be used to perpetrate or enable severe breaches or violations of human rights law/grave violations of international law,” the resolution stated.
Ibrahim Khraishi, the Palestinian Envoy Nations in Geneva, stressed that Israel must be held responsible for its acts against Palestinians.
“This proposed bill should guarantee justice and punish all those who breach humanitarian law accountable, as well as provide restitution and recompense to the deceased [Palestinian] loved ones,” he stated.
The Thorn in the Side of the USA
The remaining three motions were listed under Item 7 on the schedule.
Under the Trump presidency, both Israel and the United States unsuccessfully pushed to repeal Agenda Item 7, which requires that claimed Israeli human rights violations be debated at each conference and is the only legislation of its kind.
This is not an April Fools joke. The U.N. just appointed @FranceskAlb as their impartial and objective investigator of Israel for the next six years despite her documented obsession with comparing Israelis to Nazis and exulting in calling the Jewish state an “apartheid” regime. https://t.co/HpzkEiTBaM pic.twitter.com/bf6sQx5I6V
— UN Watch (@UNWatch) April 2, 2022
No other nation — Iran, Syria, or North Korea – has a separate agenda item dedicated to it. Item 7 on the agenda has nothing to do with Israel. It is geared at Israel’s fundamental survival.
Last year, former US representative to the United Nations Nikki Haley remarked, “It’s a blazing red siren signifying the Human Rights Council’s corruption in politics and moral depravity.”
On Twitter, Israel’s UN envoy joked that the agenda item had already been removed.
“Protecting human rights is no laughing matter. Item 7, on the other hand, is not. It has nothing to do with human rights. It’s just a relic from a darker era. The sole purpose of this relic is to defame Israel.”
The organization wrote, “Today, on #AprilsFools, it is essential for #HRC49 to accept the truth and defeat Item 7.”
