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Resources updated Tuesday, October 17, 2017

October 17, 2017

Bezeq CEO Stella Handler, who criticized the UN for "anti-Israel propaganda"

"The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has threatened to blacklist Bezeq, Israel's most prominent telecommunications corporation, because the company provides services to Israeli communities in Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem.

In their letter to Bezeq, the UNHRC wrote that Bezeq could keep their response confidential, but Bezeq CEO Stella Handler chose to play no part in the UNHRC's anti-Semitic game and publicized the UNHRC letter as well as her response on Facebook.

In her Facebook post on Monday, Handler said the company would not collaborate with what which she called 'nothing more than anti-Israel propaganda.'

'Bezeq will continue to protect the rights of all our customers without discrimination. We will continue to provide service to all Israeli citizens without respect to religion, race or gender and we respect their right to choose to live in any part of this land – be it Raanana, Jerusalem, Ariel, Sakhnin or Ma'aleh Adumim.'

Handler said attempts to blacklist Israeli companies were nothing than 'illegitimate pressure to 'head-butt' Israel.'..."

UN Threatens to Blacklist Israeli Company, CEO Calls Them Out Article

Offices of Bezeq, an Israeli company that received a letter from the UN Human Rights Council

"The United Nations Human Rights Council has been pressuring Israeli telecommunications giant Bezeq to cut off its services to settlements, saying that the company is promoting the illegal communities and their expansion, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

Bezeq currently provides the same services to Israeli cities and towns within the Green Line and to the settlements beyond it. By pressuring the company to suspend services to Israel's West Bank settlements, the UNHRC has been accused of 'blackmail' and of participating in the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement that many Israelis see as antisemitic...

One activist said that letters like the one sent to Bezeq as part of the database campaign are 'nothing short of an assault on the economic welfare on the State of Israel, period.'..."

UN "Human Rights" Council Pressures Israeli Company to Cut Off Internet Services to Settlements Article

A sign for UNESCO

"Last week, the US announced that it was going to pull out of UNESCO in December 2018. The State Department accused the organization of 'continuing anti-Israel bias' and said that America would revert to being a non-member observer state. Israel announced shortly after that she was going to follow the US lead.

The decision is long overdue and represents a justified rebuke to a body that has become a willing arm of Palestinian propaganda. By adopting endless anti-Israel resolutions, UNESCO has strayed from its central purpose of defending cultural heritage with an impartial view to the historical record...

Some might argue that America's withdrawal is an act of temperamental unilateralism by President Trump, on a par with his threat to leave a host of other institutions. Naturally, there is a great deal to criticise in his 'America first' language and his often hot headed approach to international diplomacy. He is currently winning no awards for international co-operation.

But unilateralism is not the issue here. There is no reason for continued membership in an organisation which has fundamentally betrayed its founding purpose. In the words of Nikki Haley, America's ambassador to the UN: 'US taxpayers should no longer be on the hook to pay for policies that are hostile to our values and make a mockery of justice and common sense.' Further, UNESCO's 'extreme politicization has become a chronic embarrassment.'..."

UNESCO has become an arm of Palestinian propaganda Article

U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, who is to introduce the Senate version of the resolution criticizing UNESCO

"After the Trump administration withdrew the United States from UNESCO over what it called its 'anti-Israel bias,' two GOP lawmakers introduced a resolution that condemns the UN cultural organization and affirms Jewish ties to Jerusalem.

The UN body has, in recent years, passed a series of its own resolutions denying a Jewish link to the holy city.

On Israel's Independence Day this year, the UN cultural agency passed a motion that many Israelis saw as denying Jewish historical or religious ties to Jerusalem. Such measures were cited as one reason the US decided to pull out of the agency last week.

On Friday, Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, and Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Republican from Florida, followed up on the move by authoring a resolution that 'recognizes and affirms the historical connection of the Jewish people to the ancient and sacred city of Jerusalem.'

It goes on to cite archaeologically excavated sites, like the City of David, that contain vast quantities of antiquities from the ancient Jewish and Christian presence in the city..."

Scolding UNESCO, GOP lawmakers introduce resolution on Jewish ties to Jerusalem Article

A sign for UNESCO

"UNESCO's decision to admit 'Palestine' as a member state in 2011 in apparent breach of UNESCO's own Constitution has come back to bite UNESCO with a vengeance – as America and Israel now give formal notice of their intention to quit UNESCO on 31 December 2018.

State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert asserted America's decision was not taken lightly and reflected U.S. concerns with mounting arrears at UNESCO, the need for fundamental reform in the organization, and continuing anti-Israel bias at UNESCO...

UNESCO anti-Israel decisions since 'Palestine' was admitted to UNESCO membership have included:

January 2014 – the cancellation of an exhibition at its Paris headquarters on the Jewish presence in the land of Israel.

October 2016 - disregarding any Jewish ties to the Temple Mount - only referring to it by its Muslim names – then several weeks later - passing a softer version of the resolution that referred to the Western Wall by its Jewish name - though still ignoring Judaism's ties to the site.

May 2017 – UNESCO's executive committee passing a resolution critical of Israeli conduct in Jerusalem and Gaza.

July 2017 - designating Hevron and the two adjoined shrines at its heart - the Jewish Tomb of the Patriarchs and the Muslim Ibrahimi Mosque - as a 'Palestinian World Heritage Site in Danger'.

UNESCO appears to have acted outside the terms of its own Constitution in admitting 'Palestine' to membership.

That decision was open to possible legal challenge for two reasons:

Only states can be admitted to UNESCO under Article II (2) of UNESCO's Constitution - and 'Palestine' was not a state..."

How UNESCO breached its own constitution by admitting "Palestine" in 2011 Article

The seat for Venezuela at the UN Human Rights Council (File photo)

"Australia's election to membership of the controversial, 47-nation UN Human Rights Council is a significant success for Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and the protracted global campaign waged by our diplomats to win the seat. There should be no illusion about the challenge we face, however, in achieving what Ms Bishop has rightly identified as one of our main goals in joining: achieving long-overdue reform of a body whose hypocritically pontificating membership includes some of the world's most egregious human rights abusers, ever ready to point fingers at others. States such as Venezuela, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, China and Egypt have helped ensure, as US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley has pointed out, the council's focus is perpetually on denouncing the purported human rights depredations of one country, Israel. At the same time, the council has been far less concerned about atrocities such as the bloodbaths in Syria and Yemen and the plight of Myanmar's Rohingya minority.

Israel, uniquely, is a fixed item on the UNHRC's agenda. As Ms Haley has said, 'When the council passes more than 70 resolutions against Israel, a country with a strong human rights record, and just seven resolutions against Iran, a country with an abysmal human rights record, you know something is seriously wrong.'

Paradoxically, coinciding with Australia's election, the Trump administration is preparing to quit the UNHRC following its decision last week to abandon membership of the Paris-based UNESCO, one of the UN's biggest and most important agencies. The reasoning in both instances is that neither UN body is doing its job and is fixated by 'anti-Israel bias'.

Given the line-up of countries elected or re-elected to a three-year term alongside Australia, there is, short of genuine reform, unlikely to be any amelioration of the council's bias. Among those countries is Pakistan, notorious for double-dealing with Islamist terrorists and using military courts to carry out hundreds of executions. The Democratic Republic of Congo, which also won a seat, has seen thousands of its people killed in the Kasai region in the past year. Ironically, it is under investigation by the UNHRC for human rights abuses..."

UN human rights reform vital Article