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Resources updated Tuesday, June 20, 2017

June 20, 2017

Eugene Kontorovich delivering a statement slamming the hypocrisy of the U.N. Human Rights Council in singling out Israel for a "blacklist" of companies doing business in the West Bank

"Northwestern University Law Professor Eugene Kontorovich presented the United Nations Human Rights Council on Monday with a report documenting business dealings in occupied territories around the world, underscoring the hypocrisy behind the council's decision to compile a blacklist only of companies operating in the West Bank.

In a presentation explaining the study, Kontorovich, who also heads the International Law Department at the Kohelet Policy Forum, observed that some 44 companies from countries including Sweden, Switzerland, France and Germany operate in different occupied territories around the world.

'The study reveals that international businesses play a crucial role supporting occupation and settlement enterprises around the world in places such as Western Sahara, Northern Cyprus, Nagorno-Karabakh and Crimea,' Kontorovich said, but 'the Council has never condemned any of this business activity.'...

Noting that there is no similar list of companies operating in any other occupied territory, Kontorovih asserted that 'the activity the Council treats as criminal when Israel is involved is regarded as unremarkable anywhere else.'..."

Legal Expert Slams Hypocrisy of UN's "Unprecedented" Israel Blacklist Article

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon (File photo)

Israeli Ambassador Danon: UN Security Council Provides Platform for 'Blood Libels' Article

Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman Phobia Spreads Across Arab World Article

U.N. Special Coordinator for the Middle East Process Nickolay Mladenov briefs the Security Council next to the Palestinian representative (File photo)

"This week marks six months since the passage of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, which classifies Israeli settlements beyond the 1967 line, including in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem, as illegal. Visiting Jerusalem last month, the distance between the pronouncements of Turtle Bay and the realities of the Old City appeared as stark as ever. For starters, everyone knows that Israel will absorb the major settlement blocs near the '67 line as part of any peace agreement. And no Israel government will ever surrender its access to Jerusalem.

Alas, the United Nations has long been a hub of anti-Israeli activity, in part because it views the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a colonial legacy pitting the powerful against the powerless. By pursing a one-sided agenda, the U.N. hopes to strengthen the weaker party in the service of justice. However, by issuing rulings on sensitive issues without first preparing the ground for peace, this approach only polarizes the Israeli-Palestinian confrontation. Just as bad, it damages the U.N.'s credibility with Israelis...

The U.N. should focus on achieving a breakthrough by fostering the conditions needed for genuine peace. Unfortunately, at present the message for peace is not competitive with the call to violence among Palestinians. This has led the Palestinian leadership to spin a cocoon of anti-Israeli rhetoric from which it has been unable to escape..."

The United Nations should ditch its anti-Israel bias Article

Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad sitting down with United Nations envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura (File photo)

"As the Syria regime of Bashar Assad grinds out a piecemeal victory in ravaged areas of resistance, the United Nations faces a new challenge: how, and with whom, it will help the regime rebuild -- and in the process might further help to consolidate Assad's sway.

Among other things, Fox News has learned, such recovery work has already involved local cooperation between one U.N. organization, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and a charity placed on a U.S. sanctions list last month for its close ties to Assad's militias and to the dictator's crony billionaire cousin, Rami Makhlouf, who was also sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury much earlier.

According to an internal U.N. document examined by Fox News, the small-scale project involved little more than assistance last year, with funding from Kuwait, to revive a number of local handmade carpet cooperatives, using funding from Kuwait, 'in cooperation with local communities and Al Bustan NGO.'

That appeared to be a reference to the Al Bustan Charity organization, an entity sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury on May 16, 2017. Treasury declared at the time, 'Makhlouf created a vast private network of miitias and security-linked institutions through al-Bustan, a prominent organization recruiting and mobilizing individuals to support and augment Syrian military forces.'...

In response to questions from Fox News about that relationship, an IOM spokesperson declared that 'individual countries have bilateral sanction lists which do not necessarily apply to the U.N.,'..."

The UN helps Assad rebuild, as he continues the carnage Article