UN Human Rights Council Set to Institutionalize Egregious Discrimination Against Israel



UN Human Rights Council Institutionalizes Egregious Discrimination Against Israel

The President of the UN Human Rights Council, Luis Alfonso de Alba, facilitated the permanent institutionalization of discrimination against Israel at the UN's lead human rights body. On June 13, 2007 he circulated to the Council's fifth session in Geneva a proposed text concerning the Council's future operations that called for only one UN member state become part of the Council's permanent agenda: Israel. Then on June 18, 2007 the Council adopted the de Alba text with some minor modifications: a fixed agenda for all future meetings focusing attention permanently on only one country's human rights record, that of Israel. This was coupled with a framework for every future program of work which decides – in advance of even considering the agenda item – that the subject will be about Israeli "human rights violations." All other 191 UN member states may – or may not - come up under an agenda item entitled "Human rights situations that require the Council's attention."

Behind the scenes, the European Union conceded this egregious discrimination against Israel in exchange for the vague agenda item permitting consideration of other states. Europe's long and undistinguished record of trading the well-being of Jews off against the perceived welfare of others repeated itself. The EU actually claimed that the singling out of Israel was only indirect because "Israel" isn't mentioned until the "Framework for the Program of Work" – a ruse that fooled no one.

Agenda and Framework for the Program of Work
I. Principles
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II. Agenda
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Item 7. Human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories
III. Framework for the Program of Work
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Item 7. Human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories
  • Human rights violations and implications of the Israeli occupation of Palestine and other occupied Arab territories
  • Right to self-determination of the Palestinian people