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Israel Boycotts Review at UN Human Rights Council

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On Tuesday, January 29, Israel became the first country to boycott a UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) review of its rights situation, sparking heated debate among diplomats on how to respond, AFP reports.

“I see that the delegation of Israel is not in the room,” council president Remigiusz Henczel told the delegates at the United Nations in Geneva.

Israel is not a member of the council but, like all 193 UN countries, it is required to undergo Universal Periodic Reviews (UPRs) of its human rights situation.

In March of 2012, the 47-nation UNHRC adopted a resolution establishing a “fact-finding mission” on how the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria affect the lives of Palestinian Authority Arabs.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry subsequently decided to sever its ties with the UNHRC, saying the decision stems from a series of unilateral moves that the “Palestinians” are trying to lead against Israel. As such, its absence from the review was no surprise.

Earlier Tuesday, an Israeli foreign ministry spokesman told AFP the country intended to boycott the meeting.

“We cut all our contacts with the council last March, including the current activity,” spokesman Yigal Palmor said, stressing, “Our policy has not changed.”

Israel’s failure to show up for its UPR marks the first time since the reviews began in 2007 that a country under evaluation has been absent, and it was unclear how the rights council would react.

Henczel called on the council to adopt a draft decision on how to react, including urging Israel to resume its cooperation with the UPR process.

It also called for Israel’s review to be rescheduled for no later than during the UPR session starting in October this year.

Delegates then took the floor, with Egypt’s representative declaring that the council faced “a moment of truth,” according to AFP.

He cautioned that taking a “soft” approach towards Israel would create a dangerous precedent and leave “a wide-open door for more cases of non-cooperation.”

Israel’s main ally in the council, the United States, however gave its full backing to Henczel’s proposal, with ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe insisting in a statement – – without mentioning Israel by name – – that the text reflected the “best effort to find common ground and to protect the UPR mechanism going forward.”

Last week Donahue urged Israel to take part in the review.

Britain called for a “proportionate and balanced conclusion”, while the Irish representative for the European Union urged a “consensual” way forward.

The Pakistani representative implicitly criticized those urging a soft reaction.

“We wonder … whether this kind of cooperative spirit would be extended to some other countries that are not as close to some of the major powers in the world,” he said, according to AFP.

Despite the range of opinions, the council in the end adopted Henczel’s proposal by consensus.

On Thursday evening, January 31, Yisrael Beytenu chairman and former Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman launched a scathing attack on the UNHRC . “The UN Human Rights Council once again proved today that there is no connection between its name and its nature,” said Lieberman, noting that the UNHRC does not show any interest in the ongoing mass murders in Syria.

“The only thing this Council is engaged with is ways to try to harm Israel,” Lieberman wrote on his official Facebook page.

Lieberman noted that during his tenure as foreign minister he had ordered that Israel cut all ties with the UNHRC, adding that the United States, Canada and the European Union had previously said that the UNHRC’s constant pursuit of Israel is disproportionate.

“There is no need to reply to the Council’s distorted report on Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria,” he said.

“We will continue to build and live in our country and they will continue to try and hurt the Zionist activities through baseless and pointless reports whose place is in the garbage heap of history.”

In a report it issued earlier on Thursday, the UNHRC wrote that “Israel must, in compliance with Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, cease all settlement activities without preconditions.”

“It must immediately initiate a process of withdrawal of all settlers from the occupied Palestinian territories,” said the report.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry responded in a fiery statement immediately to the report, which claimed that Jewish settlement activity only “hampers peace efforts.”

In response, Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said, “The Human Rights Council has sadly distinguished itself by its systemically one-sided and biased approach towards Israel.

“This latest report is yet another reminder of that,” he added.

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