AJC Slams UN Human Rights Council's Latest Assault on Israel

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Jul 03, 2015, 06:51 ET

NEW YORK, July 3, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- AJC Executive Director David Harris, in his Huffington Post and The Times of Israel blogs, castigates the UN Human Rights Council for singling out Israel for condemnation. The 47-member Council, by a vote of 41 to 1, with five 5 abstentions, adopted a resolution today assailing the Jewish state for last summer's war with Hamas.

"The UN Human Rights Council today once again showed its obsession with Israel. Hard as it may be to believe, this institution has adopted more resolutions against Israel than all other nations in the world combined," said Harris.

Harris praised the United States for standing with Israel and criticized in particular the five EU member countries -- France, Germany, Ireland, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom -- that opted to join with the majority. Five countries -- Ethiopia, Kenya, India, Macedonia, and Paraguay -- abstained.

"As in the case of last summer's vote on the Hamas-Israel war at the UN Human Rights Council, only one country out of 47 stood tall, defended the truth, and displayed courage -- the United States," said Harris.

He pointed out that Israel is severely disadvantaged in the world body because "the UN is nothing more or less than the collective expression of its member states."

"With the 21 voting members of the Arab League, the 57 nations in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and the 120-nation Non-Aligned Movement more or less automatically voting against Israel, and the political expediency too often displayed by the EU, Israel can't muster the support it deserves, whatever the facts on the ground might be," said Harris.

"The UNHRC should be devoting attention and protection to genuine victims of human rights worldwide, but too often cannot because of the incessant focus on Israel," he concluded. "Tragically, the UNHRC doesn't begin to live up to its name, far from it."

SOURCE American Jewish Committee