"The more economic and political heft that a country has, the more it
can block intense scrutiny. Uber-rich Saudi Arabia thwarted efforts to
create an international probe of rights abuses in neighboring Yemen,
where a Saudi-led military coalition has led a campaign including air
strikes that have left hundreds of civilians dead.
On the side of those less influential, there's Eritrea: a small, poor
country on the Red Sea whose African neighbors want to highlight in
this session with a resolution critical of its rights record"
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/world-chaos-israel-singular-focus-rights-body-39810604
World in Chaos, Israel Gets Singular Focus at UN Rights Body
By JAMEY KEATEN, ASSOCIATED PRESS
GENEVA — Jun 13, 2016, 8:32 AM ET
Wars in Iraq, Syria and Yemen have killed hundreds of thousands of
people. Enforced disappearances, torture and extremist attacks
infringe on human rights worldwide. Tyrannical, autocratic leaders and
their allies from Belarus to Burundi repel dissent with an iron fist.
But while human rights abuses are legion in these troubled times, only
one country has its record inspected at every single session of the
United Nations Human Rights Council: Israel, over its policies in the
occupied Palestinian territories.
Israel, which trumpets its bona fides as a democracy in a difficult
neighborhood full of enemies, is crying foul. And it is not entirely
alone: Other critics, notably the United States, also decry what they
see as an entrenched bias in United Nations institutions and an
obsession with the Palestinian issue at the expense of other crises
around the globe.
As the council convened Monday in Geneva for its second, weeks-long
session this year, "Item 7" considers the human rights implications of
Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory. The standing item at the
10-year-old council has come to exemplify the spotlight on Israel in a
number of U.N. bodies.
"I don't know whether it's fair or unfair, but it's obvious that the
majority of members want to continue to focus on the situation of
Israel and Palestine," council president Choi Kyong-lim told The
Associated Press.
Of 233 country-specific HRC resolutions in the last decade, more than
a quarter — 65 — focus on Israel. About half of those are
"condemnatory." Israel easily tops the second-place country in the
infamous rankings: Syria, where since 2011 at least 250,000 have been
killed, over 10 million displaced, and swaths of cities destroyed, was
the subject of 19 resolutions.
"The U.N. continues to single out Israel, the one liberal democracy in
the Middle East," said David Keyes, Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu's spokesman. "Imagine that. A country with free speech, free
elections and minority rights is condemned more than mass murdering
dictatorships like North Korea, Iran and Syria. That speaks for
itself."
Shortly after taking office in 2007, U.N. Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon criticized the standing item on Israel, saying he was
"disappointed at the council's decision to single out only one
specific regional item, given the range and scope of allegations of
human rights violations throughout the world."
It hasn't budged since.
Over the years, the council has variously criticized Israel's presence
in the Golan Heights and its detention of Syrian suspects without
trial, a lack of cooperation with U.N. human rights investigators, its
expansion of settlements in the West Bank, and its muscular and at
times deadly response to militants' rocket attacks from Gaza that have
killed Israeli civilians.
This session, no resolutions are planned on Israel, but it still gets
automatic billing.
Israel's expansion of West Bank settlements in recent years has
garnered sharp criticism, even of allies.
The criticism of Israel spans many U.N. bodies. Take some other recent examples:
—Israeli officials bristled after the U.N.'s cultural agency, UNESCO,
passed a resolution in April that put the Western Wall in Jerusalem —
Judaism's holiest site — in quotation marks and described other Jewish
sites as "so-called."
—An HRC resolution in March called on U.N. human rights chief Zeid
Ra'ad al-Hussein to set up a database of businesses operating in
settlements in the West Bank and Golan Heights. U.S. Ambassador Keith
Harper said that move "only serves to reinforce the council's
one-sided actions against Israel."
—On Friday, Zeid condemned Wednesday's gun attack in Tel Aviv that
killed four people. But he quickly expressed concern about the
response, saying that Israeli authorities could be engaging in
"collective punishment" with some measures against Palestinians like
canceling 83,000 travel permits granted to West Bank and Gaza
residents during Ramadan. Israel's mission in Geneva accused his
office of "using the murder of innocent Israelis to attack Israel."
Palestinians accuse Israel of intransigence in applying U.N. resolutions.
"Israel tries to say that the U.N. is not the place to solve
problems," said Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki. "Israel tries
hard to single out the Palestinians by saying the conflict will be
solved by the two sides and in the same time it continues confiscating
lands and building settlements. Israel ... doesn't listen to anybody."
The Palestinians, who have been gaining a greater presence in U.N.
institutions in recent years, have allies like the Organization for
Islamic Cooperation, which has often led the push for resolutions
critical of Israel. An OIC official did not respond to calls and
e-mails seeking comment, saying only that its ambassador to the
council had recently left.
John Fisher, Geneva director for Human Rights Watch, said that while
his group believes Israel's record deserves attention, it also has
been calling for "attention to situations that are not on the
council's agenda at all, but should be."
The more economic and political heft that a country has, the more it
can block intense scrutiny. Uber-rich Saudi Arabia thwarted efforts to
create an international probe of rights abuses in neighboring Yemen,
where a Saudi-led military coalition has led a campaign including air
strikes that have left hundreds of civilians dead.
On the side of those less influential, there's Eritrea: a small, poor
country on the Red Sea whose African neighbors want to highlight in
this session with a resolution critical of its rights record.
Nearly from its inception, the HRC has drawn criticism for its
make-up. This year, China, Cuba, Russia, Venezuela and Burundi are
among its 47 members. Diplomats insist the HRC reflects the world, and
cannot only include peaceful Western democracies. They say no country
is fully above reproach.
The HRC has had achievements in places like post-genocide Sri Lanka,
whose new government has been generally receptive to scrutiny and has
cooperated with the council. Some Latin American countries are
expected to lead an effort in this session to support protections for
people based on their gender identities and sexual orientation.
———
Ian Deitch in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
Received on Mon Jun 13 2016 - 09:24:05 EDT