http://wordfromjerusalem.com/?p=4470
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Israel was the first country to
boycott the annual human rights review presented at the bogus United
Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). Despite being tacitly rebuked by
the US, Israel was justified in doing so. For years, whilst ignoring the
rampant denial of human rights and the butchering of hundreds of
thousands of innocent civilians throughout the world, the proceedings of
this despicably biased body were concentrated on relentlessly
condemning, demonizing and delegitimizing the Jewish state.
Recent examples include the
defamatory 2009 Goldstone Report – subsequently recanted by Goldstone
himself – accusing Israel of willfully engaging in war crimes, despite
having a track record of minimizing civilian casualties in war unmatched
by any other country. A year later it again condemned Israel for
“attacking” Turkish terrorist “humanitarians” on board the Mavi Marmari
of the Gaza ”peace” flotilla.
Israel’s decision to boycott the
hearings was vindicated on January 31 when, based on largely fabricated
Arab and hostile NGO sources, the UNHRC proclaimed that Israel’s
settlements over the green line were in breach of the 1949 Geneva
Conventions and accused it of indulging in gross “violations of human
rights law”. The review made no reference to the deliberate targeting of
Israeli civilians by Palestinian terrorists.
It warned that if Israel failed -
with no preconditions - to dismantle construction and withdraw from
these areas, charges of war crimes at the International Criminal Court
could ensue. This amounted to a UN body purporting to promote human
rights, demanding the ethnic cleansing of disputed territories.
The Council also called on
governments and multinational corporations to withdraw investments and
sever all dealings with settlements – effectively providing notice of
intent to impose sanctions.
Had Israel submitted its case in advance to such a kangaroo court, it would merely have legitimized the procedure.
The passionate idealists, who in
1945 created the United Nations to promote global peace and universal
human rights, would turn in their graves were they aware of how this
former noble institution has been hijacked by an alliance of radical
Islamists, rogue states and tyrannies notorious for trampling on human
rights, even denying their own citizens basic human rights such as
freedom of expression and worship.
The farcical assignation of
rogue states to prominent roles at the UN has transformed this
purportedly human rights organization into a sick joke. A representative
of Khadafi’s Libya was elected president of the UN General Assembly in
2009; in 2011 Qatar was elected president and Iran became vice
president; both North Korea, the notorious proliferator of nuclear arms
and Iraq chaired the UN Commission on Disarmament; Iran, notorious for
stoning women, was appointed to the UN Commission on the Status of
Women; in 2011, Assad’s Syria was elected to a UNESCO commission dealing
with human rights and to this day Syria remains on the committee of
UNESCO; Libya introduced a UN resolution to “end all forms of racial
discrimination”; Iran called on the US to implement international
humanitarian law; China demanded an end to “excessive force by law
enforcement bodies”.
The genocidal Holocaust denier,
Iranian President Ahmadinejad, is treated deferentially when he
addresses the General Assembly and calls for the destruction of a UN
member state, employing demonic Jew hatred unprecedented since the Nazi
era.
Only last week, on January 28,
the UN elected Sudan as vice president of its Economic and Social
Council (ECOSOC), the body which regulates human rights groups. That
president Al Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court for
crimes against humanity and genocide in Darfur, failed to preclude
Sudan’s election.
The UN Human Rights Commission
(UNHRC), boycotted by Israel, is a gross caricature of its title,
blatantly undermining every aspect of human rights. Libya was elected
chairman of this august body in 2003 and as recently as 2010 the UNHRC
produced a report praising the human rights record of Libya.
The UN, the UNHRC and the
Security Council have spent infinitely more time debating and condemning
Israeli settlements and construction in Jerusalem than reviewing issues
of human rights violations in Arab states, North Korea, Pakistan,
Russia, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, China, Congo or even Mauritania where
slavery is still practiced. Even the civil war bloodbath in Syria which
has now claimed over 60,000 victims and created 700,000 refugees,
receives considerably less attention than Israel.
The Bush administration
boycotted the UNHRC on the grounds that US involvement would provide
legitimization for this sham body. However, the Obama administration, as
part of its campaign to “engage” with all countries, renewed its
membership.
Since the 1970s, the bulk of UN
debates and condemnations of human rights infringements are directed
against Israel, the nation state of the Jews. It climaxed in November
1975 when at the UN General Assembly, the Soviet Union and its
satellites, supported by Islamic and Third World countries, carried
Resolution 3379 equating Zionism with racism.
Yet sixteen years later in 1991
the US, headed by President Bush senior, harnessed its immense resources
as a superpower and acted as a powerful force for decency by achieving
the repeal by 111 nations of what Hillary Clinton described as a
“criminal” resolution. This act underlines the potential power of
President Obama who, if he so determined, could enforce reforms at the
UN and orientate it towards moral objectives.
But the repeal of UN Resolution
3379 – whilst important – as of now fails to inhibit Islamists from
utilizing their numerical superiority to continue exploiting the UN as a
launching pad to demonize and delegitimize the Jewish state.
It was thus not surprising that
the UN endorsed the 3 Durban conferences against racism which were
transformed into anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic fests and last year the
UN General Assembly adopted 22 anti-Israeli resolutions, whilst only
approving four other condemnations against all other countries.
The European countries, which at
one stage demonstrated token moral resistance to some of these
one-sided anti-Israeli resolutions, have reverted to the role they
assumed in the 1930s and 40s when they stood aside as the forces of
darkness assaulted the Jewish people.
Israel must reconcile to the
reality that it will never achieve justice from this dysfunctional
assembly of nations dominated by tyrannies and dictatorships.
On the positive side, Israel’s
current UN ambassador, Ron Prosor brilliantly articulates the moral case
for the Jewish state and effectively exposes the hypocrisy and double
standards of the UN. His role is extremely important in enabling
Americans to appreciate the bias and duplicity of the ongoing UN
assaults.
Hillel Neuer, operating UN Watch
– one of the most effective nonprofit bodies promoting the case for
Israel abroad – also deserves kudos for systematically highlighting the
humbug at the United Nations.
Hopefully, as US public opinion
becomes increasingly disillusioned and angered with the hypocrisy and
double standards employed by the immoral tyrannical forces dominating
the current United Nations, President Obama may be persuaded to act.
Alternatively, Congress could employ its own clout and if necessary deny
funding in order to stem the UN’s obscene activities. If it fails to do
so, it may even ultimately decide to encourage the creation of a new
global association of democratic states.
The writer’s website can be viewed at www.wordfromjerusalem.com.He may be contacted at ileibler@leibler.com
This column was originally published in the Jerusalem Post and Israel Hayom
Some of my recent articles:
Say no to Hagel (January 31, 2013)
Anglo-Jewish Leaders partner anti-Israeli Charity (January 29, 2013)
Daunting Challenges facing Netanyahu (January 24, 2013)
Liberal Jewish Israel Bashers: Ignorant or Malicious? (January 17, 2013)
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