22 countries slam UN Human Rights Council’s anti-Israel bias

US and other countries blasted the Council’s disproportionate focus on Israel.

By David Hellerman, World Israel News

The U.S. and 21 other countries denounced the UN Human Rights Council’s bias against Israel, following the release of an 18-page report which blamed the Jewish state for perpetuating the Mideast conflict.

The report was prepared by a commission of inquiry formed last year in the aftermath of Operation Guardian of the Walls. It accused “persistent discrimination against Palestinians.”

The HRC is discussing the report.

“We believe the nature of the COI established last May is further demonstration of long-standing, disproportionate attention given to Israel in the Council and must stop,” said US Ambassador Michèle Taylor, reading out a statement to the session.

“We continue to believe that this long-standing disproportionate scrutiny should end, and that the Council should address all human rights concerns, regardless of country, in an even-handed manner,” Taylor added. “Regrettably, we are concerned that the Commission of Inquiry will further contribute to the polarization of a situation about which so many of us are concerned.”

Besides being signed by the U.S. and Israel, the statement was also signed by Austria, Bulgaria, Brazil, Canada, Cameroon, Colombia, Croatia, Eswatini, Germany, Guatemala, Hungary, Liberia, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, North Macedonia, Holland, Palau, Togo, and the United Kingdom.

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid thanked all the countries that signed the statement.

The Foreign Ministry dismissed the UNHRC report as “nothing more than a waste of money and effort of the United Nations’ systems, part and parcel of the witch hunt being carried out by the Human Rights Council against Israel.”

Ahead of the council’s session, UN Watch hosted Christian pro-Israel activist and Johannesburg native Olga Meshoe Washington, who debunked accusations of Israeli “apartheid” against the Palestinians.

“My people’s history and experience is being used as an antisemitic tool to politically, morally and with incredible pretzel-like twisting and legal gymnastics, legally delegitimize Israel with the hope to criminalize her,” said Washington.

Also appearing at the UN Watch event was Col. Richard Kemp, former commander of British forces in Afghanistan.

“It’s a little like Groundhog Day: Hamas triggers a war, the UN convenes a commission to condemn Israel for the war,” Kemp said.