AJC Hails Israel's Admission to UN Regional Group

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Feb 11, 2014, 12:49 ET

NEW YORK, Feb. 11, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- AJC hailed Israel's admission to the JUSCANZ regional group at UN headquarters in New York.

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"JUSCANZ membership is another important step in rectifying the systemic discrimination against Israel at the UN," said AJC Executive Director David Harris. "We applaud U.S. Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power for her determined efforts to mobilize support among JUSCANZ members to correct this long-standing diplomatic anomaly. Both Ambassador Power and her Canadian counterpart, Ambassador Guillermo Rishchynski, were instrumental in achieving this long overdue breakthrough."

JUSCANZ, comprising 15 democratic countries, including Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland and the U.S., is a sub-group of the Western European and Others (WEOG) regional group at the UN. Israel was admitted to WEOG in New York in 2000, and in Geneva in 2013. Israel had been a member of JUSCANZ in Geneva, but, until this action, not in New York.

"Even as we celebrate Israel's admission to JUSCANZ, there still is much to be done at the UN," said Harris. "Our ultimate goal is to see the end of the structural obstacles to Israel's full participation in the UN system, and to ensure that Israel is, at long last, given equal treatment as a UN member state, exactly as the UN Charter calls for."

SOURCE American Jewish Committee