‘Rectify discriminatory treatment of Israel,’ Lapid tells UN chief

The Israeli prime minister is slated to address the General Assembly on Thursday.

By Aryeh Savir, TPS

Prime Minister Yair Lapid met on Tuesday during his diplomatic visit to New York for the United Nations General Assembly with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and said he expects that the UN chief will “act to rectify the discriminatory treatment of Israel at the United Nations, in particular stopping the activity of the Commission of Inquiry.”

In May 2021, the UN Human Rights Council approved an open-ended investigation of Israel’s alleged “war crimes, treatment of Palestinians, and human rights violations,” the only country-specific agenda item on the Council’s agenda. The COI on Israel solely focuses on the actions Israel takes against the terrorist group Hamas.

This unprecedented committee is now a permanent UN fixture with a budget of US $4,151,800 for the year 2022 alone, reporting to the UN twice every year on Israel’s alleged human rights violations.

The COI, in its first report published in June, placed the onus on Israel when it claimed that “the continued occupation by Israel of Palestinian territory and discrimination against Palestinians are the key root causes of the recurrent tensions, instability, and protraction of conflict in the region.”

Lapid and Guterres also discussed the “fight against anti-Semitism and ways in which it is possible to act to reduce it.”

Additionally, Lapid “emphasized the common need for western countries to fight terrorism.”

Lapid also met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Jordanian King Abdullah II, and Prime Minister of Greece Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

He is slated to address the General Assembly on Thursday.