Israel Defender Reprimanded at UN Meeting
A recent video captures the unidentified Director of UN Watch addressing the UN Commission on Human Rights. He chose to use his time to make an impassioned critique of the Commission’s disproportionate attention to and repeated denunciation of Israel.
The Director said that, in the face of human rights abuses elsewhere in the world, the Commission has been silent, indifferent, and even criminal, and has gotten off-course of its original mission set forth by its founders. He further questioned the agenda of those on the Commission who claim to be champions of Palestinian rights if they ignore abuses of Palestinians by the Hamas government in Gaza. He criticized the “terrible lies and moral inversion” of the Commission toward Israel.
In response, the acting President of the Council refused to issue the traditional “thank you” for the representative’s statement and warned that any future statement of similar tone would be stricken from the record. He further condemned the Director for besmirching the memories of the Commission’s founders.
The episode illustrates, in part, how difficult are the challenges for Israel’s supporters in ensuring that Israel gets a fair hearing at the UN, its sub-groups, and similar international bodies where critics of Israel enjoy sympathy and support. Furthermore, the Director’s impassioned defense of Israel is commendable because of the courage required to deliver it. If defenders of Israel hope to have any impact whatsoever in world bodies, they will have to be strong, determined, and proactive in identifying and seizing opportunities to draw attention to perversions of justice in treatment of Israel at international organizations.
Jess Sadick is Vice President of Operations and Policy at EMET.
Maybe some one can tell me what benefit the United States gets from being a member of the UN and also 20, 10 or 5 good things that have come from the UN.
Well, I guess the point in being a part of and bankrolling the UN is to encourage dialogue as a means to address and resolve world problems. But, with repressive countries like Syria having a turn at chairing UN bodies and human right violations in many countries going unaddressed, it certainly begs the question, What on Earth worthwhile gets accomplished there?