AJC Praises Diplomatic Efforts to Marginalize UN Human Rights Council Item on Israel

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Jun 20, 2017, 18:55 ET

NEW YORK, June 20, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- AJC praised the growing number of UN Human Rights Council member states that joined with Israel and the United States in not attending or not speaking at Monday's discussion of agenda item #7.

This item is a permanent feature of the agenda, and Israel is the only country in the world treated in this discriminatory way. It singles out Israel for criticism by dealing exclusively with the "human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories."

"With United States leadership, there has been growing recognition that this item is totally unjustified and is nothing more than a tool to isolate and demonize Israel," said AJC CEO David Harris. For years, AJC has pressed for eliminating agenda item #7 from the UN Human Rights Council agenda.

"The United States once again demonstrated moral leadership by not attending this part of the Council session," said Harris, who criticized two democratic nations that not only stayed in the room but also joined with Arab and Muslim nations in speaking in favor of the agenda item.

"Shamefully, Brazil and Chile joined in this pile-up on another democratic UN member state, Israel," said Harris. He also pointed out that Malaysia, and some other member states, presented the myth that Palestinians have "lived under Israeli occupation for seven decades."

"In other words," said Harris, "bizarrely, the very creation of Israel in 1948, following the UN General Assembly's recommendation, in 1947, of the establishment of a Jewish state, is in the view of some UN member states, a violation of the Human Rights Council mandate. How utterly shameful and telling!"

Harris lauded U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley for her continuing advocacy to end the pervasive bias against Israel within the UN system. "This relentless, pathological campaign against a country that actually has a strong human rights record makes a mockery not of Israel, but of the Council itself," Haley said in advance of the agenda item #7 discussion.

SOURCE American Jewish Committee